MADRID – MARKETS AND ARCHITECTURE

DESCRIPTION – Madrid: Markets and Architecture

This tour focuses on the history and gastronomy in the center of Madrid through markets and gastronomic spaces in which each one joins the architectural and culinary proposal to the urban context in which it is located.

We will start by looking at the Mercado Barceló (Nieto Sobejano, 2015). The plan consists of different projects: the market, a sports center, a library and the Plaza de Santa Barbara. It is conceived as a large container where all spaces are intermingled.

Located in Chueca we find the Mercado San Antón , inaugurated in 1945 by architect Carlos de la Torre y Costa and remodeled in 2008 by Estudio ATARIA. After a detailed analysis of the area, it was decided to use solid tile bricks as mud construction and to pour basalt, a type of volcanic rock never seen before in Madrid, which reinforced the building.

We will continue our tour seeing the Mercado de San Miguel (Alfonso Dubé y Díez, 1916) retains its original iron structure of the early twentieth century. It has two floors and the steel and glass design and high ceilings allow natural light to enter. It receives more than 10 million visitors a year.

In Lavapiés we will see the Mercado de San Fernando (Casto Fernández-Shaw, 1944). The exterior facade is reminiscent of palatial architecture and symbolizes the architecture of the Austrias, very present during Franco’s regime.

Not far away we find the Mercado Antón Martín. The city council commissioned the design to the architect Gonzalo Domínguez Espúñez in 1933 but it was not executed until after the war and was inaugurated in 1941. Later, in the 1950s, it was remodeled.

Next to the central Plaza Colón we will finish our route seeing Platea Madrid, renovated in 2014 and the work of interior designer Lázaro Rosa Violán. What used to be the Carlos III cinema (Luis Gutiérrez Soto, 1952) is today a large gourmet gastronomic space of 5800 square meters that has some Michelin stars within its walls.