̈The two hundred pants fill with wind and inflate. They look to me like fat men without heads, swinging dangling from clothesline ropes. We boys run between the rows of white pants and distribute whips over the swollen bottoms. Mrs. Encarna runs after us with the wooden shovel with which she beats the dirty clothes to squeeze out the slime. 

We took refuge in the labyrinth of streets formed by the four hundred humid savannas. ̈ 

-The Forge of a Rebel, Arturo Barea 1945

The proposal for the refugee reception center in Madrid Rio is to make a memorial to the washerwomen of the Manzanares in order to recover the historical heritage and reclaim the recreational and landscape space of the 18th century.

At the same time, during the reign of Queen Maria Victoria of Savoy, she proposed the Asylum for the children of the washerwomen, because they and the washerwomen themselves were exposed to many dangers because they did not have good conditions work. After the civil war, due to the bombing, the asylum fell down and in the 80's, the reconstruction of the Asylum for the washerwomen's children in Paseo Imperial in Arganzuela was proposed, with the aim of recovering the heritage purpose . However, today it is better known as a center of training. Having as its main goal the creation of a reception center for refugees, which can be very reminiscent of the conditions in which the washerwomen lived, the opportunity has been taken to recover the heritage in the very site of work of the washerwomen, in front of the palace making a small tribute to the queen and the original asylum located in the glorieta de San Vicente. 

Using historical, artistic and literary references for the composition of project, he has highlighted among these, the vernacular architecture and the literary work La Forja de un Rebelde, 1940-45, written by Arturo Barea, son of a washerwoman who recounts his life among the hundreds of clotheslines.

The following strategies have been followed for the organization of the complex, as well as the modules themselves, which allow the necessary flexibility to meet the needs of the people, the environment and time:

1. Making reference letter to the organization of the place of work of the Lavanderas themselves in a strictly delimited space next to the river, leaving complete freedom within this for its growth or decrease. 

To give structure to the randomness, the slope, orientation and direction of the river have been used from reference letter to create a descending path towards the riverside promenade. 

2. The mix of public and private uses of which are the people themselves who can colonize the spaces. In addition, this has made it possible to create several strategies for integrating people into the city. On the one hand, the memorial serves as a leisure space for visitors and on the other, the public use spaces and services are managed by the refugees themselves, enabling work and fostering a sense of community through cooperation in the maintenance of the reception center. 

As for the typology of the built spaces, the vernacular architecture of the washerwomen has been used from reference letter , as well as the soft architecture with the aim of an ephemeral, recyclable and flexible construction. Consequently, this has allowed a constructive design in which the structure itself is part of the furniture both inside the house and urban.

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