Santurapia

The project takes place on Finca de Vista Alegre in Carabanchel, one of the former recreational estates of the Madrid aristocracy. This large piece combines urban planning, architecture and gardening at different scales. Enclosed by a wall with few doors, it features large pieces located in an open environment. Its history defines its morphology and current uses. In the late 18th century, it was a rural horticultural property due to the area's well water. After a cholera epidemic in 1884, the State acquired it and transformed it into a charity place, later occupied by huge welfare buildings.

Santurapia is a project that reorganises a large building within the Finca de Vista Alegre, the former Fray Bernardino Medical-Pedagogical Institute, inaugurated in 1948 to house people with mental disorders. The building stands currently abandoned and unused. Its historical significance makes it a prime candidate for revitalisation, aiming to reconnect its past functions with modern therapeutic and community-oriented purposes. Based on an analysis of the building's history and its surroundings, the proposal envisions an urban design intervention to reconnect the northern and southern zones that frame this structure. The project aims to enhance the functions of the existing Occupational Centre by integrating two underutilised small greenhouses and expanding their purpose to include animal-assisted therapies with a variety of species such as chickens, cows, sheep and horses. A new large greenhouse will be created as a central element linking two of the newly developed structures and becoming the key element that shapes the proposal. Alongside the purely architectural intervention, the project proposes a landscape design that aims to give the entire setting a unique character, differentiating it from the rest of the Finca. The landscape design introduces an organic approach that not only transforms the outdoor spaces, but also interacts with the architecture. Through a meticulous observation of the various users—humans, animals and plants—and their respective processes, the project reaches its conclusion, aiming to foster harmonious coexistence and a hybrid architectural character among them all. In other words, achieving a symbiosis between animals, plants and humans, where the architectural design acts as a mediator to balance their interactions and shared spaces.