FRONT-BACK is a project that arises from a reflection on the heritage of Madrid's Modernity. It is a project that establishes a revision of the rare monumental context through an educated and thought-provoking reading at technological, typological and urban scales.
It is a project that will re-edit the chosen monument of the Frontón Recoletos by means of a conceptual journey, in which, through forensic evidence, a project strategy will be drawn up, injecting an added value to this project.
The chosen monument, the Recollect pelota court, is a building inserted in Madrid's modernity and in its absent architecture. It is a building conceived by Eduardo Torroja and Secundino Zuazo in April 1935, to be erected as a container for one of the booming pastimes of the era. A concrete container that housed Basque ball games, boxing championships or basketball matches, becoming a hospital during the war.
It is a monument that tells its history through its construction. From the designs with a residential building attached to a corner as a chamfer, as first-time modifications that materialize in the calculation in scale models at 1/10 scale and extrapolate reality from the virtual, to roofs that collapse and reconstruct by means of opposing construction methods.
A building that still doesn't exist, but still talks about its reconstruction.
This conceptual journey through the Recollect pelota court begins with the model made by Torroja to calculate its deformations in a millimetric way. This model and its mechanism of weights and counterweights by pulleys used to measure the deformations are taken as a continuous reference of the project.
Together with this, the design germ emerges with the reconstruction of the roof. A reconstruction that does not follow the original construction methods but opposes them, developing a metal truss that tries to emulate the original interior of this large concrete container.
Thus was born the idea of the Re-edition of this monument, the creation of a new space through its roof. A multipurpose space, in which the current shows can be developed, that can be quickly configured, updated and represents the current moment lived.
Thus, a technological RE-construction project was developed which, keeping its focus on its origin, tries to reinterpret it and to propose a space designed to adapt to the changing needs of the city in an agile and rapid way.
Thus, a dynamic roof is created, studied through its changing geometry. A deformed scenic roof through its control points geometry and spline curves.
A deck that will be machined by means of a double theatrical system, consisting of a tramline embedded in the truss structure and telescopic rods in a ball joint capable of absorbing all the differential deformations of the dynamic deck. All this forming a large structure open to the outside that does not represent any limit with the city, but at the same time can evoke the original space of the torroja project with a contemporary look.
A new space that can be sold as a gift to the city.