ZANZIBAR CUBE
A project by estudioHerreros

The complex is a small community of eight apartments in a quiet residential area of Madrid, configured as duplexes stacked on two levels, all of them with two corner orientations. The four lower apartments enjoy a private garden at ground level while each of the upper apartments enjoys an equally private roof garden. In addition, all homes share a garden with children’s play area, a swimming pool with solarium and a communal garage that includes motorcycle spaces and storage rooms.

The apartments differentiate their living areas from the bedrooms by floors. The elevator stops only on the two public floors of the duplexes, the ground floor for the apartments at plot level and the third floor for the upper floors. With this organization, the apartments are given great privacy and become small single-family houses with a garden. This effect is achieved on the first floors by surrounding the two facades of each house with a garden with different areas for living, dining and barbecue that is related to the interior through large sliding windows and is isolated from the neighbors and the streets by high walls of lush vegetation. For its part, the upper floors extend its living room vertically through a comfortable staircase-skylight, that accesses a roof garden that is a real privilege in this area of Madrid.

The building’s emphatic volumetry shows an elegant personality that seeks a cohesive overall image. Its aluminum facades with large floor-to-ceiling windows and die-cut latticework to match the opaque panels contrast with the light pergolas and plant elements. A system of generously proportioned cantilevered terraces extends the living rooms, bedrooms and kitchen into authentic open-air rooms protected by high wooden parapets that ensure privacy without detracting from the views.

Credits:

Architecture, architects: estudioHerreros (Juan Herreros – Jens Richter)
Project directors: José Antonio Costela, Beatriz Salinas, Gabriela Barrera
Project team: María Escudero, David Martínez
Structure: Ingeniería Valladares
Building Facilities: Eadat Ingenieros
Quantity Surveyor: Dirtec
Client: Thinkhouse S.L.
Surface: 1400 m2
Date: 2022
Location: Madrid, España
Photography: Imagen Subliminal (Rocío Romero + Miguel de Guzman)

Architects: Estudio Herreros

www.estudioherreros.com
estudio@estudioherreros.com

Tel: (+34) 911 78 19 98

MADRID
BOIX Y MORER, 6, #8
28003 MADRID

NEW YORK
220 WEST 111 STREET, 1D
10026 NEW YORK

MEXICO CITY
CAMPOS ELÍSEOS 169, INT 202
11560 MEXICO CITY

estudio Herreros is a Madrid-based architecture practice operating worldwide, employing about 20 architects from 7 different nationalities. The firm consolidates the 30-year career of Juan Herreros, Chair Professor at Madrid School of Architecture and permanent professor at Columbia University in New York.

estudio Herreros is indeed the refoundation of Herreros Arquitectos which, in turn, was built on the legacy of the now legendary Ábalos&Herreros, established in 1985. While Herreros Arquitectos was an adventure initiated by Juan Herreros himself with the intention of building a strategic position and a working method in accordance with the times of global practice and focus on talent, interdisciplinarity and coworking, estudio Herrerosconfirms the achievement of such objectives through the transformation of Herreros Arquitectos into a partnership structure which translates the specificity of our personality into a true corporate structure.

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