New Cultural Center By FÜNDC Architects

FÜNDC designs a ‘new historical centre’ in Madrid

Car and pedestrian. Vegetation and hard square. Modern and classic. This new urban concept bets for all of the above.

FÜNDC, Spanish architecture and urban planning office, just finalized the largest urban intervention of the last decades made on Pozuelo de Alarcón municipality, Madrid province: The New Cultural Center (NCC) and the new pedestrian area on and around Padre Vallet square. It establishes itself as the origin of the new network of pedestrian spaces.

Project Name: New Cultural Center
Studio Name: Fundc Architects

Authors: FÜNDC (César García Guerra & Paz Martín Rodriguez, architects)
Location: adre Vallet square and surroundings, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain
Use: New Cultural Center (NCC), new pedestrian square and streets, 2 level underground parking, underground bus station, underground traffic tunnels.

Site Area: 10.280 m2
Building area: 10.500 m2 (underground), 2.216 m2 above ground
Landscape area:10.280 m2
Bldg. Coverage Ratio: 0.10
Gross Floor Ratio:  0.21

Structure: structural white concrete structure for NCC contemporary side. Steel structure and brick bearing walls for classic side. Concrete decks for underground and plaza levels­. White structural concrete for mega-treepots. Steel structure for underground busstation.

Exterior finish: structural white concrete (NCC contemporary side). White plaster, natural granite stone (NCC classic side). Natural granite stone (square pavement).

Interior finish: beech, glass, policryl, structural concrete, polished concrete and several accoustic finishes (NCC contemporary side), industrial beech flooring, glass, policryl ceilings (NCC classic). Steel meshes, polished concrete and structural concrete decks (underground levels).
Design period: 2004-2008
Construction period: 2008-2011
Project architect: FÜNDC (César García Guerra & Paz Martín Rodriguez, architects)

Design team: César García Guerra, Paz Martín Rodríguez, Juanjo Unceta Rivas, Marina Otero, Fatima Plaza, Liu Pei, Zuoming Wang, Julia Rodriguez Buján,Diego Ochayta, Gema Edo Viñarás, María Nieves González San Millán, Alexandra Moreno Arranz, Johan de Wachter, Patricia Mata.

Collaborators:     

LKSSTUDIO, project management
MC2 INGENIERIA, structural engineering
URCULO INGENIEROS, mechanical engineering,
BBA, legal advisors
ANDREA ZERWAS, landscape

Client: Pozuelo de Alarcón Municipality
Construction: Ploder-Uicesa SA
Photography Credits: César Gª Guerra, P. Gil, Anna Pericas

The project has a couple of unprecedented design solutions such as ‘mega-tree-pots’ and a transformable hall. The pots allow for the growth of medium-large trees above an underground parking, making possible green areas where usually just hard squares are found. The hall allows for an use modification on the cultural building program, as it can switch between exhibition promenade and auditorium mode through the manipulation of movable floor decks.

The built size of the intervention, both under and above ground comes near to 20.000 m2 (65.000 sq. ft.). It consists on the urbanization through a new uninterrupted stone pavement, fountains and ‘mega-tree-pots’ around a New Cultural Center building. The latter is composed of two different architectural typologies, old and new, which work on a symbiotic manner providing traditional and transformable spaces. Under these areas and building a double-deck parking absorbs the vehicle impact working together with underground roads and bus stops, freeing the upper square spaces to pedestrians and bikes.

“This intervention changes the traditional way of understanding new pedestrian areas on built environment as it does not choose between pedestrians or cars but accepts both, re-positioning them.” as explained by architect Cesar Garcia co-author and partner together with Paz Martin of FÜNDC, office originally established in The Netherlands and relocated to Spain. “No need for road restrictions when you can reposition them underground. No need for lack of parking places as you can multiply them on levels. No need for flat hard public squares when you can grow large trees, necessary for urban comfort on this climate.”

FÜNDC has been awarded in numerous occasions with architecture and urban planning prizes, and has developed other large-scale urban projects in The Netherlands (Amsterdam and Eindhoven) and France (Lille). Other realized work to be emphasized is the R13 building in China, built inside the Park of Architecture of Jinhua City; project curated by Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei and Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.

FÜNDC currently works on other architectural and urban projects linked to culture, art exhibition designs and book design, having as objective the accomplishment of its acronym FÜNDC = Fusion & Union Needed by Disciplines of Creation, as they understand that any product, “from a book to a city” needs to be created with a multidisciplinary approach through the coordination from start of all technical and artistic fields necessary.

For further information or to set up a meeting please contact Cesar Garcia at +34 91 576 06 06 or at [email protected]

PHOTOGRAPH DESCRIPTION ACCORDING TO FILE NUMBER:

1. New Cultural Center (NCC). South facade [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
2. Urban intervention concept. Original and renewed square on axonometric view. [© FÜNDC]
3. Urban intervention concept profile of original and renewed square. [© FÜNDC]
4. Night view towards urban space and New Cultural Center (NCC). South facade [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
5. Historical building interior reconstructed and adapted as exhibition spaces. [Photographer: P. Gil © Ayuntamiento de Pozuelo de Alarcón]
6. Sculpture like volumes of the NCC as new urban icon. [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
7. `Two sides of the same coin’: South, East and North views of the NCC – from top down. [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
8. ‘Mega-treepot’ concept in elevation and section. Besides allowing large tree growth above built levels they also act on their perimeter as urban furniture, natural ventilation ducts, skylights for the lower levels and artificial lighting fixtures for the square. [© FÜNDC]
9. ‘Mega-treepot’ as skylights. Underground view. Natural light enters the parking. [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
10. Detail of urban furniture on the treepots perimeter. [Photographer: Anna Pericas © ESCOFET]
11. Hall 1. Configuration concept. Auditorium or exhibition promenade: movable floor decks extended or retracted. [© FÜNDC]
12. Hall 1. Interior. [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
13. Intervention area: joining several areas through a uninterrupted pedestrian paved carpet, with the NCC at its center. [© FÜNDC]
14. Hall 2. Interior. [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
15. Underground South crossing street [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
16. Exhibition rooms at NCC building (classic side) [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
17. Urban activities under cantilever of Hall 2 [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
18. Urban activities under cantilever of Hall 2 [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
19. Urban activities on square. South fassade NCC [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
20. Construction phase (underground) [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
21. Construction detail mega-treepot [Photographer: César Gª Guerra © FÜNDC]
22. Construction phase (above ground) [Photographer: Ayuntamiento de Pozuelo de Alarcón ©]

EPS DESCRIPTION ACCORDING TO FILE NAME:

1. Programmatic axonometric of NCC building. [© FÜNDC]
2. Scale comparison betwwen Athens acropole (above) and intervention area (below). The new areas intend to be a continuos urban carpet letting pedestrians flow from areas defined by non orthogonal urban limits, as in the geek example. [© FÜNDC]
3. Main floorplan NCC building (1^st level) [© FÜNDC]
4. General cross sections. [© FÜNDC]
5. General elevations [© FÜNDC]
6. Detailed scheme for sbstructure construction of fixed and movable platforms on the Hall 1 of the NCC building. [© FÜNDC]
7. Detail of structural plans showing poststressed concrete filaments on bearing wall #1 of the NCC building (contemporary side) [© FÜNDC]
8. Detailed cross section of underground levels at the busstation area. [© FÜNDC]
9. Axonometric view of 1^st underground level showing mega-treepots positioning.
10. Landscape design for some of the mega-treepots [© FÜNDC]
11. General floorplan of square. [© FÜNDC]
12. Details of prefab urban furniture elements placed above mega-treepots [© FÜNDC to the design / © ESCOFET to the elements fabrication]