Architects: Ignacio Borrego, Carlos Chacón, and José de Villar
Collaborators: Marina Morgan y Álvaro Quintanar
Renderings: Glassred Studio
Client: Empresa Municipal de Transporte de Madrid
A MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS
Can a museum be built that is open to the city and its citizens?
In 1947, André Malraux wondered what a Museum Without Walls might look like. In his text, he developed the idea of how everyday objects, familiar to his contemporaries, become symbols that reinforce museum spaces, transforming the nature of the exhibited objects, revaluing them for society, but at the same time distancing them from the ordinary lives of citizens. Let us imagine a National Library with free access or a Prado Museum transparent to its urban surroundings.
We believe that a museum dedicated to the history of Madrid’s public transportation could open itself to the exterior and become part of street life. A museum that does not treasure works of art, but rather a heritage that belongs to all of us, to our collective memory. It is a place to preserve and understand a history that belongs to the life of this city, its streets and its inhabitants, while at the same time becoming a space to remember the history of our families and our culture.
Our proposal for housing these vehicles, which have been such an important part of everyday life, moves away from the concept of an exclusive museum in order to become inclusive. Therefore, we believe it should remain connected to the neighborhood in which it is located and, by extension, to the entire city. Its envelope opens transparently at street level and presents this cultural asset beneath a welcoming perimeter overhang.
A THRESHOLD BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE RIVERBANK
We find ourselves in an attractive urban location beside the Manzanares River. This dual condition — between the urban fabric and the linear park of Madrid Río — transforms this permeable museum into a transitional space that seeks to become part of the riverside green area.
In this way, the EMT Museum would not only function as a cultural center focused on collective transportation, but also as a shaded structure extending the reach of green spaces toward the public street. The park’s trees will grow larger in the near future and contribute to making this museum an extension of their canopies, leaving the lower level free and shaded beneath them.
A MUSEUM THAT NEVER CLOSES
The main hall housing the visitable collection of buses is the heart of the museum. The different parts of the museum program are organized around it. This hall is located on the ground floor in continuity with the street and the park, and thanks to its double height it is visible both from the street and from the upper floor.
Since the museum is open to the city, the visit begins before entering, and it is possible to enjoy the bus exhibition at any time of day and on any day of the year because visitors can freely walk around it. Once inside, visitors encounter the access control area and the beginning of the museum route, consisting of a two-level itinerary that enriches the experience by allowing the buses to be observed from nearby, from inside, and also from above along walkways that simultaneously serve the rest of the uses located on the upper floor.
Access both to the building and to the main hall is intuitive and direct because the exhibited buses are always visible to visitors. The visit begins at the level of the buses and continues via a staircase that allows the route to be retraced from an upper level. Access to the museum’s additional areas is located on the main floor, accessible via stairs and elevators from the lobby.
The main floor places the more open and continuous uses on the western side facing the riverbank, while the more compartmentalized uses are oriented toward the more urban eastern side. The elevated height of this floor establishes a more direct and pleasant relationship with Madrid Río, since the riverside itself is also elevated approximately six meters above the site. In this way, the program on the main floor is positioned at the level of the riverbank.
The ring of uses on the main floor overlooks both the exterior and the central bus exhibition space. Thus, the bus collection is present in every room of the museum. This organization allows the opening and closing of the different parts of the program to be managed independently without affecting the rest.
Below ground level is the program that does not necessarily require a direct relationship with the surroundings or may even benefit from isolation. The non-visitable bus collection, specific museum functions that could benefit from darkness (virtual activities, simulators, or certain exhibitions), and technical installations are located on this lower level.
A VARIABLE ENVELOPE
The main bus hall, including the entrance area, is a climatically independent double-height space. Its large dimensions in both area and height suggest the use of radiant floor heating to provide comfort conditions in the lower zone, while the rest of the volume remains semi-conditioned. This reduces heating and cooling costs both in winter and summer.
The main floor forms a ring with dual orientation toward both the exterior and the central bus exhibition space. In this way, the main bus collection is present throughout all museum uses.
Lighting for the central hall is provided and controlled through skylights in the roof, ensuring natural light while reducing overheating during the summer period. The remaining rooms on the upper level, exposed to all orientations, are equipped with retractable vertical blinds that can extend to shade the façade, creating a ventilated air cushion.
This may occur depending on the time of day, especially during summer afternoons on west-facing façades, but also automatically according to cloud movement, ensuring maximum natural lighting, spatial quality, and prevention of overheating caused by the greenhouse effect.
The relationship between the program arranged in the perimeter ring of the main floor around the central bus exhibition courtyard allows cross ventilation in all rooms during warm periods, using the skylights as chimneys for warmer air.
A SINGLE STRUCTURE
If we interpret this site as a transition between a natural and an urban environment, and consider the rectangular shape of the plot, a clear order emerges. However, the turning paths of the buses introduce an additional geometric pattern that must be integrated into a single spatial system.
A bidirectional grid of deep beams organizes a spatial structure that frees up a large open space. From this structure hangs the slab of the main floor. Only a series of columns reaches the ground, allowing visual permeability as well as the movement of visitors and buses.
The beam structure and slabs are proposed in laminated timber to lighten and speed up industrialized construction while contributing to the reduction of environmental impact. At the same time, the timber is intended to provide a certain warmth to the light passing through the roof skylights into an interior where the buses are the protagonists.
The columns and tension rods on the main floor are planned in steel to make possible their slender dimensions, allowing continuity of the floor plan and its connection with the exterior.
A CIRCULAR INTERVENTION
The proposed structure has a low environmental impact for several reasons. On the one hand, the execution of the vast majority of structural elements and timber partitions results in a positive balance in terms of carbon footprint. The remaining metallic elements have a greater impact but are reusable and recyclable.
The above-ground structure can be easily dismantled and reused. However, materiality is not the only sustainable strategy; the generic geometry also adapts flexibly to other uses. The EMT Museum is housed within a large open structure that, due to its spaciousness and openness, can be adapted to other functions without significant modifications.
This same spatial structure could, for example, accommodate a sports center, with courts in the central space and gym rooms and other uses on the upper floor.
When assessing the sustainability of a building, one should consider not only the impact of its construction and maintenance, but also its ability to adapt to new uses, thus avoiding future interventions that would increase environmental impact.
The large roof provides protection to the interior space and may be occupied by thermal solar panels and, above all, photovoltaic panels contributing to the building’s energy supply, enabling it to achieve net-zero energy consumption.
