Cuarto Bocel Renovation / Estudio Gonzalo del Val + Toni Gelabert Arquitectes

The residential building for the Marquis of Amurrio was built between 1925 and 1927 by the architect Gustavo Fernández Balbuena, founder and first director of the magazine Arquitectura in 1918, being one of the oldest active magazines in Europe. Due to the quality of its architecture and the relevance of the author, this building is included in Madrid's heritage list. Located in the Chamberí neighborhood, the volume of the complex, with an open courtyard to the outside, responds to hygiene strategies that were used at the time due to intensive urban planning, which resulted in dark and poorly ventilated interior courtyards. As a consequence of this urbanism, the living floors end up being long and with enclosed damp cores inside, always close to the secondary entrance where the service staff entered.