When the project was drawn up, the area was not even partially urbanized. This made it possible to treat the site with a degree of autonomy, erecting low-rise buildings (three-storey high) spread evenly over the entire area, unlike the high-rise developments nearby. This autonomy was taken as far as possible. Fences and railings define the outer perimeter, making a clear public-private divide, creating an area in which to locate the buildings.
The houses were to be small and low-rise. This fact, along with the requirement of combining different housing programs, led to unique design problems. The idea was to avoid the somewhat harsh architectural styles often associated with the suburbs, and substitute them with a more user-friendly architecture, more concerned with certain ideas of comfort and welfare. The architects did not want the blocks to be traditional boxes, but created shapes which present different facets as one moves around them. Special attention was paid to the lateral headwalls where the blocks meet, so that what might have been mere consequence -the gap between the blocks- could also be understood, paradoxically, as having originated the design.
Client:
I.V.I.M.A.
Address:
C/ Vidauba, 10-20. 28044 Madrid, Spain.
Typology:
Residential
Status:
Built
Design of project:
1986
Construction:
1986 - 1989
Implementation:
1989
Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
Collaborators:Blanca Sánchez, Carlos Castro, José R. Galadí, Luis Gutiérrez
Model:Luis Montiel
Photography:Duccio Malagamba, Fotowork (model), Javier Azurmendi
Masterplan:Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
Survey:Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
Site control:Carlos Ruiz de la Escalera
Contractors:FOCSA
Cookies required for the proper functioning of the site. These cookies ensure basic and security functionalities. They do not store any personal information.
Analytics cookies are used for the author of the page to identify human traffic interacting with his website, such as visitor metrics, bounce rate, source of traffic ... No personal data are collected except those identifying your sex and age range.
| Cookie | Type | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | 0 | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for site analytics report. Cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
| _gid | 0 | 1 day | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information about how visitors use a website and helps create an analytical report on how the website works. The data collected, including the number of visitors, the source they came from and the pages, appear anonymously. |
| _gat | 0 | 1 minute | Google Universal Analytics installs these cookies to limit the request speed and limit data collection on high-traffic sites. |