recycling plant
Cañada Real, Madrid, Spain 2ooo
Recycling plant for urban waste. Competition for design, construction and exploitation. In collaboration with Tecmed
Area: 15,000 m2

client: Vertresa-RWE Process, Ayuntamiento de Madrid / architecture: Abalos & Herreros / prject directors: Iñaki Ábalos, Juan Herreros, Ángel Jaramillo / project team: Aurelie Beriot, Ángel Borrego, Cristina Díaz, David Franco, Mª Auxiliadora Gálvez, Rafael Hernández, Efrén García-Grinda / landscaping: Fernando Valero / structure: Obiol y Moya / installations: José María Cruz, Pedro José Blanco /



The recycling plant brings together a heterodox rubbish selecting and processing complex, storage, workshops and offices, all beneath a vast green inclined roof...

...which echoes the gravitational nature of the process as well as the original hillside on which it sits, a hillside “put back” by making use of the compound produced. Its volume is wrapped in recycled polycarbonate, which unifies the different programs and incorporates a museum area with a display intended to encourage people’s environmental awareness. The green roof, the polycarbonate, the lightweight bolted structure and the set of interior facings manifest this spirit, forming a constructional system that shows the greater environmental commitment that can be currently obtained using techniques available on the market.
The facility has a working life of 25 years. After that time it can be recycled as an amenity for the Regional Park or be dismantled by recycling its components..