Growing presence of Soldalit in Madrid’s new neighborhoods

This mineral façade paint by KEIM is being applied to tens of thousands of square meters of building façades in the new housing developments under construction in Valdebebas, Ensanche de Vallecas, Los Berrocales, El Cañaveral, and more.

Construction in Madrid is booming, driven by the development of new neighborhoods that are being built in anticipation of a significant population increase in the capital. In the coming years, Madrid is expected to increase over 300,000 new residents, leading the population growth among Spain's autonomous communities. Just last year, the city’s population grew by more than 120,000 people. Among these new districts, Valdebebas stands out.

Urban development in Valdebebas began in 2011. It was the most ambitious residential expansion in the northern part of the city at the time, with the first homes being built out of a projected total of 12,500 across 1,150 hectares. Since then, the demand for housing has only increased, with Madrid now requiring around 11,000 new homes per year—far more than current projections for new developments.

Despite various legal difficulties that temporarily slowed progress, the Valdebebas project has continued to advance steadily. It is expected to include 141 residential developments, more than 100 of which have already been completed. These buildings feature a wide variety of façade products and systems, including thermal insulation systems. Among the paints and coatings used, KEIM’s Soldalit has been applied to over 40,000 square meters of façade surfaces.

Among the projects already completed using Soldalit, we highlight three developments in Valdebebas. Like others in the area, these buildings were constructed using glass fiber-reinforced architectural precast concrete (GRC – Glass Reinforced Concrete), a material increasingly used in façades. We’ve previously covered this material in our magazine, which allows for a variety of angles and shapes while maintaining strength and offering reduced weight compared to reinforced concrete.

Concrete and similar materials must be protected from the elements. Various coatings have been used for this purpose, from silicones (thought to offer excellent protection against dirt and stains) to cement-based paints, epoxies, chlorinated rubbers, and polyurethanes. However, silicate paint has increasingly gained recognition as the best solution—particularly sol-silicate paint. This technology is based on the stabilized combination of silica sol nanoparticles and potassium silicate. Silica sol is a specific form of liquid silicon dioxide, similar to potassium silicate, but it doesn’t have sufficient binding strength on its own for façade paints. When combined with a single-component silicate binder with less than 5% organic content, it becomes capable of adhering perfectly to organic substrates.

In this project, KEIM’s Soldalit was chosen for its excellent results. Its application takes advantage of the strong affinity between sol-silicate and concrete—both mineral-based materials—resulting in exceptional adhesion, even on the very smooth and low-porosity surface of GRC concrete.

Most of the projects in Valdebebas using prefabricated concrete and Soldalit have been developed by Amenabar, a construction company that consistently relies on Soldalit due to the excellent results achieved in previous projects. In addition to the three developments mentioned, several others in Valdebebas—ranging from 2,000 to 3,500 m²—have also been completed using Soldalit. The painting work, as with larger projects, has been carried out on-site by the respective application companies.

Still on the topic of Soldalit in Madrid’s new developments, special mention goes to The Garden in La Moraleja, a luxury residential project by Amenabar. It consists of 16 buildings with four floors each, featuring panels painted with Soldalit in color 9137, covering a surface area of around 20,000 m².

In addition to these, other developments using Soldalit are underway in areas such as Ensanche de Vallecas, Los Berrocales, El Cañaveral, etc., where façades are made with concrete or GRC panels painted in black and white.

There is no doubt that the increasing use of Soldalit in new housing developments in Madrid’s emerging neighborhoods reflects a broader trend: new construction is increasingly embracing advanced paint and coating technologies that lead the way in innovation and quality.

* Article published in Pinturama magazine in June 2024