A pharmacy in Madrid, Héctor Fernandéz Elorza

The Spanish architect, Héctor Fernandéz Elorza has designed a pharmacy in Madrid whose unusual modular façade fits into the urban context like a decorative element. Really eye-catching, smart solutions to respond to the problem of unwanted graffiti.


Héctor Fernandéz Elorza, known to our readers for his work on the Chapel of Carceres saw the project for a ground floor pharmacy in a corner building in the Carabanchel district of Madrid as an opportunity to reflect on the importance of public decorations to prevent vandalism and unauthorised graffiti.
He designed the interior of the 120 square-metre pharmacy as a “white room”, giving everything - the shelves, the walls and the lighting - a white hue, in line with its intended use but the real linchpin of the project is on the outside.
The clients wanted to do something about the frequent problem of unwanted graffiti, with writers using the façade as a canvass. The architect responded by painting it black - a terrible background colour - and breaking it up with large rectangular windows covered by grey metal sliding blinds. By developing these sliding blinds instead of the traditional pull-down shutters the architect has given the exterior an artistic touch because the blinds are decorated with letters cut diagonally into the metal to reference the pharmacy's offers. These letters become small openings onto the interior when the blinds cover the windows and close the façade. When they're open, the letters hide the black wall between the windows, elegantly fitting the pharmacy into the urban context.
With his design idea - as simple as it is attractive - Héctor Fernandéz Elorza, photographed by Montse Zamorano, gives the pharmacy two façades, dominated by transparency and metal during the day, darker and sealed up at night, and if anyone still decides to take a spray can of paint, all it needs is a few brush strokes of black paint to cover it all up again

Christiane Bürklein

Architect: Héctor Fernández Elorza
Collaborators: Violeta Ordoñez Manjón (Architect), Javier Estebala (Architecture Student), Clara González (Architecture Student), Rubén Mejías (Architecture Student), Carlos Moya (Architecture Student), Gonzalo Rojas (Architecture Student), Miguel Ruiz-Rivas (Architecture Student), María Risueño Domínguez (Architecture Student)
Site: Calle Ronda Don Bosco 20 28044 Madrid
Year: 2015
Promoter: Carlos López Humbrías
Constructor: Serviteco SL
Built surface: 120 m2
Pictures: Montse Zamorano