Barrault Pressacco

The urban landscape is a palimpsest of distinct orders – axes, openings, grids, alignments – which confront, complete or oppose each other in order to generate a contemporary and picturesque landscape.
The project proposes three buildings – public, religious and private – which align on a sharply sloping site. The low rise public building forms a facade for the square below the San Francisco Cathedral. On its rooftop, a swimming-pool open to the city. The central building is religious, and comprises a library adjacent to the one existing in the Theology Faculty. Also on its rooftop, one can find a contemporary cloister open to the landscape. The private building below proposes offices on the first levels, accommodations, and, on the top level, a hotel. It also offers more distant views on the Southern desert and on central Madrid.
This project defines a new order: a new regular composition, built on an irregular site.
The system of the street is reversed: the alignment of empty spaces becomes an alignment of filled spaces. The regular and the irregular enter into dialogue. Their new accord forms the basis of new, public voids, which are installed between the existing city and the new order.