False alarm in one of the most unclassifiable constructions of the urban landscape of Madrid. The Vallecas 20 Building, also known as the Black Tower of Vallecas, will retain the characteristic ash color of its facade. Some media collected that the block rehabilitation process, located in the urban development of Valdecarros (in the Ensanche of Vallecas), will culminate with a chromatic modification. Finally, it won’t be so.
In this way, the reform of this mamotreto with 74 meters high and 22 plants on its highest flank (attached to another wider by other homes that work as a bridge) acts actually to improve the insulation. That is why operators of the Ferrovial construction company have removed the so recognizable zinc plates on some walls, which will be replaced or replaced by similar appearance when the update of the insulating material ends. Thus, the multicolored appearance presented in recent weeks will be passenger.
He confirms it in conversation with Somos Madrid Emi, owner of one of the 132 floors that the tower houses: “It will be the same. They are changing interior protection to change it to a new one, but the appearance will be the same. ” The resident gives more details about the reason for the performance: she states that the insulator of the block was very similar to that of the building that burned in València in February 2024.
At first it transpired that the facade ravaged by the flames in that fire, which left ten fatalities, was covered with a flammable material that facilitated the spread of fire: the polyurethane. Subsequent expert reports indicated, however, the insulating material listed in the building’s book was the rock wool, although the insulating panels inside the ventilated facade could contain the highly fuel polymer.
The construction of Vallecas 20 ended in 2010 and began in 2006, the same year as the Valencia building. This is, prior to the entry into force of the Technical Building Code (CTE), the current regulations governing the buildings. In turn, in 2019, the demands of the CTE were increased following a similar fire in London, including new demands regarding the materials and ventilated facades. Neither the Ferrovial construction company nor the company that owns the property, the Nestar Fund, have answered the questions translated by this newspaper about the works that are being undertaken.
Of awarded public housing to a vulture fund
Beyond its (not so) new stamp, the history of the black tower is that of a change of model in Madrid. As EMI confirms to this newspaper, its 132 homes are part of the 1,860 social rental floors that the municipal housing and land company in Madrid (EMVS) sold to the Blackstone Buitre fund for 128.5 million euros.
A maneuver undertaken by the municipal government of Ana Botella in 2013 that, under the pretext of guaranteeing the economic solvency of EMVs, ended with 18 promotions of public lease and lease with the right to purchase in the hands of the companies Fidre Management and Fidere Housing (now renamed as testa residence). That is, in the hands of subsidiaries of the Blackstone Buitre background.
It was there that this promotion ended after an investment of 6.7 million by the town hall of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. Now the background that manages it has been renamed the aforementioned Nestar, which was previously Lazora and before Azora. It is the same entity that according to the tenant union and a hundred affected have applied abusive increases of rentals or other rates in different areas of Vallecas, while not attending neighborhood claims regarding maintenance or rehabilitation of buildings.
Located on Pilar de Madariaga Red Street, the Black Tower was designed by the study of Entresitio architects, by the Maria and José María Hurtado de Mendoza brothers. A risky and controversial design that deservesThe prestigious Nan Architecture Prize in 2010 in the category of best residential construction. The then General Housing Coordinator of the Madrid City Council, Juan José de Gracia, proclaimed that this recognition demonstrated how protected housing could also be an architectural reference of quality. A reference that later the Popular Party Executive decided to part.
Owners who feel fortunate, tenants who think about leaving
Emi bought his floor after all this operation, in 2017, when he was already in private hands. “When there was no one left of the people who entered during the era of affordable rent,” he says. The neighbor is considered a privileged, since she has her house in property. “More than 70% of the floors in the block are rentals, which are no longer protected, but at market price.”
This is the case of Álex and Montse, who have been in the building for four years. They walk their dog in the immediate vicinity of a tower that seems out of any fantasy film (and specifically from the scenes they present to the villain), but for them it is their home. At least for the moment, since they confess that they are looking for “something else.”
Although they are not so up to date with the history of the place, they do agree that the reform “is not so much aesthetic and to improve isolation.” “What has come to us is that the facade will leave it the same, but as we are for rent, they have not informed us much,” explains Alex.
This couple thought that the reason was to stop humidity and other incidents of lower draft, they say they have not heard anything about the issue of flammable materials: “Being not owners do not give us info. They do not respond to us for a humidity in our own home, so that these things are told us … ” Regarding the property of the property, at the moment they have not uploaded the monthly payments, but they have noticed that in the block some mobilization begins to be deployed due to possible abusive rentals.
This newspaper has consulted EMVS both about the sale of the building and on the possible flammable materials used to cover the facade. On this last issue, they point out that “at the time we tried to look, but it was a work of archeology and it was concluded that current regulations have been fulfilled at all times.”
#black #tower #Vallecas #color #turning #white #avoid #fires #affordable
