The project for 180 Dance school, seeks to renovate a typical industrial space in the city of Madrid with a very restricted budget. The 1000m2 of dance studios, dressing rooms and offices of the school had been last renovated in the 70s and the space really claimed for a drastic change. We decided to create a new central and public space where the dancers could gather and encounter. This was done by a simple gesture, by emptying the enclosed, dark, private spaces and corridors, opening the ceiling that blinded the gabled roof and tearing down the excessive walls to expose the structure of the building and catch a great amount of natural light.
We also preserved and recycled the old materials and furniture, improving their functionality and beauty, by covering, painting or cleaning them. From the desire to recover and reinvent instead of throwing away, we worked with from a restrained use of just two materials. These are high-density board and corrugated polycarbonate. All the rest of the materials are used, leaving them raw or maintaining and recovering the existing carpentry instead of replacing them. As a great ally of the project, the color applied to walls, floors and ceilings complements, unifies and generated attractive and functional spaces.
The result is a fresh and colored space that talks about the past and about the future of the school. The project defines the spirit of 180DANZA, an artistic extension of the contemporary dance classes taught by its teachers that has today became an active, cultural and versatile space.

180DANZA is not just a dance school but also a home. A home for dancers who are looking for a place to train and to grow as professionals as well as human beings. They spend a lot of time rehearsing and living together in the school, which is also a collective lounge, dining room, living room or kitchen ...
That is why the project proposes a hybridization between the domestic and the artistic that extends to the urban and cultural realm. This way, a one function space is transformed into an inclusive, active and open space for citizens.
Dance is understood as a way to communicate and relate between people. The new open central space of the school welcomes today art, culture and diverse social profiles. The school operates as an urban node where children, teenagers, young people, adults and elderly meet and learn. The space remains open to the street and connects with it, gathering not only dancers, but all those who accompany, wait, ask questions or just walk by,