Paseo de la Habana 187-189 Town Houses

This project represented a very important one for the studio, as it was the first completed in downtown Madrid and, as such, a job carried out an early stage and charged with enormous sentimental value.

The overall project is the result of two different ones, which from an architectural perspective, were dealt with as one entity. The first chronologically was developed on a narrow swath of land running parallel to Mateo Inurria Street, which features heavy traffic. Negotiations were carried out with City Hall to create a two-tiered space for traffic, with sole access from the Paseo de la Habana. The lower level, of traffic movement, is lit up through landscaped gaps connecting with the upper level, featuring pedestrian circulation. In this way the northern facade was shielded from noise, with the homes located over the southward-facing landscaped area.

The second phase was based on a different approach, although employing the same architectural elements. The limited amount of land near the street made it necessary to create a public access through which residents could reach their homes. The need to design various alignments with different orientations led us to address each one of the homes separately, in contrast with the modular approach employed on the homes in the first phase.

A series of volumetric increases have detracted the work. Even though we consider the typology imposed by city ordinances to be quite discordant in the neighborhood, it is well-integrated in the area and maintains the spirit in which it was built.