Uncovering the past – Madrid

Next to the Quinta de Fuente del Berro Park, in Madrid, Spain on a street bordered by Castaños de Indias, we find the Berro House which was built in the late 1920s. The house, which was once the residence of the acclaimed sculptor Jorge de Oteiza in the 1950s, was very deteriorated, and its facade had undergone numerous modifications.
Architectural practice Jimenez Linares began by carrying out research in the Archivo de la Villa de Madrid, which allowed them to discover the plans of the original project. Based on the original documentation, the studio decided to recover the original image of the house: a white volume, with large windows to the outside and a Roman ceramic roof, surrounded by a garden that seems to climb up the facade, through the incorporation of wrought steel planters.
Inside the house, there is a central staircase that tries to incorporate the garden into the interior. This space is wrapped in a perforated mesh in the shape of palm trees that act as a large screen that casts different shadows depending on the light. The result is something like walking along a large vine that connects the different spaces of the house by means of double heights.