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Architects: Estudio Lucas Muñoz
- Area: 10763 ft²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Sergio Albert/Gonzalo Machado
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Manufacturers: Sika, Adiquímica, BASF, Carrier, Roca, SimaPro, TOPCRET
Text description provided by the architects. MO DE MOVIMIENTO is a shared leadership model that seeks balance between the profitability of its projects and a positive social and environmental impact. Its beginnings lie with a restaurant space designed in 2018 to drive a conscious change, in tune with a new definition of our relationship to cities. This process began in January 2019 with the deconstruction of what was once the EFE Agency's recording studio in Madrid, and before that, the Espronceda Theater. The restaurant was renovated at the same time the former space was demolished, improvising in real time and innovating based on testing, learning, reinterpretation and experimentation.
MO consists of a holistic and positive focus on sustainability. It measures the life cycle, circularity and residual impact, beginning with the very first decision. All elements of design were developed with a desire to follow and contribute to MO's values. Decisions were made in cross-cutting fashion, always in dialogue with the construction, sustainability, engineering and landscaping experts. The design process was a negotiation process to counterbalance the fragile equilibrium between sustainability and functionality, regulations and innovation and aesthetics and implementation.
A process was followed, a Modus Operandi, where the design team - always informed of the environmental responsibility of their decisions - were able to focus their efforts on replacing, inventing, recycling or selecting materials and procedures.
The very rubble (1,700 Kilos) from the construction itself was used as a material to create modules for MO's benches today; the furniture was assembled from the wood recovered from the false floor that covered the former audience seating area in the Espronceda Theater: the wood was reused to design a collection of furniture in tune with the Autoprogettazione project's open and revolutionary philosophy by Italian master Enzo Mari; lighting comes from a group of lights, created with leak-tight fluorescent bulb cases recovered from different sources: the cases were emptied of their electric components by the electrical engineering students of the Norte Joven Association (an entity that helps migrant children and youth in extreme situations of vulnerability).
Design strategies for consumption of water include a rainwater collection system and the reuse of sink output for use in gray water. The water processing area has two large tanks with 1000 and 3000L capacity. They are connected to a heating system that runs throughout the entire establishment. Its heart lies within the walls of the wood ovens, where copper conduits are installed to recover the calorific energy from the fire (which would otherwise dissipate) to distribute it through radiant floors, support aerothermal energy and supply the establishment's radiators with heat. These radiators were not purchased from a supplier. Rather, they were made from the construction site.
Also, worthy of mention is the concept and design of the space’s two cooling systems, based on the natural properties of baked clay or terracotta. These systems are spread throughout the space, both as large clay vessels hanging from the indoor ceilings and as cabinets attached to the patio walls.
