The Val_Verde project will transform the CLESA factory, the work of Alejandro de la Sota, into a Life Sciences research center, with spaces for companies, research, and knowledge exchange.

The building is a benchmark in 20th-century architecture and its intervention will be led by the renowned architect Carlos Rubio Carvajal, director of the Rubio Arquitectura studio. The rehabilitation will be respectful of the architectural heritage, adapting the complex to a different use than the industrial one for which it was conceived.
The project team, represented by Kadans Science Partner, will carry out the rehabilitation of the Clesa factory by the prestigious architecture studio Rubio Arquitectura.

Val-Verde proposes a new space linked to its urban environment where scientific research and innovation in the field of life sciences will be present thanks to the relationship with the nearby Ramón y Cajal Hospital, the La Paz Hospital, and the Autonomous University from Madrid, which has lent its support to this project.

The project also includes spaces that seek to respond to the needs of entrepreneurs in the Fuencarral-El Pardo neighborhood through a multipurpose co-working center and business cradle in which to incorporate content and events that cover different interests of the residents of the neighborhood.
 

Description of project by Rubio Arquitectura

The old Clesa factory, located in the Fuencarral-El Pardo district (Madrid) and currently in a state of abandonment, will become in 2024 a center dedicated to the sciences and cultures of life. An innovative combination of research space on health sciences, coworking open to the community, a center for cultural creation, and a conference venue. An unprecedented environment in which to work, learn, listen, investigate and build creative bridges between science and culture, which will also allow us to highlight one of the icons of 20th-century industrial architecture, created by Alejandro de la Sota. An environmentally and economically sustainable project since its opening.

The Val-verde project has been the winner of the 2021 Reinventing Cities call, promoted by the C40 network, which includes the 97 cities that generate 25% of the world GDP. Reinventing Cities aims to promote projects that develop innovative solutions in sustainability, community integration, and the fight against climate change.

Val-verde aims to create a revolutionary space for the exchange and generation of knowledge, with more than 10,500 m2 for research in medicine and biotechnology, a congress center for more than 500 people, a multipurpose co-working space aimed at attracting scientific talent, and a cultural center of more than 1,000 m2. It will be an ecosystem open to the scientific and cultural community, articulated through alliances with national institutions, such as the one established with the Autonomous University of Madrid, and international scope.
 
Additionally, Val-verde aims to highlight an icon of industrial architecture: the Clesa factory, a building designed by one of the great Spanish architects of the 20th century, Alejandro de la Sota, currently in a state of abandonment. The rehabilitation is proposed as an exercise of respect for the architectural heritage, guaranteeing its conservation, and maintaining the essence, the spaces, and the constructive elements that characterize this unique building.
 
An economically and environmentally sustainable project.-

Val-Verde proposes a new space by its urban environment where scientific research and innovation in the field of life sciences will be present thanks to the relationship with the nearby Ramón y Cajal Hospital, the La Paz Hospital, and the Autonomous University from Madrid, which has lent its support to this project.

Recovering an existing building, finding a new use for it, is in itself an exercise in environmental responsibility. In addition, Valverde will be a center that will be self-financed, will not depend on public funds, and will be economically sustainable from its opening.

It will also be a knowledge factory where activities with a large component of value generation will be developed. This new project will bring science to Madrid, visitors, and the general public, through a cultural center that was born with an innovative spirit to offer experiences that bring science closer to the general public.

The project also includes spaces that seek to respond to the needs of associations and entrepreneurs in the Fuencarral-El Pardo neighborhood through a multipurpose co-working center and business incubator in which to incorporate content and events that cover different interests of the residents of the neighborhood.

In addition, Val-verde aims to be a reference in sustainable urban development by incorporating innovative solutions in the use of energy and water, the reduction of the carbon footprint, waste management, or the impact on the urban environment.

The promoters of the Val-Verde Project.-

The Madrid City Council and the Dutch Kadans Science Partner form the public-private alliance that allows the materialization of this project. Through a concession contract, Kadans Science Partner will carry out the entire investment of recovery and adaptation of the factory and will manage this space during its exploitation period.

Kadans Science Partner is a Dutch company, present in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany that promotes, invests, and manages Research centers with laboratories and clean rooms. These centers are developed in collaboration with universities, public organizations, and private corporations. Kadans has a portfolio of 27 buildings totaling nearly 280,000m2 and is in the process of expanding in Europe.

To carry out this project, Kadans Science Partner will hire teams of external specialists who have participated in the development of the Val-verde proposal: Rubio Arquitectura (Carlos Rubio Carvajal), ERM Iberia, Aecom, Gleeds, La Fábrica, Ale Estudio, and the Garrigues office. Metrovacesa will be hired to manage the construction process.

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Project team
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Architect.- Rubio Arquitectura. Others.- La Fabrica, Ale Estudio, Metrovacesa, Gleeds, Garrigues. Team representative.- Kadans Science Partner. Environmental expert.- Aecom, ERM Iberia SAU.
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Area
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Solar area.- 10,940 sqm.
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Location
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Av del Cardenal Herrera Oria, 67, 28034 Madrid.
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Carlos Rubio Carvajal is an architect from Madrid with more than 30 years of professional experience.

His works include the SyV Tower in the set of Cuatro Torres Business Area of ​​the Castellana in Madrid, the Indra headquarters in Alcobendas and Torrejón de Ardoz, a Tower in Isla de Chamartín, the remodeling of the Scope of the Cebada Market, the Madrid Río landscape intervention integrated into the M-Río team and the Partial Plan of the Mahou-Vicente Calderón area in Madrid.

He has obtained among others the Veronica Rudge Green Award by Harvard University in 2015, the Green Urban Planning / Landscape Architecture Award 2013, the International Architecture Award 2012. The Chicago Athenaeum, the FAD Award 2012 Architecture and Landscape, the Plus award 2012, the Urban Design and International Landscaping Award (CICA) at the XIII Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial 2011, the Madrid Award 2011 from the College of Civil Engineers, Canals and Ports, the COAM Distinction for the Work of Architects 2009, 2011 and 2012, the COAM Award for Architecture 1989, the Madrid City Council Award for New Construction 1992 and 2006, the Award from the Basque Navarro College of Architects 1999, the City of Alcalá de Henares Award for Architecture 2003, selected at the Architecture Biennial of Venice of 2004, Asprima awards 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2012 and the Anthological Prize of Contemporary Architecture in Castilla-La Mancha 2006.
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Alejandro de la Sota (Pontevedra, 1913; Madrid 1996) is one of the greatest masters of  the Spanish Architecture of the 20th Century. He was a professor at the School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM),  serving its trail as a reference for several  generations of Spanish architects.

During the thirties, he moved from his home town Pontevedra to Madrid where he started his studies in the Faculty of Mathematics, which was a necessary condition to enter in the School of Architecture. Once he got his degree in Architecture in 1941, he spent the first years of his professional life working for the National Institute of Colonization; a stage that ended up with the construction of the village of Esquivel (Sevilla, 1952-1963) and Arvesú House(Madrid, 1953-1955, demolished). Since then, he participated in different competitions, following the same idea as he did in his previous work, the Civil Government of Tarragona (1957-1964). This building has been considered by many people his first masterpiece. During this prolific period he did several projects of modern industrial architecture, such as Clesa Dairy Plant (Madrid, 1958-1961) and CENIM premises in the Campus of the University(Madrid, 1963-1965) and he also built his most recognized and admired work, the Gymnasium of Maravillas School (Madrid, 1960-1962); which is considered by the British critic William Curtis, the most significant work of Contemporary Spanish Architecture.

In 1960 he obtained a job as a Government officer at the Post Office, and throughout this decade, he researched  the possibilities that new materials provide and developed several projects based on a constructive approach consisting of the use of prefabricated concrete panels for walls and floors. This idea is shown in Varela’s House in Villalba (Madrid, 1964-1968).

In 1971 he leaves the university education as a professor, coming back to his public service position at the Post Office. During these years he built César Carlos Residence Hall in the Campus of the University (Madrid, 1968-1971), the building for class and lecture rooms of the University of Sevilla (1972-1973) and Guzmán’s House in Santo Domingo ‘s urbanization (Madrid, 1972-1974), in which he tried out issues to be applied afterwards in Domínguez’s House in A Caeira (Pontevedra, 1973-1978).  The Computer Center for the PO Box in La Vaguada (Madrid, 1972-1977) and years later, the Post and Telecommunications Building in León (1981-1984) belongs to a stage where he was completely involved  in light prefabricated techniques.

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