Arata Isozaki, Premio Pritzker 2019

148 social housing homes in Carabanchel, Madrid, with architectural concrete panels executed by Prehorquisa

We would like to congratulate Arata Isozaki for this well-deserved award. It has been an honor for us to work with him in this project, 148 social housing homes in Carabanchel, Madrid, executing these spectacular precast panels with a design based on the Fibonacci succession. #precast #concrete #facade #design

In this residential project for the district of Carabanchel, in the south of Madrid, Isozaki considers what constructive model should emerge in the 21st century, after the 20th century’s dominant skyscraper.

The solution consists of a chain of parallelograms that draw a screen in the main façade (Av. De los Poblados), using the Penrose Pattern, a geometric tiling model that does not reproduce periodically the drawings.

“The resulting parallelograms follow the Fibonacci succession,” the 13th-century Italian mathematician who set the numerical sequence that spirals describe in nature.

“A first consequence using this pattern is the opening of each house to two facades”, as explained in the Arata Isozaki Spain’s Studio website. “This way, a free urban landscape could be created, different from the current one, different from the one found in the Universal Space” of the 20th century.

Based on these premises, Rafael Humbert’s Studio developed the extraordinary technical project that enabled the execution of such a singular idea.

In collaboration with both studios and Sacyr’s technical office, Prehorquisa’s technical department developed the project for these precast concrete facades.

In order to optimize this design, based on differentiable parallelograms, and obtain panels of adequate dimensions so as not to impose an extra cost in its manipulation and assembly, it was decided to combine different finishes in the same panel. This way, we managed to maintain the original design, improving the efficiency of assembly with panels between 8-9 sqm/u. In order to achieve this goal, all panels have combinations of smooth finish and different degrees of sandblasting or acid etch hammered.

PROJECT: Arata Isozaki + Humbert Architects

CLIENT-CONTRACTOR: SACYR S.A.U.

MEASUREMENTS: 1,213 panels and 10,457 sqm

TYPE: Precast panels in self-supporting architectural concrete 100 mm thick with smooth, hammered and micro-hammered with sandblast and acid etch.