a+u Architecture and Urbanism 21:05_608

The Netherlands Mekel Park – Campus Delft University of TechnologyLibrary Delft University of TechnologyNelson Mandela ParkSpoorzone DordrechtVilla 4.0NS Journey of the futureNS Vision Interior Train of the FutureMuseum Boijmans Van BeuningenVilla Industria Silo’sSt. Gerlach Pavilion & Manor FarmOffice Villa Maliebaan 16Delft City Hall and Train StationUrban Villa MyriadFiftyTwoDegreesMaritime Center RotterdamKaap Skil, Maritime and Beachcombers MuseumVilla VughtKeukenhofNetherlands Open Air MuseumSt. Mary of the Angels Chapel and Beyond Palace of JusticeLa Llotja Theater and Conference CenterLibrary of BirminghamGlass Villa on the lakeSenezh Management LABScali Milano – Catalysts for sustainable livingKaohsiung StationNational Kaohsiung Center for the ArtsTainan Public LibraryMain Street of Yangdong-DistrictFutian Civic Culture CenterLonggang Cultural Center…

This May issue of a+u features the work of Sancho-Madridejos Architecture Office (S-MAO). Based in Madrid, Spain, and established in 1982 by Juan Carlos Sancho and Sol Madridejos, the office has developed a nuanced and committed practice rooted in investigations in plastic arts and aesthetic theory. An essay by their close friends Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa reveals the deeper origins to S-MAO’s approach and describes how their trials and investigations have yielded “new processes in engineering, new construction systems, and a new language.” An ensemble of 20 projects, framed according to 2 investigative themes, are featured in this monograph, supported by axonometric diagrams and concept models. The multiple views of early study models convey the obsessive search for an “original space,” as described by García-Abril and Mesa, where structure,…

“In order to present the unlimited, at the very least you need architecture.” Georges Didi-Huberman translated from a quote in “Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde,” Collection Critique, Les Éditions de Minuit, France, 1992 In this aphorism Georges Didi-Huberman responds strikingly to the intentions of the projects present under “tone-void.” It brings echoes of thinkers and visual artists the likes of our mentor Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002), who worked in a dialectics between the concepts of “void” and matter. He researched how a state previous to space – the void – full of energy, confronts the different materials: concrete, steel, soil, alabaster, or stone. From this clash, space emerges, a spatial system with different characteristics depending on the material, but already different from the void before it. Inside this space, several…

This building stands in an urban context, within the boundary of a state school, on a large avenue. It adapts to the irregular shape of the plot, its main façade facing the street and opening to the spaces inside, toward the school’s rear playground. Before we knew the intended use and the location we envisioned a clear volume in golden concrete to house the multipurpose court and the seating for spectators. The basic spatial objective focuses on how to build a homogeneous space – a room of 45×27×7.4 m around a “void” of 27×4×4 m – that speaks of lightness and light and provides smoothness and spatial tone to the room. Light, in its different appearances, breaks the symmetry and spatial homogeneity in a hard, fragile, and unstable manner. From…

Dating from 1746 and attributed to the architect Pedro de Ribera (1681–1742), the original building for this project stands on the site of the old Royal Cloth Factory in San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, part of the baroque planning of the city center. The old factory faces the main plaza, square in plan, and surrounded by a compact group of houses. When the contemporary project was completed the only remnants of the 18th-century structure were the heavily degraded central body and part of the north and south wings of the main façade, a single and exempt plane in limestone, surrounded by industrial units. Initially, the project had a double intention: to revitalize a degraded urban area in the city center and to preserve and consolidate the existing ruins of the historical…

Anabel Segura Community Center inevitably shares connections and interests with City Hall and Community Center in San Fernando de Henares, Madrid (pp. 18–25). They have in common the use of compact and intense boxes, heavy and monolithic, in which the space pierces, perforates, and excavates the solid volume, producing “voids” that structure the different areas. Therefore, our main goal was to use and analyze these spatial articulations. In this particular case, the competition proposed the construction of a 2-storey stand-alone volume in a trapezoidal site, to house a community center for a suburb in the outskirts of Madrid. The setting, amid a service industrial area with stand-alone buildings, with one side facing an avenue parallel to a major highway and the other facing the residential area of El Soto de la…