Plaza Major

Madrid, Spain

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Plaza Major

Madrid, Spain

Firm

MTM arquitectos

Type

Cultural › Pavilion

YEAR

2012

Photography by Luis Asin, Paula Arroyo.

The building built by the architects Javier Fresneda and Javier Sanjuan in the Campus
de Cantoblanco of La Universidad Autónoma de Madrid is a piece of built architecture,
well built architecture.

The architects in a tour de force, far from easy, have planned and resolved with rigor
and brilliance an crucial problem in the contemporary architecture, in the always
debated relation between architecture and nature. They were demanded some
buildings to accommodate different services of the university and they gave them a
Plaza Mayor. They gave them ''liebre por gato'', already since the competition that they
won with this project in 2007.
Enough of closely analyzing the plans, impeccable, in which the free contour is built in
an efficient dialogue with the topography, forming part of it, shaping it. And also the
interior of these plans, all these also arranged in an impeccable manner.
But the most important thing, that that the most interests us, is the central idea of this
building which is a non-building, is a non-natural nature, artificial. With the blessed
artificiality of the architecture, artifact. This central idea is to convert the artifact in a
circulation cross space, capable of connecting all the … of the open campus of this
university.
This building (building?) is not a construction that takes advantage of the roofs , making
them passable. What are doing now many others planting lawn on the roof for being
able to declare themselves sustainable and modern.

They didn't ''take advantage of the roofs'' in order to later plant grass on it and make
them crossable. In fact its the exact opposite, they proposed a special mechanism to
cross and stitch the campus, some plans and ramps, paths that connect, and they put
underneath these plans, inside them, the requested functions.
Here, by the hand of the topography and nature, has been done the reverse. A transit
has been defined, a crossroad, a promenade architecturale, and then in its interior, has
been arranged the demanded functions.
Here a landscape has been built and in its interior has been placed all the services ,
the canteens and the cafeterias. The parking, has been used as a material for the
project in order to wear the whole topographically, instead of digging the usual
basement.
Before, the Plaza Mayor were formed by the aligned buildings in its perimeter,
both in their facades as in the ledge, and they used to be rectangular or square.
In the antique Plaza Mayor, the buildings served the empty space. Here the empty
serves the central space which the services area articulated around it.
The Plaza is constituted like this in a space whose form is established by the architects
as a premise, i this case like a crossroad in the vast city of Universidad de la Autónoma
in this open campus.

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Plaza Major

Madrid, Spain

Plaza Major

Madrid, Spain

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team