Canal de Isabel II Exhibition Hall

PROJECT: Adaptation of the Canal Isabel II Elevated Reservoirs as an Exhibition Hall

The constant northward expansion of Madrid, with increasingly taller buildings, caused water pressure problems in numerous areas. As early as 1900, the engineer Diego Martín Montalvo planned the construction of three elevated reservoirs to address this shortage. However, only one was ever built, designed by Luis Moya Idígoras, and complemented by a pumping station designed by Ramón de Aguinaga. With a capacity of 1,500 m³, the elevated reservoir is an interesting industrial structure of great structural beauty. Constructed of brick on a circular plan with sloping buttresses, it is topped by a shallow metal dome covering the reservoir itself. The pumping station, also made of brick, has a rectangular plan enclosed by large archways. Disused since 1952, the reservoir was converted in 1986 into the Canal de Isabel II Exhibition Hall, following a respectful rehabilitation project by the architects Alau and Lopera that highlighted the extraordinary spatial richness of the interior, dominated by the spectacular metal support structure, the whole being completed with a small auxiliary pavilion attached, the work of the same authors.