The Social Hub Madrid is located in front of the Royal Palace. It is known as "La Imprenta," a name it received due to its past function as a printing house for various media and, later, the headquarters of the Semana magazine.
The three buildings were subject to a Special Plan for Heritage Protection and Environmental Control of Uses, known as the Special Plan for Urban and Environmental Control of Uses, which was definitively approved by the Madrid City Council on March 28, 2012.
Its purpose was to facilitate the implementation of a tertiary-hotel use in an exclusive building to preserve the historical, artistic, and architectural values that justified its protection. The hotel consists of 330 rooms and services include a restaurant, a communal meal preparation area, laundry facilities, bicycle parking, a dedicated garage with parking spaces for electric vehicles, spaces for exercise and study activities, outdoor seating and garden areas, coworking spaces, event and meeting rooms, and sunbathing and recreational areas on the rooftops with views of the Royal Palace and the Campo del Moro gardens.
This project, therefore, represents a delicate balance between historical respect and functionality, preserving the protected original architecture while updating it to accommodate a new use that meets safety, habitability, and functionality requirements as per regulations.
Within the hotel, spaces with a strong presence of historical elements, such as the original stained glass of the main staircase, created by the Union of Glass Artists of Irún in 1930, coexist and interact with contemporary spaces. For example, in the carriage passage, Anna Taratiel, a renowned contemporary artist, has executed one of her colorful abstract works that can be admired by the general public from the street.
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