BURR
BURR
Pilarica is part of a strategic toolset to protect the city’s industrial heritage and an architectural intervention.
Industrial activity in the center of the city of Madrid has gradually decreased in the last 30 years to end up in the current situation: a foreseeable disappearance. The explosive rise in property value, noise- or environmental protection measures and traffic density, among other reasons, have led to a diaspora of industrial activity from the city center to the outskirts. Accordingly, industrial buildings in the urban fabric are under risk of extinction. Current urban planning regulations encourage property owners to change the land use from industrial to residential, which requires a reduction in the usable area, leading to the demolition of part of their properties: the warehouses. This situation increasingly condemns the city to a single use and this typology to disappearance. Our proposals aim to become a strategic toolset to protect the industrial heritage of the city through land-use and occupation alternatives that allow to prolong this typology’s life and avoid its demolition. Pilarica’s architectural intervention is based on two main strategic lines: the recovery of the inner space, previously occupied by extensions carried out in recent years, and the installation of two functional units that allow its inhabitants to live and work there. The material proposal is guided by techniques and solutions used in industrial elements such as protective tarpaulins for trailers and trucks, pasteurization tanks or welding protection-curtains. Pilarica is a programmatic hybrid between a public space and a private space, a productive and a residential space, aiming to link new living-working dynamics with the underused industrial heritage of the city. READ MORE
Pilarica was designed and built by Taller de Casquería (E.Fuertes, R.Martínez, A.Molins, J.Sobejano) in Madrid en 2019. Teresa Martínez Pages and Manuel Alba Montes were part of the team and Fast & Furious Production Office were in charge of the construction. The outcome was photographed by Maru Serrano. Pilarica was one of the finalist projects in the 2020 FAD design awards.
