Embedded in the Madrid cityscape along the Manzanares River, Casa de America faces two opposing conditions. On the one hand, the cultural program requires an open groundplane that connects the two sides of the building. On the other hand, the project must preserve the integrity of façade continuity along Paseo de la Florida and Calle de Aniceto Marinas.

This seeming paradox gave birth to the concept of “building within a building’’, two architectural realities entangled within one another. While the core mass provides the main program space for the cultural institution, between the façade and the core lies a ring of gallery promenade. The liminality of the in-between ring dissolves at the ground level, where the body of the buiding recedes and gives way for a generous foyer connecting two sides of the building.