1. ENVIRONMENT

The plot where the project is located is part of a new urban sector of Colmenar Viejo, a small town in the north of Madrid.

In this sector the main new development is residential use .

Although the plot has great views over the mountains and the city of Madrid , urban planning requires excessive density losing  its landscape potential .

2. CONDITIONING

Planning requires raising the typology of single-family houses as the only possibility, assigning a number of houses and a minimum ​​plot area.

These conditions and the steepness of the terrain, which however must accomplish accessibility standards have greatly influenced the project.

The proposal is a semi-detached housing  project, drastically reducing visual impact.

To increase the amplitude of the road access, that otherwise would be too small, communal nature space is given to the front gardens of the houses.

In this way it tries to be  a mixed type of collective and single-family housing that minimizes the problems generated by the rules of the council, and responds to an excessive leverage of land space.

East-West orientation has been essential to pursue the organization in volumes of the pieces to get the best lighting inside the houses.

To improve the quality of housing some garages do not count buildable surface area, have a permeable enclosure solved by metal slats.

On top of these garages, located upstairs, living terraces enrich the program.

Common areas include a community pool with salt water system and a playground for children.

3. HOUSING

All units have the same typology , which combine a repetitive typology of homes  facing two directions with 4 bedrooms.

The main bathroom is located on the front facing the exclusive interior garden of each house.

The second bathroom is located on the axis of the first floor hall.

There is a toilet on the ground floor with access from the main lobby.

The objective is to provide housing versatility in its distribution.

4. COMPOSITION .

Each house has a variation in the orientation of the roofs, in order to break uniformity.

The obligation to settle houses with sloping roofs is used to enhance the interior space with higher ceilings than usual.

A simple, economic geometry is enhanced by varying the inclination of some covers at the end of the row of houses that evoke the mountainous profile of the Sierra de Madrid.

5. FACADE SOLUTION

The facade solution incorporates the proposed system designed by Baumit solved with little cost and comfort one of the biggest problems that arose in the development of the project.

The unfavorable orientation of the roofs greatly reduced the performance of solar panels for hot water required by Spanish legislation.

We were inclined to seek alternative solutions to meet the required energy savings.

The constructive solution of the facade of the project led the possibility of replacing the solar panels for an alternative, with further reduction in energy consumption.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Baumit we made a report demonstrating that the energy savings in heating by improving thermal insulation were greater than the energy produced by the solar panels​​.

The solution adopted was a type called "SATE". A facade with 8 cm Baumit insulation and aluminum frames with glass solar factor of 0.53  and thermal transmittance factor 1.4 .

We have thus achieved a building that gets the best living conditions and comfort.

The solution further enabled by solving the facade with an exterior painted stucco.

With composition means, grey aluminum panels were chosen to connect the windows in the upper level.

Walls covered with a very visible veining white marble define the dwellings main entrance and give them a slight textured and colored touch.

The warmth of the marble tiling of the ground floor is combined with the vibration given by the walls of the garages, resolved by lacquered steel tubes forming a lattice that ensures adequate natural lighting and ventilation of these spaces.