Driven by the Madrid City Council together with the Official College of Architects of Madrid, in 2005 an ideas competition was launched to move the headquarters of the second, with the result that this proposal was successful. The chosen place was a large mansion on Calle Hortaleza, which had been the Escuelas Pías de San Antón, a disused and abandoned building that contained a baroque church of Pedro de Ribera that also needed to be rehabilitated. The competition program was not limited to offering a new headquarters to Madrid collegiates, as the old town on Calle Barquillo seemed insufficient in the midst of the real estate bonanza, but it was also asked to build a series of municipal grants to serve a downtown area of the city that lacked these services. Thus, in addition to a music school, the construction of a children’s school, a mayor’s center and a public swimming pool were also planned.
The demolition of buildings that were considered little valuable was necessary to create a tree-lined garden in the central space of the manzana, this being the key decision that articulates the entire ensemble. In this way, the garden constitutes a quiet place in the middle of the city center and has its calm that allows the complex’s work spaces to be accessed, through very permeable facades made up of a double layer of extra-clear glass. Open in the garden, the program of the new headquarters of COAM is organized in such a way that the cultural areas, whose character is more public, are available between the access floors, while the workshop zones are organized in the upper floors. On the other hand, the music school, which is located next to the church, occupies the most sheltered wing of the building, and is organized around the space at double height of the old sacristy. The rest of the municipal equipment is organized on a floor topped with swimming pools, located on the upper floor and designed as unique viewpoints over the city.
