AF renovation and house extension Project/Housing El Viso (Madrid), 2010-12

This project is located in a residential area in the center of Madrid, near AZCA financial center. The house replicates the preexisting volume, building a light-weight house which extends an existing 1920s basque-style listed house. Early 20^th Century traditional building techniques give way to contemporary ones. The original load-bearing high thermal-inertia walls are extended with a steel lightweight multilayered façade, which interact thermodynamically to produce a variety of climates.

A technical core is added which reactivates the existing building, introducing a vertical shaft which enhances the natural ventilation of the whole house, acting as a climatic mixing chamber.

A new outdoor lightweight ramp is superimposed over preexisting constructions creating a new entrance to the house. This ramp casts shadows over outdoor areas which, together with a new vertical garden and a water-spray system, contributes to create comfortable and intense summer indoor-outdoor atmospheres.

The new vertical garden adds biological density to the small-sized existing garden. The limits of the garden are extruded vertically, creating a tridimensional mesh which will promote the growth of creepers. The aim is not to seclude the garden but to enhance its biological interconnection to neighboring gardens.