Architects: Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation: Andres Jaque Architects
Photographs: Miguel de Guzmán
City: Madrid
Country: Spain
Escaravox, a public performance space by Andrés Jaque Architects at Matadero Madrid, enhances the former slaughterhouse with adaptable mobile structures. Equipped with sound, lighting, and audiovisual systems, these structures support various events and operate on a booking system. Using affordable materials like irrigation systems and greenhouse fabrics, the project repurposes everyday elements for creative new uses, exploring “queer” applications of technology in public cultural spaces.
The project aims to equip Matadero Madrid, a former city slaughterhouse now redefined as a “public space for contemporary culture with views on the river,” with the material infrastructure and institutional protocols necessary to connect different cultural intervention models. The design introduces various large-span mobile structures fitted with sound amplification, stage lighting, and audiovisual projection systems. These, along with sliding stands, create flexible auxiliary structures to support public performances in the open spaces of the old abattoir.
The use of these facilities would follow a booking system similar to municipal tennis courts, where they are reserved by the hour. The infrastructure’s materiality is based on an unconventional assembly of low-cost elements such as irrigation systems, Almería greenhouse fabrics, and cheap plastic chairs. This approach repurposes existing technologies in ways different from their original intent, reflecting a process of technological reappropriation. The design explores the potential for “queer” uses of available systems, adapting everyday components for new, creative functions.
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Project Location
Address: Matadero Madrid, Plaza de Legazpi 8, Arganzuela, 28045 Madrid, Spain
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
