Headquarters of Arquia ★★★✩✩
Architects: Emilio Tuñon, Carlos Martinez Albornoz Location: Madrid. 16. Tutor Street
Arquia is the name of the architects' bank, also that of its foundation, which is distinguished by its splendid scholarship program for students in leading architectural studios, by its publications, its audiovisuals and other cultural activities. I affirm the latter with some hesitation, as I am a recent (and unpaid) member of said foundation, but at the same time supported by the considerable and infrequent figures of said program of its own activities, which in 2024 is endowed with nearly a million and a half euros.
At the end of 2022, Arquia inaugurated its new headquarters in the Madrid neighborhood of Argüelles, after having had it in Barcelona. Specifically in a low building with a red brick façade, with a Manchester industrial feel, built at the beginning of the 20th century to house a printing press.
That façade, protected, is what was preserved by the architects Tuñón and Albonoz, to whom Arquia commissioned its headquarters. The building therefore maintains its presence on Tutor Street, but its interior is completely new, and three progressively set back levels have been added to it, which contributes to preserving the memory of the building (which in section now evokes the profile of a staircase). , floods the new floors with light and equips them with terraces running over said street.
This work is an example of discretion and eloquence, two concepts that do not always go hand in hand. It is discreet due to the way, already noted, in which it is implemented in the urban fabric, without altering it but improving it. And it is eloquent because it expresses, in a quiet but clear voice, some of the virtues of architecture, starting with the rationality in its approach and ending with the resulting comfort for users.
The common areas are arranged on the ground floor: an almost triple-height lobby with overhead lighting and a multipurpose room, with generous views of the backyard, a rare luxury in the capital. The other three floors are for bank or foundation activities, with offices, meeting rooms, offices and archives. The wood, with white painted clapboard on the coverings and oak framing the windows, gives the building a sober air and a certain packaging, which evokes on a very different scale another work designed by Tuñón, this one with the late Luis M. Mansilla, the monumental Museum of the Royal Collections.
The success and essentiality of this work are manifested again in its rear façade, also made of brick, but different from the main one, due to its regular rhythm of square windows and its reflection of the interior functions. Likewise, they are expressed in the construction details, such as the tread and riser of the main staircase, and in a general contained and impeccable tone.
