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Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos

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Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - Windows, Garden

Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - HandrailDesert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - WindowsDesert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - WindowsDesert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - GardenDesert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - More Images+ 20

Madrid, Spain
  • Architectural Team: Jacobo García-Germán, Miguel López, Raquel Díaz de la Campa, Marta García Laura Carrero, Martha Sosa Dias, Lidia de Lucas, Marta Roldán, Andrea Gutierrez, Victoria Álvarez, Margot Roset, Paula Lizcano, Alba Gil, Celia Sánchez.
  • Digital Furniture Manufacturing: 109 FabLab
  • Communication: Pati Nuñez Agency
  • City: Madrid
  • Country: Spain
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Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - Handrail

Text description provided by the architects. Desert City is a celebration of xerophytic plants and the production of a whole culture of interests and events around them. The project proposes an educational, sustainable and ecological complex in which to overlap activities that range from the exhibiting, growing and breeding of cactus from all over the world in a large garden and greenhouse, to housing an array of leisure activities such as presentations, small conventions, workshops or exhibitions. The large building contains, besides the greenhouse and exhibition/sales space, restaurant, shop, storage, and office areas. These activities are sheltered by a big lightweight container that responds, in terms of scale and materiality, to the near presence of the A-1 Highway. A “billboard-building”, parallel to the road, organized internally by a sequence of symmetries organized around a cloister-like cactus garden, which receives newcomers, and the greenhouse space, covered by a cable roof designed according to the logic of tensegrity structures.

Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - Image 17 of 25
Axonometric

Despite its hybrid program, the complex’s construction is systematized through repetition, modulation and prefabrication of elements, resulting in a huge abstract stretched out skeleton that communicates its intense inner workings and the veiled presence of greenery as seen from the passing car through a tinted, watery glass facade. Construction incorporates sustainable solutions such as transparent photovoltaic glass, geothermal power, water recovery systems, solar controls, and extensive plantings in the site, originally a wasteland.

The overlapping of apparently excluding situations (commercial exploitation of leisure events vs. exemplary “green” business; building as sole infrastructure vs. atmospheric and “soft” finishes; size vs. fragility; oasis by the highway,...), results in a proactive and ingenious initiative suited for times of opportunity. 

Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - Windows
Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - Image 18 of 25
Ground Floor Plan
Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos - Image 9 of 25

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Project location

Address:San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain

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Cite: "Desert City / Garciagerman Arquitectos" 31 Jul 2017. ArchDaily. Accessed 1 Jan 2025. <https://www.archdaily.com/876678/desert-city-garciagerman-arquitectos> ISSN 0719-8884
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