DUBLIN, IRELAND…SEPEMBER 26, 2010…. The City of Madrid is full of surprises. If the complexities of today's urban life with large cities full of historical and modern buildings and a busy metropolis of high density neighborhoods and bustling urban traffic are to be avoided for the pristine countryside and open rural spaces, think again. Madrid is full of abundant huge green parks, magnificent tree-lined boulevards, flowers, emblematric green-scapes, vertical gardens, a boating lake, and an enormous sprawling parkland making the Capital of Spain one of the world's leading examples of urban beautification and a Green Renaissance in our 21st Century.

"The City of Madrid," states Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine, Museum President, The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture " is one of the 'greenest' cities on our planet," as The Chicago Athenaeum, together with the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies announce the City of Madrid as the first of over 100 Green GOOD DESIGN™ Awards for 2010.

Founded in Chicago in 1950 by architects Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames, GOOD DESIGN is the world's oldest and most significant global program that awards the best of the best design in terms of visionary products and environments.

Every year, thousands of leading industrial and graphic design firms, manufacturers, and leading FORTUNE 500 companies vie for this prestigious award worldwide. The familiar GOOD DESIGN logo, a circle inside a square, designed by Chicago graphic designer, Mort Goldsholl in 1950, is one of the world's most visible and highly recognized public branding marks.

In 2008, The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre added a "Green" edition to this historic Awards Program as a way to emphasize and promote the best new products and environments that are leading today's "Green Revolution" in order to make a public education statement about the importance of sustainability for consumer product design and our global architecture.

For 2010, the Green GOOD DESIGN Awards recognize cities, governments, organizations, research, programs, and people who are blazing a new path toward a sustainable environment together with new products, buildings and landscape and urban planning projects.

The Green GOOD DESIGN Awards are decided by The European Centre's International Advisory Committee, which is comprised of European leaders in the design industry, manufacturing, and in architecture.

Subsequent Green Awards (over 100 in all) for 2010 in the categories of industrial and product design, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning are to be released by both institutions by the end of this month.

This year (2010), Green GOOD DESIGN Awards were given to the City of Madrid and products, designs, ideas, buildings, and urban planning projects from over 31 nations.

GREEN MADRID: A CITY IN THE GARDEN

At 650m above sea level on a high continental plateau, Madrid is the highest capital city in Europe. The Comunidad de Madrid—in the center of which lies Madrid in a rough triangle—covers 7,995 sq. km, less than 2% of Spain's territory. The City's population is roughly 3.2 million while the estimated metropolitan area is calculated to be 5.84 million.

Madrid, its streets populated with trees, has the second highest number of aligned trees in the world, with 298,000 units, only exceeded by Tokyo. Green areas are constantly and continuously growing also surpassing the European average. Since 1997, green areas have increased by 16%. At present, 8.2% of Madrid's grounds are green areas, meaning that there are 16m2 of green area per inhabitant, far exceeding again the 10m2 per inhabitant recommended by the World Health Organization.

"Green and manicured are the words that best describe Madrid," states Mr. Narkiewicz-Laine. "Every direction you look in the city appears to be worthy of a picture postal card."

The most central and attractive Green Area of Madrid is the Parque del Buen Retiro, an enormous manicured stretch of greenery that once constituted the eastern fringe of the city and was also the preserve of royalty and nobles. With its sculptured gardens, artificial lakes and roaming paths, the park is a wonderful green escape from the modern metropolis. Down the hill from the Retiro is the idyllic Real Jardin Botanico, a botanical garden packed with exotic plants.

Equally green is the Campo del Moro, which slopes away west of the Palacio Real, while the nearby Parque del Oeste is abundantly green and visually enticing. The Casa de Campo, west of the Manzanares, with its tree-lined boulevards is lovingly referred to by the locals as "the lungs of Madrid."

In order to reduce pollution, Madrid's city authorities have considered introducing a London-style congestion charge, but to day such a plan has not been enacted. Over four million vehicles enter and leave the capital everyday. The resulting cloud of pollution that settles over Madrid on a windless day is known locally as the "grey beret." Spain's obsession with diesel-fuelled cars (which produced seven times more pollution than cars running on unleaded petrol) only exacerbates the problem.

One obvious measure to stem pollution has been the current pedestrianisation of many inner-city streets, among them Calle de Arenal and some 40 hectares of streets in the barrio of Huertas, which have been closed to all but local traffic. Madrid's constant investment in an already impressive underground metro system—one of the 10 longest in the world and the third longest in Europe—ensures that Madrid's high pollution levels can no longer be blamed on inadequate public transport. Since 2000, more than 100km have been added to the network, drawing an ever-growing number of satellite towns into the system.

While garbage is collected in the Capital every night, recycling is, unfortunately, optional and largely ignored.

Beyond the city, the planned upgrading of the M-501 through the west of the Comunidad de Madrid has been hugely controversial. Environmentalists argue that the road expansion threatens 13 nesting pairs of the endangered Iberian Imperial Eagle, as well as destroying woodlands the shelter 10% of Spain's endangered species and possibly the world's most endangered cat species, the Iberia lynx.

While Madrid may also be endlessly expanding into previous nonurban areas and open lands, steps have been taken for compensation. Among these are ambitious plans, directed by Madrid's Mayor, to reforest 15,000 hectors of land around the Comunidad de Madrid. Within metropolitan Madrid, 6km of the M-30 beltway have been recently driven underground to be replaced by the Parque de Manzanares, 500,000 sq. meters of landscaped greenery in southwestern Madrid that the Mayor calls a "giant green carpet."

THE VISIONARY MAYOR

The success of Madrid as one the world's foremost green cities is directly attributed to the astute leadership of Madrid's Mayor, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, who has become affectionately known by the locals as "The Pharaoh" just for the sheer size and audacity of his visionary infrastructure projects. Mayor Ruiz-Gallardón is one of Europe's most popular politicians and easily won the last election winning 34 out of the 57 seats.

"The Mayor," states Mr. Narkiewicz-Laine, "is a modern-day Daniel Burnham with the same 'make no little plans' civic ventures and civic aspirations. He has determined that his city, the combination or stunning old and new architecture and feel-good contemporary in all of Europe," continues Mr. Narkiewicz-Laine, "one cannot find a more spectacular and agreeable green urban setting than Plaza Mayor, Plaza de Santa Ana, or Plaza de Oriente. Throw in such outstanding city parks (the Parque del Buen Retiro, in particular) and areas such as Chueca, Malsaña, Lavapiés, and Salamanca, which have their own enduring green and truly urban personalities, and you understand the dynamics of how a city harmoniously coexists and benefits from its open green spaces."

"The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre are proud to bestow this Award to the City of Madrid," states Mr. Narkiewicz-Laine.

The Green GOOD DESIGN Award will be presented to Mayor Ruiz-Gallardón at The European Prize for Architecture Black-Tie Dinner on November 5, 2010 during both institutions' "The City and the World: Madrid Symposium."

"The City and The World" Symposium runs in Madrid from November 4-7, 2010.

Art & architecture

Spanish architecture firm A-cero presents its new house: a built set of volumes and sheets combined as a perfect play that mixes the limits between art and architecture.

According to A-cero aesthetics, modern projecting, blocks and plates define the design of this residential project with sculptural references.

Image courtesy A-cero

Image courtesy A-cero

The house is located in Las Rozas, one of the wealthiest towns of Madrid. The dwelling's plot has a surface of 1.368m2 with a light slope that A-cero has used in order to adapt the building's three floors: basement, ground floor and first floor.

The building's surface is 762,47m2.

Image courtesy A-cero

Image courtesy A-cero

The pedestrian access takes place by the ground floor where are located the most social rooms (living room, lounge and dining room) in the right side of the house. In the left side are the following rooms: a bathroom, cleaning room, a courtyard, kitchen – office, a larder and a cleaning room. In this level is also a porch that communicates with the dining room. An interior stair and an elevator communicate this level with the basement and the first floor.

Image courtesy A-cero

The first floor has 273,46m2 and includes the following rooms: two children bedrooms with dressing-rooms, bathrooms and a living room; a guests’ bedroom with bathroom; the main bedroom with two dressing-rooms and bathroom; a study that he communicates with a footbridge – library (to which also one gains access from the main bedroom) and two small courtyards.

The basement includes facility quarters, storage room, quarter of implements for the garden and bicycles, interior swimming pool, gymnasium, sauna, massages room, cinema room and cellar.

Image courtesy A-cero

The housing is provided with two swimming pools and two jacuzzi (for exterior and interior)
Interiors stand out for their diaphanous distribution. It is a comfortable and habitable dwelling with ample areas.

Image courtesy A-cero

The beige marble with the wait walls and roofs produce a lot of clarity and luminosity in interiors.

Furthermore, these colours create a spaciousness sensation in the house. Design, functionality and quality are the main concepts that have established this house´s design where elegance, modernity and simplicity stand out according to A-cero´s architecture.

+ Project credits / data

Project: House in Las Rozas
Design: A-cero
Location: Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain
Surface: 762,47m2
Program: House

+ All images and description courtesy A-cero