#arquimatica

The architects, Palacios and Otamendi, won the competition put forward by the state in 1904 and construction began in 1907. It took twelve years to complete and was inaugurated March 14, 1919. The buildings main materials at the time consisted of stone, steel and crystal.  Communication technology evolved and the building continued its post office function, but now incorporating a Telegraphic Museum. In 1993, the building was declared a national monument. And in 2004, the state, once again, put forward a competition in order to restore and rehabilitate the building.The winning firm Arquimatica (comprised of architects Francisco Rodríguez Partearroyo, David Márquez Latorre, Ángel Martínez Díaz and Francisco Martínez Díez) won the competition in February of 2005. The project took five years to complete. In 2007, the building became the official City Hall, as well as the space for Centro Centro-the cultural center (also nicknamed the 5 Cs "CentroCentro Cibeles de Cultura y Ciudadania").

Arquimatica's challenge was to rehabilitate a building so closely tied to the city's history and image. Honing the architect's favorite cliché, Arquimatica describes the interventions as having "[introduced veins, nerves, arteries, lungs, giving the building a new youth, but respecting the values of the architects who created it]". They're biggest surprise was figuring out what the original light treatment intents had been compared to what the building had become over time. The new spaces include: El Salon del Pleno, La Caja de Musica Auditorium, and La Galeria de Cristal (yet major attention was put into the central core area and the observation tower).

The project's main intentions consisted of 1. Assessing the damage of the original building and trying to restore as much of it as possible. 2. Restoring some of the original elements and values which had been compromised by newer interventions. Specifically the exterior form, the light quality, space distribution, and original construction and materials. 3. Adapting the building to its new program and to current security and accessibility requirements.

PROGRAM: Below ground the building houses the Government’s Conference room “Salon del Pleno” and the Caja de Musica Auditorium. The conference room used to be the distribution center which has now been restored to its original double height.  The Auditorium now features triangulated wooden panels for sound optimizations, 270 Seat Capacity and it holds open conferences and debates for the Cultural Center. Stock rooms, studios, archives, dressroom areas and the gallery installation room are also below ground level. The ground floor is the Galeria de Cristal Public Access (which serves as a multifunctional space). In the past this served as mail truck parking. The ceiling holds 2000 pieces of crystal, 2966 Steel Rods and 1034 joints all weighing 500 tons. After passing bag security check and a flight of stairs the visitor gets a view of the skylight and what is the main level where the information desk, visitor services, the building history exhibition, and the cafetería are located. Floor 1, 3, and 5 serve as exhibition spaces. Floor 6 is the Restaurant and Terrace bar and finally level 8 is the Outlook Tower which looks onto Madrid’s Gran Via. The building  also has an amazing view of the building from the third floor corridor which runs along the core of the building. The corridor looks down onto the ground floor and captures a better view of the skylight. I am not a huge fan of the way the glass courtyard structure looks nor the new interior decor/fixtures. I think it does a bit of a disservice to the structure and the beautiful lighting elements but I could not deny how comfortable the building ends up feeling.