Thermal Power Plant of the University City in Madrid

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Asset of Cultural Interest in the Industrial Site category

The thermal power plant was built in the 30s, intended to house the facilities in charge of supplying heating to the various buildings of the University City. At that time, it represented a great industrial advance as a pioneering example of the use of the central heating system, unprecedented and innovative in the national territory, following North American models.

Likewise, from a construction point of view, the building is also one of the most significant examples of rationalist and avant-garde architecture prior to the Civil War, which earned it the National Architecture Prize in 1932.

Historic context

The thermal power plant is part of the University City project in Madrid that began
to develop in the twenties of the last century. Alfonso

Architects from the so-called Generation of 25 worked on it: Miguel de los Santos, Agustín Aguirre, Manuel Sánchez Arcas, Luis Lacasa and Pascual Bravo, advised and guided by the engineer Eduardo Torroja and headed by the director architect of the Madrid School of Architecture , Modesto López Otero.

Taking the North American campus model, the University City, in addition to being a pioneer in Europe, ended up consolidating itself as the great gateway and showcase of the European Modern Movement.

The University City project was carried out in different phases, with the execution of urban planning and infrastructure being carried out first. One of the last actions during this phase was the development of a heat supply network connected between a generating station and all the university buildings. This centralized heating was a very innovative aspect of the project, due to its advantages in operation, economy and good administration. It was a model imported after arduous research into current American systems and methodology.

The engineer Eduardo Torroja Miret and the architect Manuel Sánchez Arcas worked together on the design and construction of the thermal power plant that was built in 1932, obtaining the National Architecture Prize, and was inaugurated in 1943. In 1975, Alfonso García Gordillo carried out an extension of the property.

The Thermal Power Plant: Asset of Cultural Interest

Description of the property BIC

The thermal power plant has a gallery network distribution of approximately 9.500 meters, and a total of twelve substations distributed among the different buildings on campus. This independent and centralized system took as a reference those executed in the United States, specifically the Harvard Power House and the Berkeley Heating Plant.
Machinery: The space housed two Velox diesel boilers and a Borsig coal boiler. After the 1975 expansion, the power system was replaced with natural gas. The boilers are kept inside the property along with tanks, equipment and mechanical and electrical panels. The vehicle scale and the coal hopper are also preserved outside.
Among the architectural features of the building it is worth highlighting its simple and simple volumes, the absence of ornament with the nakedness of exposed brick and concrete, and aspects such as repetition by serialization, the flat roof or the separation of the buildings from the road. It is therefore one of the most innovative pieces of the university complex with resonances of Dutch rationalist architecture and some influence of the concepts promoted by the Group of Spanish Artists and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture.