Infinite Refuge

A Climate Refuge for Infinito Delicias

In the summer of 2026, Infinito Delicias opened its doors as a Climate Refuge for the Delicias neighbourhood and the Arganzuela district. It is an air-conditioned space, open to all and with no fixed programme, conceived as a community facility: a place to meet, rest, work, read, play or simply spend time during the hottest months of the year. Greenery plays a central role: the complex is conceived as an indoor garden where plants act as a living infrastructure capable of structuring the space, creating distinct atmospheres and contributing to the thermal comfort and environmental quality of the refuge.

This participatory project continues the long-term work that Zuloark, through Ultrazul, has been carrying out with Infinito Delicias for years. Rather than simply considering the building’s physical form, we considered how its content and programme might respond to the desire to create a new kind of cultural institution that connects with its surroundings. The Climate Refuge thus represents a new approach to creating spaces within public institutions, demanding new ways of thinking, designing and inhabiting.

The building material: the philosophy of second lives

The Climate Refuge consists mainly of a modular, circular wooden structure assembled on site. The timber used has had several previous lives. It was first used as building material, left over from the construction of the Infinito Delicias building itself. When it came to designing the Refugio, this stock of timber served as the starting point: the structure was designed based on what already existed, not the other way round. Later, some of the planks were transformed into tables for a gastronomic gathering. And at the end of the event, rather than being discarded, they were stored away for future use. In this way, the construction of architecture is understood as an active social and material process connected to its immediate surroundings.

Un cantiere aperto: inhabiting the space whilst it is under construction

Many hands are involved in the creation of the Refugio. Zuloark designs the structure and the strategy that enables many more stakeholders to participate in the process. Students and lecturers from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá are building part of the furniture (the shoe rack, the bookcase, the tables and the centrepiece). The Italian collective Incolto leads workshops on communication and collaborative signage so that the Refugio can express, through the voice of the neighbourhood, Delicias’ relationship with heat and with shared space. And some local residents, throughout the process, contribute their views and help with the design and construction. The main idea is that those who will inhabit the space can also participate in its construction.

Holiday plants: where Vivario’s greenery comes from

This place also aims to become a small hub for neighbourhood renaturalisation. Since its first weeks of operation, it has had a plant nursery run by Infinito Delicias and a system for producing cuttings, with the aim of ensuring that, by the end of the summer, there are more plants than there were at the start.

The project also has the support of the Environment Department of Madrid City Council and the collaboration of the Retiro Greenhouse Nursery, which provides some of the vegetation. As with the materials, the plants continue their journey beyond the summer, being incorporated into new neighbourhood urban gardening initiatives.

Back to the beginning: the refuge’s fourth life

At the end of summer, when the shelter closes, the timber is stored away and the plants are moved to a new home. The planks from the structure will be turned into furniture for neighbourhood gardens in the Moratalaz district, and the plants will help to renaturalise those very same gardens. Once again, the aim is to give all the materials a new lease of life. The cycle continues.