Digiespace Co-Working Centre, Madrid

Conceived as an ecosystem for the IT sector, where companies and individuals can generate synergies, this coworking centre transforms the former headquarters where Bombardier manufactured and repaired train fronts in Alcobendas, Madrid, into a collaborative workspace that does not hide its industrial past. A warehouse dating from the 1980s and spanning more than 3,000 m2, which the architect Carlota Manzano, from the Carlos Manzano Arquitectos studio, has converted into a 4.0, smart, efficient, and sustainable building.

After meetings and activities organised with leaders and users, and considering the company’s philosophy, the architects have designed a hybrid space that combines ‘solo’ areas with others known as ‘team’ and ‘collective’ spaces. This is a place where innovation, comfort and work coexist under agile standards, adapting to its new use without foregoing its original essence.

Original structures, such as the crane or the ladders used by the operators to work on the upper parts of the machines, are combined with new additions, such as the curtain wall that allows natural light to enter, the socialising area, the raised platform that, taking advantage of the sheer height of the building, allows greater a density of people, or the polycarbonate boxes that frame the rooms that require more privacy.