The industrial heritage as text and pretext for contemporary architecture

ABSTRACT The recovery of industrial heritage poses design challenges that are not always easy to solve. In many cases, it remains as a meaningless skeleton, unrelated to the urban life of today's metropolises The work describes the recovery of the old Mediodía power plant of Madrid, in the so-called golden triangle of art identified by the Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum the national museum Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Its recovery and transformation in CaixaForumMadrid by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have meant a milestone in modern architecture in the city. The intervention is a term of reference for the recovery of the building heritage, demonstrating how the need for pre-existence protection may become a pretext for contemporary architecture. The use of contemporary construction technologies and materials has preserved the original beauty of the heavy solid brick facades and has detaches the construction from the ground in apparent defiance of the laws of gravity. The former power station has once again become one of the city's most popular sites, attracting tourists and visitors alike for the impressive architecture of the converted building and the many exhibitions and cultural events that take place there.