The Building Services of the Juan de la Cierva Trust

Abstract

The Juan de la Cierva Trust headquarters building, located in Madrid, is a great example of the outstanding Spanish architecture after the national Civil War, and reflects the situation of Spanish architecture and technology in the 40’s, a desire to advance with not many material or economical resources, with ambition and by using the technical knowledge of what was being done abroad, and how it could be launched in Spain. Spain was recovering in the technological and architectural fields, and the building was intended as a revolution compared to others constructed shortly before. However, the architects did not fully master the new stylistic tools (although they knew of them), so the HVAC technology and the solar passive design are of primary importance in the designing of the building. The article will describe the main architectural aspects including its history and the biography of the architects, the technological building systems and the solar design, concluding on how this knowledgecould be use nowadays.