New COAM Headquarters and Municipal Facilities

The goal of the project is the restoration and insertion of a mixed-use program of social interest. Such program included the New Headquarters for the Architects Association of Madrid, its Cultural Foundation, a nursery, a day care and senior center, mixed sport facilities and a music school. The program is regarded as an opportunity to consolidate a very diverse array of activities and interests in a single architectonic response. The total built area is 35.878 sqm, of which 628 belong to the baroque church of San Antón, a declared Building of Cultural Interest by architect Pedro Ribera that is embedded within the complex but didn t suffer the progressive ruination that affected the rest of the lot. The project operates on two different gazes...a long one that relates naturally to the context, as it proposes a generous garden with trees that "stitches" different green spaces within the city,...a green "chamber" for the Gardens of Pedro Ribera...defining a space for men to live and interact. "The shade of a tree" is regarded as a space of unparalleled value. The true transformation of an urban space is produced both trough its buildings as well as its trees. If we are able to pass on a garden with trees in this part of the city as inheritance to our children, we will have built valuable urban heritage. The value that the project seeks is to create a serene -yet full of lively contentment- atmosphere. A place of quietude that embraces life,...a place for reunion. A secluded space with an open character. A place where trees are discovered through transparency at street level...an open space where life unwinds naturally. Honest and clear construction, a doric attitude, an approximation to essence, where matter reveals its natural values...the understanding that, "in architecture, honesty is an intellectual position".