In his book Toward an Architecture, Le Corbusier made a surprising comparison between the Greek temples of Paestum, in Italy, and a car manufactured in 1907. For him, the ancient sites and the mass production of vehicles reflected similar design processes—of continuous improvement with each subsequent model better than the one that preceded it. The purists of the time took issue and piled on Le Corbusier with their critiques. Who could have imagined that 99 years later, this heterodox way of thinking about design would still have remarkable power and relevance.
Enter: Plutarco, an architectural firm helmed by Ana Arana and Enrique Ventosa, whose latest project builds on Le Corbusier’s insight. The #VLLN3 house, as Ana and Enrique have baptized it, reflects a variety of references and influences. The firm’s masterful redesign of the space also reflects that moment of transition in the ’50s, when midcentury aesthetics gave way to Space Age ones. Who better than Plutarco, a Madrid firm included on AD España’s AD100 List, to continue that timeless and eclectic spirit that Le Corbusier embodied.
The project is located in Madrid’s Concepción neighborhood, famous for the blocks of apartments featured in Pedro Almodóvar’s film What Have I Done to Deserve This? Today it is one of the most populated and congested areas of the capital, where the M-30 ring road encircling Madrid sits beyond the city center on a frontier that may appear sterile at first glance.