Platinum Winner 2023 – Car Dealerships and Workshops in Madrid - Architecture Collection
Platinum Winner of the Architecture & Design Collection Awards 2023

Car Dealerships and Workshops in Madrid

Architecture
Industrial Structures

Architect / Designer:

Joaquin Millan

Studio:

OOIIO Architecture

Design Team:

Architect: Joaquín Millán Villamuelas Team: Alba Peña Ferández, Sandra Butautaite.

Copyright:

Javier de Paz

Country:

Spain
A large disused bank office is transformed into workshops and dealerships for the sale of cars. A businessman decides to recycle an outdated and disused commercial building, to adapt it to new activities related to the world of motors. The building will undergo a radical transformation, going from housing offices to car workshops, catching up with the new climate and energy efficiency standards, from being a building with a heavy and closed appearance, to the complete opposite, a bright, spacious and cozy welcoming space. In record time, pressed by the speed that always entails working with retail projects, by the need to open to the public as soon as possible and start selling, the technical team behind this project was able to manage a complex work that included the considerable expansion of the basement of the existing building, the demolition of previous floors and the replacement of new ones, adapted to the new weights they will support. The pre-existing building had no intention of opening up to the city that surrounds it. With its recycling and new use, is sought exactly the opposite. The building goes from being a closed block to a large showcase, spacious and bright, with high, clear ceilings, inviting everyone to enter and see the cars that are sold inside. The renovation is designed to never hide the commercial vocation of this new stage in the life of this building. It is a place to sell cars, and therefore it must perfectly meet the conditions for this function. The interior looks very good from the outside and from a distance. Posters of the different brands should act as an attraction and pop up for the public. This building no longer wants to be hidden and go unnoticed, quite the opposite. To integrate the necessary posters with the logos of the car brands, the design team decided to follow the strategy “learned in Las Vegas”, thanks to Venturi, and turned the poster into the fundamental piece of the design. To protect the tall glass windows that reveal the cars inside from direct sunlight, the posters that would be on the facade of any other dealership here suddenly become large pergolas, facing the streets that surround the store, creating shadows and thus contributing to energy savings through passive means while generating more field area to sell cars around the building. The metallic materials used in the facades and interiors give it an industrial and technological appearance, which gains joy and uniqueness with the mint, white and black color combinations. A unique building achieved by recycling an obsolete structure and spaces. The architectural solution responds to the needs of the new use of the building, while supporting and empowering them with the decisions made in the design of its architecture. An unexpected new life for this former bank office full of light, color and efficiency.

OOIIO Architecture

Founded in 2010, OOIIO’s architecture is playful, fun, ironic and fresh. For them, the construction of a project is a joyful event, a magical human process that deserves to be celebrated. That is why their buildings are based on casual approaches. Creativity is key in the daily life of the OOIIO architecture studio, they frequently use “the link” as a project tool when conceiving their solutions, creating links or metaphorical relationships in their buildings to other things: a rock, artisan traditional ceramics, a windmill, that suddenly become the spark idea to create a new building. A unique creative method that allows OOIIO to open unexpected paths in architecture. OOIIO does diagrammatic architecture. Their projects can be explained in a few quick, visceral drawings, making it possible to simplify all the complexity of their constructions in a few strokes on a napkin. OOIIO’s quest to do things in the easiest possible way, proposing simple solutions to complex problems.

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