In Progress: Apartments with Perimeter Gardens in Madrid / SUMA

Architects: Elena Orte y Guillermo Sevillano (SUMA)
Location: Madrid, Spain
Project Date: 2013-
Construction: Diezma Rosell Construcciones s.l.
Structure: SANDO-COMEUT
Photographs: Jesús Granada

PLAY-TIME Apartments is a project of seven units for short term rental in Ciudad Lineal, Madrid. The developer chose the place because it was looking for an oasis in the middle of the city. As architects, we proposed to intensify this condition.

The project allows us to provide each housing unit with its own terrace, and the constructive design provides each unit with its own perimeter garden.

The dwellings, two per floor, are mounted independently on a vertical core with an elevator and facilities, so that each unit can be oriented freely, limited only by urban conditions and the spiral staircase that climbs on the perimeter, facing the back facade of the units.

The result is seven cottages in a tree, surrounded by more than forty different species of climbing plants, chosen according to the orientation, whether they are evergreen or deciduous, their leaves and fruit color, flowering period, smells and textures. Thus the vegetal tapestry provides the basic architectural features of the envelope (solar and hygrothermal control, vision and intimacy) and a catalog of sensory experiences.

The building thus addresses the aspirations of the client and disciplinary obsessions (vertical garden, spiral organization, typological subversion, apparent free form of the envelope), but achieves them in a way that we had to learn everything on the go, and we feel that we could not do without any of the elements without sacrificing entire project.

Collaborators (SUMA): Bárbara Rodríguez, Luis Quintano, Rita Álvarez-Tabío
Consultants: Nuria Sáiz, technical architect, Julio González, agricultural engineer and landscape, David Izquierdo, structures, Jesús Huerga, structures, Raúl Romero and Antonio Contreras, building facilities