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National Ideas Competition. First Prize
Competition: 2004 Project: 2005-2006 Construction: 2007-2012
This project proposes the construction of two parallel blocks instead of the enclosed precinct recommended by the Vallecas Expansion Area planning regulations. The uneven conditions in the surrounding area and the allotment's urban context and aspect made this layout advisable with a view to permitting the construction of better homes with nice views and improved orientations.
The two blocks, formed in turn by two equally parallel blocks, are aligned with the outer ends of the allotment, leaving a large garden area in the middle.
In this arrangement, some of the homes face outwards and others overlook the garden. All have two outer facades, ensuring natural cross-ventilation and lighting for every part of the dwelling. The diversity of the exterior situations outside the homes obviously generates a diversity of skins. Smooth, continuous walls are pierced by long windows on the outer wall, while corridors run along the inner wall protected by aluminium uprights, providing views of the garden and framing a dynamic, changing landscape.
Parking and storage spaces are below ground level. In the project, these areas are set directly beneath the apartment blocks, despite the enormous difficulty entailed in sharing the same structural framework, in order to free up the space between the blocks and shape a real garden by planting tall trees.
The two blocks are by no means identical. One of them has an angled cut at one end that adapts to the allotment geometry where it faces the traffic roundabout. At the other end, a subtraction operation on the volume marks the entrance to the complex.
The apartment distribution strives to ensure more versatile and qualified interior spaces that comply with the functional organization requirements set out in the brief and the planning regulations, as well as permitting greater spatial and structural flexibility for alternative uses of the homes.
Graduated from the School of Architecture of Seville in 1972, where he served as studio professor until 1987. Visiting professor at the universities of Buenos Aires, Lausanne, Navarra, Syracuse, Bologna, Venice and Visiting Scholar at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Professor at the Academy of Architecture of Mendrisio (University of Italian Switzerland) from 2007 to 2010. Director of Architecture Classes at the Universidad Complutense from 1993 to 2004. Honorary Professor at the University of Seville in 2005, where he holds the “Taller Internacional Catedra Blanca”.
He has been distinguished with various national and international awards, among others: the “Il Principe e l’Architetto”, the National Prize in Architecture (2005), the European Architecture Prize Ugo Rivolta (2008), the International Prize “Trophèe Archizinc” (2010), Gran Premio de la Bienal Internacional de Buenos Aires (2011) and Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, AIA (2014).
