Apartment building in Madrid by FOA

The Spanish branch of the London office Foreign Office Architects has completed a residential building project on the western outskirts of Madrid, which British critic Hugh Pearman described in the July issue of RIBA Journal as a “house wrapped in straw”. The client was EMVS, a company engaged in apartment construction, which often invites well-known architects to collaborate. They have already called upon MVRDV, David Chipperfield, Peter Cook, and Morphosis to work on projects in the main Spanish city.
The FOA project, with a budget of 5.2 million Euros, features a trapezoidal floor plan and offers 88 residential units. The concept of the house is as intriguing as it is simple. The apartments are aligned along a north-south axis, which corresponds to their suitable east-west orientation. A 1.5-meter-wide terrace runs around the house, which can be shaded using shutters that extend the height of the floor. The shutters consist of a metal structure covered with bamboo poles. The apartments are completely glazed onto the terrace. Link>