Architects:Javier Galante, Francisco Rodríguez Acosta (contribuitor)
Photography:José Couto / Carlos de Miguel
Developer:Private
Floor area:3.083,86 m2
There is a clear conflict of heights and volume between the two buildings that are located on one side and the other of ours. This conflict is resolved by staggering ours so that it completely covers the dividing wall of the building to which we are attached and from there a drop in height is produced that, accompanied by two cornice bends, takes us to a height equivalent to that of the Basilica. At the same time, this set of cornices moves us from the vertical organization attached to the party wall, to another with a marked horizontal character that evokes the heights and volumetric composition of the Basilica. To give a more pronounced character to the proposed solution, this dividing wall of our building is removed from the edge of the plot, at a distance that ranges between 10.5 meters. and 5.50 meters so that moving away from the Basilica (the shortest distance, in any case, is 20 meters) we try to ensure that two buildings of very different character do not come into conflict. This, in turn, leads us to treat our left dividing wall as a third façade of the building, a façade in which, once its volumetry has been adapted to that of the Basilica's ambulatory, all that remains is for us to organize it in such a way that it finishes off our building, enhances continuity order with the Basilica and dignify the space that in the future can be created between one and the other. With this end in mind, a first body is structured that is previously conditioned and that is the base of the building that, with the same height as the first body of the Basilica, gives us a first line of cornice that connects the buildings on this entire side. of the block, from José Abascal street to García de Paredes street. The transition between the base and the rest of the building is made by means of a continuous balcony that also serves to formally finish off the balcony of our dividing building. On this balcony and to underline the respect with which our building approaches the Basilica, in an attempt to de-mass it, the façade is set back, so that only the structure remains patent and indicated. The receding cloth becomes the neutral background on which the scene unfolds. To accentuate this neutrality of the recessed facade sections, the building adopts the same finishing material as the Basilica, dark brown exposed brick.