ISRAEL ALBA » Proyectos

RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS. FUENLABRADA

Israel Alba — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 10:31:53 +0000

How should architecture respond to the aspirations of an institution? Those of the Spanish Red Cross can be summed up as follows: EVER CLOSER TO THE PEOPLE. This project responds to the institutional manifesto with solidity, transparency, efficiency and openness. To do so, the architecture is resolved with decisions based on matter and geometry, adaptability and innovation. A cohesive architecture without hierarchies. The site, a right-angled triangle, is the end of a residential area. Its slope is gentle and continuous along its entire length and enjoys good sunlight. This geometry contains enough attributes to become the main argument of the project. The west façade is the natural area of access from the city, closed off to avoid the problems of this orientation, especially in summer. Once inside, the space multiplies and expands in a sequence of transparent rooms open to the garden that surrounds the headquarters on three sides, perceived from end to end, with nothing to hide. Considering the gradient of the perimeter streets, the headquarters is located at an intermediate level minimising the necessary earthworks. To reach the load-bearing stratum, a technical gallery through which the installations run occupies the entire footprint of the building, which will provide great versatility in the future. Structurally, it is based on a brick and lintel load-bearing wall system, introducing the idea of compression through the roof slab. This system, which resolves structure and space simultaneously, is conceived as a sequence of parallel open halls delimited by two-foot thick walls 6.60m apart and with a free height of 3.50m. The halls are connected through a distribution gallery as a covered prolongation of the street, an extension of the public space inside the building, punctuated by a sequence of six skylights regulated by means of automated opening to reinforce natural cross ventilation. The organisation of the public and private programme around this gallery ensures universal accessibility, which is developed on a single level. Photovoltaic panels are installed next to the skylights, making the roof a real energy collector. In fact, it is an adaptable infrastructure where users can decide how to use it, allowing it to evolve along with the space they inhabit, which prolongs the useful life of the project and its social and ecological relevance. It is a building for exchange, knowledge and integration, which will collaborate in the work of social responsibility developed by the institution.

La entrada RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS. FUENLABRADA aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

CASA DE DEPENDIENTES. FINCA DE VISTA ALEGRE (MADRID)

Israel Alba — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 12:04:49 +0000

Casa de Dependientes is a historic two-storey rectangular building attached to the wall of the gardens of the Vista Alegre Estate (district of Carabanchel, Madrid) and acquired personally by Queen María Cristina de Borbón in 1832. This building, which was declared BIC in 2018, was designed in 1845 by the Major Palace Architect Narciso Pascual y Colomer. The aim of the intervention is to recover, as far as possible, its original materiality, as well as the rehabilitation of the building, which was very altered and deteriorated, for its use as a dwelling on the upper floor and workspaces for the maintenance of the property on the ground floor. The construction was characterised, like many of the buildings on the property, by the regular and symmetrical arrangement of the openings and rooms along its central transversal axis: an architecture of correct proportions and constructive decorum. The interior layout followed a scheme of three longitudinal bays perpendicular to three transverse bays, with the staircase occupying the centre. From 1886 onwards, the building underwent modifications to adapt to new requirements, thus losing its overall unity. In 2018, with the BIC declaration, the historical-artistic value of the complex is considered the most relevant objective for the proposals for action. After studying the available historical documentation and the original plans by Pascual y Colomer, the volumetric restoration of the building is proposed, as well as the recovery of the original façade openings and their frames, the cornice moulding, the lime mortar rendering on the façades and the Arabic tile roof. For a better operation and functionality of the new programme of needs, a system of circulations is established that recovers the original typology of the building with the staircase as the central distributing element and that allows the simultaneity of uses; in order to guarantee a certain independence, a new access is opened from Arnedo street. The new entrance hall incorporates a small garden as a foretaste of the character of the Estate: a fragment of nature that qualifies the access to the domestic space. On the ground floor there are work rooms and auxiliary spaces linked to the maintenance of the Estate, while the upper floor organises the domestic spaces for the family who will be in charge of the care and maintenance work, in three bands: a band of continuous public day space towards the garden, a central band of auxiliary spaces that includes the staircase and a night band, towards the street, with three bedrooms. A series of energy efficiency measures have been incorporated to improve the efficiency and performance of the envelope, such as the use of thermal insulation in continuity with the carpentry, low emissivity glazing and solar control, a geothermal system for underfloor heating/cooling air-conditioning with a high level of comfort and no impact on the external image, and a heat recovery system that improves the quality of the indoor air and reduces energy consumption.

La entrada CASA DE DEPENDIENTES. FINCA DE VISTA ALEGRE (MADRID) aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

INDUSTRIAL BUILDING. VALLECAS (MADRID)

Israel Alba — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 17:09:46 +0000

The building is located as the end or the beginning, depending on how you look, at the west far of the industrial estate in Vallecas, Madrid, a place surrounded by infrastructures without references. Again, an uninspiring context, difficult to deal with. The visibility provided by this situation and the need of exterior space for parking the vehicles of the public service defines the building position on site, organizing a clear and efficient ring for traffic circulation around the constructed volume. This volume, compact, emphatic and precise, is shifted and orientated towards the main roundabout to affirm its silent presence facing the surrounding disorder, to receive the visitors and hide the vehicles. A simple yet heterogeneous programme organizes the different uses in programmatic strips one next to the other, without interruption. Offices, changing rooms, garages, car wash, and warehouses lead off in the space, gathering together in legible strips as well in floor plan as in section, generating a compact outlined figure of constant height. This functional diversity is submitted to the discipline of using a single façade system made out by industrialized corrugated sheets, in three different finishes, depending on areas. These materials, corrugated steel and polycarbonate sheets, as a refined reference to the context, distort the scale of the construction and create a jazzy combination of brightness and reflections. For this purpose, doors and windows are fully integrated in continuity with the exterior skin by using the same perforated sheet panels, a solution that also addresses the sunlight control and the presence of the infrastructures that surround the building, with high traffic density. A single opening perforates the abstract volume to point out the access like a true boîte à miracle. The structure is resolved with prefabricated concrete porticos. All previously described results in the idea of achieving a well-balanced use of resources in the construction of the building, including all the details, which become more visible by their absence. This is the third built project in a row of the same series, after the industrial buildings in Vicalvaro and Boadilla del Monte.

La entrada INDUSTRIAL BUILDING. VALLECAS (MADRID) aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS. COLMENAR VIEJO

Israel Alba — Wed, 17 May 2023 16:43:51 +0000

The site for the Red Cross Headquarters in Colmenar Viejo, in northern Greater Madrid, is the end of a single family housing development. It offers an strong slope, with great urban visibility and an extraordinary view towards the city of Madrid from the highest level. This situation provides three different street fronts with a clear North-South orientation in its longitudinal axis, so it is convenient to position the building in this direction to respond, besides to the urban context showing its public condition, to the sunlight conditions and towards the far view of the skyline of Madrid. This orientation, besides, permits to take advantage of the slope naturally to organize the building program in two levels and to resolve the car parking under the upper level. Thus the building has two different entries, one for vehicles in the lower level and other for pedestrians in the upper level, where most of the public program takes place. In this way, we avoid the construction of a basement, with the consequent economic savings, at the same time that the building performance enhances, reducing its contact with the ground. The structure is resolved with white concrete walls and slabs, using a polyurethane formliner in the exterior side, forming a vertical pattern that allows the integration of the aluminium profiles for the openings, with the same cross section and rhythm, as a window lattice. The volume works as a continuous structural tube, supported only by two columns, producing large cantilevers. This tube-shape structure, that is also the building enclosure, faces South throughout the terrace that covers the whole front and solves its setback with floor to ceiling woodwork and glass to allow, simultaneously, great views and the needed solar control. The terrace integrated in the building is part of the exterior landscape and offers the possibility for outside activities in continuity with indoor spaces. The open, transparent, free-flowing and continuous nature of the project aims to contribute and to make easier the important work of social integration carried out by the Red Cross.

La entrada RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS. COLMENAR VIEJO aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

HOUSING IN GRANADA

Israel Alba — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 19:10:11 +0000

La parcela está ubicada en la zona norte de la ciudad, en el remate del barrio de Almanjáyar con la Autovía A-44 (también remate de la ciudad), y es una de las pocas bolsas de suelo urbano disponibles en la actualidad. La ordenación urbana responde a la tipología de ensanche extensivo de baja densidad, en la que predomina la edificación en bloque abierto, con grandes espacios comunes abiertos. La propuesta se ha desarrollado a partir del análisis del entorno, del soleamiento y de la topografía de la parcela. Nuestra estrategia consiste en resolver el complejo residencial mediante 3 edificios escalonados en altura, apoyados sobre un potente zócalo comercial. Si bien en la práctica se trata de tres edificios independientes, se ha concebido como una única operación arquitectónica. Las vistas lejanas que se tendrán del conjunto, tanto desde la Autovía A-44 como desde el bulevar central, así como las privilegiadas vistas del entorno que se disfrutan desde la parcela (Sierra Nevada hacia el sureste y Sierra Elvira hacia el noroeste) nos llevan a entender este proyecto en una posición estratégica dominante en el paisaje, como remate de la ciudad: ver y ser visto. La idea de torre cobra sentido y adquiere escala en el lugar. Al mismo tiempo, una atenta mirada al entorno nos lleva a plantear una relación de escala, paralelamente, con los edificios próximos y con el paisaje, de manera que las torres crecen en altura, desde la más pequeña, en continuidad con la ciudad consolidada, a la más alta que agota las 15 plantas de altura que permite el Plan Parcial, para establecer una intensa relación con el paisaje lejano. Cada torre goza de unas vistas privilegiadas a través de sus terrazas, dispuestas de manera alterna en planta, permitiendo vistas oblicuas hacia el paisaje (Sierra Nevada y Sierra Elvira) y una total privacidad en relación al resto de viviendas de la misma planta, ya que en cada fachada solo se ubica la terraza de una de las cuatro viviendas. Todos los salones se disponen en una privilegiada posición en esquina, asegurando magníficas vistas y doble orientación.

La entrada HOUSING IN GRANADA aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

“EL PLANTÍO” FOOTBALL STADIUM. BURGOS

Israel Alba — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 12:50:42 +0000

The stadium is located next to the Arlanzón River and La Quinta Park, in the south side, and it integrates inside the sports area called “El Plantío” formed by diverse public facilities, that runs parallel to this extraordinary natural surroundings as a part of the city. An exceptional place of low density; a context that permits to understand the necessity to open up the stadium and to intensify its connections, extending the public spaces to improve the connectivity and the accessibility. It is a project about civic vocation and urban relation, simultaneously with the river, the park and the city, with an appropriate scale to highlight the importance of the natural landscape, where the trees prevail over the built. In this way, the south facade emphasises the horizontality and the abstraction of the project, through the large window that highlights the importance of the place connecting the stands with the city and the river. The big scale that inevitably comes from the structure is hidden inisde the limits of the enclosure, which is divided into two parts, both made in aluminium. The lower one as a smooth black plinth, integrating all the access gates to the stadium and gettting lighten in the transparent corners where the commercial spaces are located. The upper one, as a white section of vertical condition, that presents soft shapes, more natural and smooth, looking for the relationship with the landscape. Inside, a hallway for perimeter circulation in the shape of a ring, unifies the whole stadium providing the flexibility and the accessibility required. Construction materials are outlined occupying complete surfaces. These materials, a few and industrialized (precast concrete, aluminium and glass), all of which allow a quick and effective assembly, they also make possible to reduce the construction costs. The stadium sits in the transition between the natural and the urban and must reaffirm its condition and its public scale. At the end, a white box brings up an architecture issue: the intensification of the urban condition as a response to the environment.

La entrada “EL PLANTÍO” FOOTBALL STADIUM. BURGOS aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

JP HOUSE

Israel Alba — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 15:36:03 +0000

An exceptional view of almost 360º is the starting point of this house located in northern Madrid, a penthouse with long proportions that faces the four orientations. The house is organized along a corridor that connects two terraces located at the ends. In one side, a terrace is linked to the day area, where the living room, the kitchen and the dining room are. In the other side, the night area, another terrace is used by the bedrooms and a playroom. In the center, the space expands and allows a visual connection, along the corridor, of the two sides of the house. At this point, the kitchen opens to the dining room through a large glass wall, providing continuity and depth to the space. Three planters, located strategically at the end and at the center of the corridor, introduce nature in the house and connect with the exterior space of the terraces, also landscaped. We propose a contemporary space, continuous, free-flowing and open, but above all versatile and flexible. The materials used, mainly beech wood for the floor, white laquered wood for the vertical surfaces and glass, always flushed, emphasize the already said attributes, providing, at the same time, rotundity and simplicity to the domestic spaces.

La entrada JP HOUSE aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS. GALAPAGAR

Israel Alba — Sun, 08 Sep 2019 18:24:46 +0000

The Red Cross Headquarters in Galapagar, in northern Greater Madrid, occupied an old building of the heritage from the beggining of the XXth century, whose main façade is protected, in one of the most visible plazas in town. The building, besides being in bad condition, didn´t fulfill with minimum regulations of health standards and accesibility. For this reason, the Red Cross decided to lead a comprehensive intervention for the restoration and a new extension, to adapt the building to the new regulations and to the new social needs. In collaboration with the town council, they agreed the construction of two new volumes. The first one, to house the communication core and to rectify the accesibility problems. This new volume had to be placed behind the south façade of the main building, not protected, in a way it would’t interfere with the visual perception of the main façade, protected. And the second one, to house two multipurpose classrooms, in direct contact with the garden located in the corner more distant form the traffic noise, replacing an old metal carport where they used to park ambulances, next to the west façade of the main building. These new volumes are slightly separated and connected with the existing building by very light modules, as a kind of little glass bridges. To distinguish the new constructions from the old ones and to keep as well its integrity as its historical value, we employ the same material but with a contemporary construction system and language, making different the existing granite, used as a bearing wall, from the new one, used as a latticework and as a finishing. The staircase volume, with south orientation, is protected with a latticework made up of granite stones of 12cm thickness. This solution provides an effective sun protection, which contributes to the energy efficiency of the whole. In the first floor of the existing building are located the management and administration areas. The public program is located in the ground floor, so the visitors movements can be easily controlled. The open, transparent, free-flowing and continuous nature of the project aims to contribute and to make easier the important work of social integration carried out by the Red Cross.

La entrada RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS. GALAPAGAR aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

INDUSTRIAL BUILDING. BOADILLA DEL MONTE (MADRID)

zina petrikova — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 08:04:28 +0000

The building is located in the industrial estate called Prado del Espino at Boadilla del Monte, in Greater Madrid, a place without identity nor references; an uninspiring context, difficult to deal with. The need of exterior space for parking the vehicles of the public service defines the building position on site, organizing a clear and efficient ring for traffic circulation around the constructed volume. This volume, compact, emphatic and precise, is shifted and orientated towards the street access to receive the visitors. A simple yet heterogeneous programme organizes the different uses in programmatic strips one next to the other, without interruption. Offices, changing rooms, garages and warehouses lead off in the space, gathering together in legible strips as well in floor plan as in section, generating a particular outlined figure of variable section. The context described and the hybrid nature of the programme invited to design a unitary building, integrating its public condition into an industrial construction system. This functional diversity is submitted to the discipline of using a single material, corrugated steel sheets, as a refined reference to the context, distorting the scale of the construction and creating a jazzy combination of brightness and reflections. For this purpose, doors and windows are fully integrated in continuity with the exterior skin by using the same perforated sheet panels, a solution that also addresses the sunlight control. Only the facade facing the access, made out of polycarbonate and glass panels, opens to connect with the closest surroundings. The structure, a lightweight metal frame, is solved with an inexpensive and a simple grid pattern of 5x5m. All previously described results in the idea of achieving a well-balanced use of resources in the construction of the building, including all the details, which become more visible by their absence.

La entrada INDUSTRIAL BUILDING. BOADILLA DEL MONTE (MADRID) aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.

FERROCARRIL 4BIS BUILDING

zina petrikova — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 08:03:59 +0000

The building is located in the center of Madrid, slightly to the south. Only a few minutes walking from Atocha Train Station, El Retiro and Madrid Río parks, the so called Paseo del Arte (Reina Sofía, Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums) and Caixa Forum and Matadero cultural centers. It is a consolidated area of the city that is being transformed, starting to renovate its old residential, industrial and commercial buildings linked with the railways. All this confers a new hybrid and cosmopolitan role to this fragment of the city, vibrant, full of life and activity. It is a plot between party walls, long and narrow, with south orientation, that was occupied in the past by a building from the beginning of the XXth century. Its bad condition suggested the demolition. In the access, a lattice unifies the whole front of the building towards the street and defines a veiled hallway that articulates the three main programs: housing entrance hall, parking and office. The structure is shifted to the party walls and disappears. Each floor is occupied by a single programmatic unit, materializing the idea of living in an elevated house located in the center of the city. At the top, a two-storey house inverting the traditional spatial organization, takes advantage of the setback imposed by local regulations to use it as a terrace. The facade works as an energetic diaphragm defined by different layers that occupy the whole front. From the exterior limit in the street to the interior of the enclosure, these layers made of complementary materials are unfolded to control ligth, ventilation, privacy and landscape. The influence of the existing surroundings is materialized in this building placing a particular emphasis on the party walls, orientation and street performance, making that the building response emerges as the intensification of the urban condition and not as a mere insertion of a volume in a gap.

La entrada FERROCARRIL 4BIS BUILDING aparece primero en ISRAEL ALBA.