20 Years 20 Buildings: Casa del Labrador, Aranjuez

Today we present a very unique project of great interest from the heritage rehabilitation point of view: the consolidation of the foundations and structure of La Casa del Labrador, in Aranjuez.

 

It is a neoclassical recreational mansion, located in the gardens of the Prince, in the Royal Site of Aranjuez, designed by the architects Juan de Villanueva and Isidro Velázquez. The original construction of the building dates from 1790, and it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1931.

 

Patrimonio Nacional, the institution responsible for its conservation and management, began an emergency intervention in 2021 after detecting serious pathologies in its structure, whose deterioration accelerated as a result of the great storm ‘Filomena’.

 

Mecanismo Ingeniería carried out during the years 2021 and 2022 technical assistance work on structures for the design of the project of foundation underpinning and structural consolidation of the building, as well as technical assistance on site, which was executed by the construction company specialized in heritage rehabilitation Kalam.

 

The main action consisted of underpinning the foundation with micropiles, transferring the loads to deeper ground levels with greater capacity. As a complementary action, stitching of masonry walls, reinforcements and replacements of the original structures, etc. were also carried out.

 

In the following link you can see a video with a very detailed explanation of the whole process by the architect responsible for Patrimonio Nacional, Mayte Domínguez

 

Did you know that …. there are 2 families of micropiles, a main one with vertical elements that transfer the loads of the building to a competent ground layer and a secondary one with larger inclined elements that avoid possible horizontal displacements given the location of the building in an old meander of the Tajo River?