Madrid, Spain 

Led by Carlos Lamela and Estudio Lamela Arquitectos, the Canalejas Operation is one of the most significant urban redevelopment projects undertaken in Europe in recent times. 

Located on the corner square Calle Alcalá and Calle Sevilla, the Monument to Maestro Alonso in Madrid, the project encompasses the restoration of seven historic buildings, two of them from the end of the 19th-Century, which were merged as a result of the different bank mergers and that was in disuse for 15 years, ever since the movement of the financial center to the outskirts of the city. 

The objective of the project was to create a complex with different uses: a luxury hotel operated by the Four Seasons chain with 200 rooms, an exclusive retail area of 15,000 m2, 22 luxury homes, and a parking garage for 400 spaces.

Over time, continuous reforms made it possible to merge the programs as part of the bank mergers, which would eventually become the property of Banco Santander. 

This is how a unique complex turned out, communicated internally.

Later, with the creation of the Financial City located in Boadilla del Monte, the bank moved its headquarters and left the complex in 2000. 

After twelve years, the complex, due to its large dimensions and with different levels of urban protection, remained unoccupied. 

In 2012, when the project came into the hands of Estudio Lamela, the spaces had been greatly altered and few were the areas that remained in good condition.

The criterion that governed the project was to respect everything that has historical or artistic value in the original buildings.

Estudio Lamela recovered the buildings with the intervention of a mixture of original uses that had been dissolving over time, adding the hotel program. In the same way, the recovery of roofs and patios, revitalizing their use, is at the hands of the studio.

The office on the second floor is the only space that is restored in-situ, due to its relevant historical and protective character. 

That is why Estudio Lamela was given the task of preparing a catalog to collect all the elements that were of interest, beyond those that were protected. 

This action made it possible to recover and integrate elements into the project that allowed the building’s history to be maintained.

Thus, the facades and the first bays of two of the oldest buildings will be conserved and restored, as well as various elements of the interior: skylights, metalwork, and wood joinery. 

All this has been repositioned and integrated into the building in its final state, contributing an added value to the new grouping.

The geometry that serves as the basis for the overall development of the project is a classical, radial geometry with an axis of symmetry in the bisector that shapes the building on Alcalá 14 and extends to the rest of the buildings. 

The creation of a large inner courtyard for ventilation and natural lighting to all floors is planned, along with another one of a smaller size intended to illuminate certain areas of the hotel, such as the spa.

The construction of three new floors set back in a part of the building replaced the existing penthouses in the different buildings with new facades that respect the individual architectural composition of each of the buildings, in order to maintain the identity of each one of them, minimize the visual impact of the intervention and preserve the original urban scale.

The consideration of the roof as a fifth facade seeks the integration of the same within the urban fabric of the city, as well as the incorporation of green areas that provide vegetation to the Central Zone of Madrid.

Project: Centro Canalejas Madrid 
Architects: Estudio Lamela Arquitectos
Interior Architects: BAMO and BG Arquitectura (for the Four Seasons)
Residential Architects: Luis Bustamante
Restaurant Architects: Martin Brudnizki
Structural Engineers: MC2
Lighting Designers: Anoche Iluminación Arquitectónica
General Contractor: Obrascon Huarte Lain S.A.
Developer: Centro Canalejas Madrid, S.L. – Represented by Francisco Meliá Fullana
Clients: OHL Desarrollos, Inmobiliaria Espacio y Mohari Limited.
Photographers: Rafael Vargas and Daniel Schafer