TUÑÓN Y ALBORNOZ ARQUITECTOS

Behind the listed facade of an industrial building located on Calle Tutor in Madrid, which housed a printing press at the beginning of the 20th century, the new Arquia Bank Offices and the Arquia Foundation are installed.

The new four-story construction, which houses the new administrative building, is discreetly hidden behind the listed façade, staggered to leave the remains of the old industry in the foreground, so as not to alter the current engagement with the street, its scale and its luminosity. 

On the first floor, a lobby with a small dimension in plan rises up to the roof of the first terrace, opening on its roof a skylight that introduces light into the space. Several spaces on the first floor open their eyes on the lobby, playing asymmetrically with the gaps in the existing façade.

The lobby gives access to the vertical core and to a single multifunctional space that opens onto the small garden that is inserted into the courtyard of the block.

On the upper floors are the administrative spaces that open onto the different landscaped terraces, giving great luminosity to all these spaces.

Walls and ceilings are covered with white lacquered wood, as if it were a ship.

The protected façade, made of pressed brick, marks the construction of the stepped façades, as well as that of the façade behind the courtyard of the block. All the exterior walls are perforated with large holes of industrial scale, establishing links with the construction that once existed in that same place.

This construction wants to be a simple tribute to those small industries that developed in the area at the beginning of the last century, showing the respect that the citizens of Madrid have for their humble industrial past.

source: Tuñón y Albornoz Arquitectos