The architecture of Madrid is the set of architectural and construction styles that, throughout the history of Madrid, have been appearing in the city. Madrid’s architecture is an important part of Spanish architecture and reflects relevant aspects of its evolution.
The characteristic character of Madrid’s architectural styles begins during the 15th century, with the beginning of the city as its own entity. Previously, the municipality was composed of an architecture very similar to that of any defensive town of the medieval period of Castile. The preparations of Carlos I and the final decision of Felipe II to turn it into the capital of Spainthey turn the city into a constructive space in which to install the court, state power and the various religious orders. Architecture is a way of capturing the political ambitions of the time, and it is at this moment when the first palaces, convents and other constructions of state power appear. In its first moments as a Spanish capital, Madrid assumes the style that will mark the Austrias (Herrerian architecture). Examples of this period are the House of the Villa, the bridge of Segovia or the House of the Bakery. The arrival of the Bourbonsand its close relationship with French and Italian architects brought changes in architectural currents, led to the establishment of the Baroque in Madrid and its progressive transformation to a neoclassical architecture that will become valid until the eighteenth century. The bridge of Toledo, the Conde-Duque barracks or the Royal Palace of Madrid are representative of the baroque, while the Liria Palace, the Puerta de Alcalá or the Prado Museum are exponents of neoclassicism.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there was no architectural style of its own, giving rise to eclectic architecture, unlike other Spanish cities such as Barcelona, where the so-called Catalan modernism came into being. The appearance of new architectural needs at the beginning of the 20th century, with the massive increase in population and the appearance of large warehouses, offices, banks and new communication systems (tram, metro, telephone) causes buildings to emerge in the streets of Madrid. From the beginning of the 20th century, samples of historicist architecture expanded through the streets until the 1950s, with the Brussels Expo (1958). Contrary to current historicism, neighborhoods are built in peripheral neighborhoods such as Viso and the city begins to project towards its periphery. Surge on this date the so-called ‘ modern architecture ‘ and its various proposals. From 1956 to 1970 the one that was named ‘Escuela de Madrid’ was created. In the mid-sixties the city was projected up to a radius of twelve kilometers, promoting the development of Leganés, Getafe, Alcorcón, Alcobendas, Parla and Alcalá de Henares.
Villa period
The first settlements in Madrid are determined in an instant of the Middle Pleistocene within the valley of Manzanares. The organization of these primitive societies of Madrid, from the architectural point of view, is not different from other existing in the Iberian Peninsula. The examples of Visigothic architecture are only known in the northern half of the peninsula and there are practically no remains in Andalusia.
Medieval period
Madrid is described by different Andalusian authors as a madina (city). Among them is the geographer Himyari (14th century), who, by the name of Mayrit, refers to it as “a remarkable city of al-Andalus founded by the emir Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman”. In the second half of the ninth century there is already a city with its defensive wall. From the last quarter of the ninth century the Roman road of the Manzanares is the one usually traveled by the Christian armies of the north. This route was guarded by Mayrit, also being an advanced position of anetwork of watchtowers.
Renaissance architecture
During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, the city mainly built administrative buildings, to which are added stately homes, such as the palace of the Vargas. One of the first municipal regulations is the paving of some streets. In some cases the stone of the masonry of the wall itself is used in this type of urban operations for maintenance and improvement of the roads. During this period the construction is monopolized by the Mozarabic alarifes, which are concentrated around two families, San Salvador and Gormaz (some of them are officers of the Council). Perhaps that is why the architectural styles of the late fifteenth centuryThey reflect a mixture of Islamic and late-Gothic traditions, as can be seen in the Hospital de la Latina, founded by Beatriz Galindo in 1499.
Renaissance Madrid architecture is fully consolidated during the reign of Charles I (1516-1556), thanks to different works promoted from the monarchy itself. In the Real Alcázar, residence of the kings from the Trastamara, the emperor carries out different improvements and extensions, whose traces are designed by the imperial architect Luis de Vega, in collaboration with his nephew, Gaspar de Vega. The transformation of the Alcazar is prolonged with the arrival to the throne of Felipe II, who not in vain turns this building into the official residence of the royal family and seat of the governing bodies, after establishing the capital inMadrid in 1561. One of his contributions is the Torre Dorada, completed in 1560, when he was still a prince. Built in the southwest corner of the Alcazar, from a design by Juan Bautista de Toledo, this tower laid the foundations of the so-called style of the Habsburgs, years before the construction of the Monastery of El Escorial began.
The Madrid of the Austrias
One of the first architectural dedications of Felipe II in Madrid was the renovation of the Plaza del Arrabal (also called “Plaza de la Leña”) near the Puerta de Guadalajara, in the so-called Lagunas de Luján (see: History of the Plaza Mayor) of Madrid). The project initiated by Felipe II by means of the construction of the House of the Bakery (due to the traces of the architect Diego Sillero) would not be completely finalized until the arrival to the throne of his son, Felipe III. One of the main architects of King Philip II during this stage isFrancisco de Mora, disciple of Juan de Herrera, who happens, in the time of Felipe III, his nephew Juan Gómez de Mora. The latter builds in the vicinity of the Plaza Mayor the Hall of Mayors of the House and Court, which will later be the Court of Court (it is the Palace of Santa Cruz, where today has its headquarters the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
There is an idea of the urban layout of Madrid and its buildings in the mid-sixteenth century, because in the year 1565 the Flemish artist Anton Van den Wyngaerde (known in Spain as Antonio de las Viñas), portrays in a drawing a vision of Madrid from the vicinity of the current Puerta del Ángel, in which a densely built city can be seen. The beginnings of construction of the El Escorial monastery would propagate an architectural style called Escurialense architecture through the new capital. Felipe II in his stay in Flanders decides to promote in Madrid the style of the spiersof slate, so popular in Dutch architecture of the time. These slate roofs, of great slope, with lights and towers topped by sharp spiers, reached great diffusion in the Castilian architecture, especially the Madrilenian one of the XVII and XVIII centuries. Being the style of the buildings personally sponsored by Felipe II. This new style marked a strong change in the Spanish construction style that links it to northern Europe rather than the continental south, abandoning the traditional tile roofs of Arab influence.
Bourbon period
With Carlos II the reign of the House of Habsburg is finished and after him an architectural style is finished that left footprints in what today is called the Madrid de los Austrias. The first of the kings of the House of the Bourbons is Felipe V and with him begins a period of exaltation by the ornamental languages: Churrigueresque period. The Baroque comes from Italyand this style to the taste of the new monarchy will be the prevailing fashion in Madrid architecture at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Baroque of Madrid, however, shows in its early expressions of the mid-seventeenth century a clear inheritance from the previous Herrerian period. It will not be until the eighteenth century, with the full acceptance of the baroque in the royal and palatial architecture of Madrid, until you can see this style exalted. The incorporation of new architects from France and Italy influences the appearance of new styles, while relegating to a second plane two generations of Spanish architects. 1
Baroque of Madrid
The baroque began to emerge in the temples of Madrid in first characteristics in the seventeenth century to its splendor in the eighteenth. Of this last period it is possible to emphasize the coexistence of the baroque one coming from the foreign currents, as well as the purely Madrilenian ones. One of the first manifestations of the baroque rests on the church of San Isidro under the design of Pedro Sánchez. The Madrid architect of this period is Pedro de Ribera who undertakes numerous works in the city. By order of the Marquis of Vadillo builds an important access to the south crossing the river Manzanares: the bridge of Toledo. In the middle of the reforms of the Spanish army, Felipe V ordered to build theCuartel del Conde-Duque as a space for the quartering of Madrid’s troops. This building will be the largest to date.
Ribera puts its baroque style on the covers of buildings, giving rise to the so-called baroque style of Madrid. This Baroque from Madrid will later be reproduced in the great buildings of Madrid at the beginning of the 20th century. Pedro de Ribera built some palaces in Madrid such as Miraflores Palace (1730-1733), Palace of the Marquis of Ugena (1730-1734), the palace of the Marquis of Perales (1732). Among the religious temples is: Monserrat (1720), theHospice of San Fernando (1722), San Cayetano (1722), San José (1730-1742). The brothers José Benito Churriguera, Alberto Churriguera and Joaquín Churriguera work in Madrid and their influence is felt in the architects of the Baroque period. One of the heirs of this ornamental style is the same Pedro de Ribera, being successor of Teodoro de Ardemans. All these Baroque styles were much criticized later in the nineteenth century.
Classicist Baroque Italianate
The entrance of Carlos III in Madrid was a milestone in Madrid’s architecture. The new king brought his own architects, among them is Francesco Sabatini. Sabatini became the Chamber’s architect of the Crown. One of his first works is the Puerta de Alcalá, although he will soon carry out other works such as: Real Casa de la Aduana (1769) on calle de Alcalá, the Real Casa de Correos (1768) at Puerta del Sol, the convent of the Comendadoras de Santiago, the Royal Basilica of San Francisco el Grande, the palace of Godoy. Some Spanish architects were forced to compete with the new currents brought by the new monarch. San Francisco the Great is built (1761) designed by Francisco Cabezas.
The neoclassical period appears in its maximum splendor in the capital when the Spanish architect Juan de Villanueva returns from his Roman pension, 35 His first works are made in El Escorial and when he reaches his architectural knowledge he is entrusted with the Botanical Garden. At first the design was commissioned to Sabatini, but finally fell to Villanueva. Among his first works is the oratory of the Knight of Grace, the Astronomical Observatory and the building of the Prado Museum. We owe to him the current aspect of the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Juan de Villanueva leaves a legacy of architects behind him that will extend neoclassicism during the 19th century.
Nineteenth-century architecture
The century begins with a new architectural style, however the lack of material means made it difficult to put into practice the architecture that, like the neoclassical one, is already expensive. This new Fernandina architecture survives later to the period of reign of the monarch and diffuses in the Madrid architecture during the minority of Isabel II. Stresses this period of the creation of the new School of Architecture of Madrid (whose headquarters is located in the vicinity of the imperial school of Toledo Street), replacing the Academy of San Fernandoas a training place for future architects. The first curriculum of the School of Architects dates back to 1845. In Spain there were other centers for the study and teaching of architecture at the end of the 19th century. The city is deserted by new architectural projects in the mid-nineteenth century, some authors mention the general feeling offered by the nineteenth-century Madrid of “poorly built”. 36 Unlike other European capitals that faced radical changes at the end of the 19th century, Madrid did not undergo any appreciable change.
Neoclassicism
The culmination of some of the architectural and urbanistic projects that began during the reign of Carlos III in Madrid, had to be abruptly interrupted in the final days of the reign of Charles IV due to the French invasion of 1808. During this war period (1808) -1813) the building activities in the capital were completely interrupted. During this period the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando was the academy in which the future architects were formed, a place that became the breeding ground of the neoclassical current. At that time the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum had been discovered, and these discoveries impacted in the arts of the time, being one of the causes by which neoclassicism arises. Little by little the Baroque ornament gives way to the study of proportion.
During the government of Jose Bonaparte great works were not executed due to the precarious economic situation of the nation. This affects the population of architects who were forced into a strike at the beginning of the century. Some of the architects of Madrid had a distant attitude with the move Napoleonic government, this is the case of the elderly Juan de Villanueva. The only work of importance that Villanueva carries out in these Napoleonic years was the General Cemetery of the North(now disappeared), which served as a guideline for the Madrid cemeteries that would later be built during the time of Ferdinand VII.
From 1810 José Bonaparte was involved in an urban reform of the interior of the city, during this period ecclesiastical assets were expropriated, churches and convents were demolished: convents such as Santa Catalina, Santa Ana, Fathers Mostenses, de la Pasión and San Gil, while the churches of San Martin, San Ildefonso, San Miguel, San Juan and Santiago were demolished. In its place small squares are constructed that conserve the name of the religious temple already demolished: place of Santa Ana (created in 1810 to vent the Theater of the Prince), the Plaza de San Miguel (created in 1811 to relieve the market of the Plaza Mayor by placing the exclusive sale of fish). These demolitions were the departure of architectural heritage of Madrid. Some of these demolitions were executed by Silvestre Pérez (author of Puerta de Toledo). This architect is responsible for executing the design of the union of the Royal Palace with the convent of San Francisco el Grande, through a high viaduct that would save the basin of Segovia Street, a project that will be realized several decades later by means of the construction of the viaduct. of Segovia.
The historicisms
The architecture of the Elizabethan era made fashionable a taste for the Arab, imitating as much as possible the popular monuments of cities of Al-Andalus such as Granada, Seville and Cordoba. In these cases the Mudejar style of brick architecture is imitated. This period opens in the city with the popularity of the neo – Mudejar architecture of Toledo influence.
This style appears as a result of the combination of elements coming from the new European architectural currents and from the Spanish architectural tradition in its most traditional aspect. At the Universal Exhibition of Vienna in 1873, it was decided that the Spanish pavilions should have a Neomudéjar style. The architect Emilio Rodríguez Ayuso is the initiator of the Mudejar current in popular buildings such as the old Plaza de Toros (1874) located on the Aragón highway. Giving rise to a constructive fashion that will be used in the Spanish bullring, taking Madrid bullfighting as a reference. Ayuso evolves the neomudejarismo until reaching an eclecticism that comes to express itself completely in the building of theAguirre Schools. Other followers of the neomudéjar style in the capital are Lorenzo Álvarez Capra who designs the church of La Paloma. The architect Carlos Velasco Peinado who, with Eugenio Jiménez Correa, designed the church of San Fermín de los Navarros (1891).
Romantic architecture
The crisis of neoclassicism as a unique style coincided with that of political absolutism, not because of its instantaneous disappearance. Some of the architects of the stage of Fernandino neoclassicism continue to exercise at the beginning of the reign of Isabel II, mainly in the regency of María Cristina. One of the examples is the congress building of the Deputies, being one of the most important works at the beginning of the 19th century. A public national call was made in 1842, with the San Fernando Academy as jury awarding the first prize to Narciso Pascual and Colomer, and the second to Antonio Zabaleta. Both representatives of the neoclassical currents.
The cathedral of Almudena is born first as a Madrid temple that replaces the old church of Santa María demolished by urban reforms. The first architect in charge is the Marquis of Cubas. His first designs are closer to the neo-Gothic. The political and diocesan interests make this initial project of the Marquis of Cubas become an idea of greater importance when the diocese of Madrid is created. A Royal Order of 1880 approved this project of the Marquis and the first stone was placed in 1883. The Madrid crypt of the new cathedral was built with great effort due to the economic cost of the work and the ambition of the project. The project will suffer several interruptions, changes of architects, criteria, budget dedicated to the work and architectural styles.
Modernism
Modernism spreads along diverse variants throughout the architecture of Madrid. Some architects were migrating from eclectic positions to a moderate modernism, or modernist eclecticism. Others carried out premodernist works such as the case of José Grases Riera who designs a monument to Alfonso XII (1902) in the Retiro de Madrid with certain analogies with the monument to Guillermo I located in Berlin. Grasés Riera is a clear example of an architect between the eclectic and modernist styles. At the end of the 19th century it designed the building of La Equitativa (1891) and it evolved until the Palace of Longoria in 1902, of which art nouveau details stand out on its facade and on the interior staircase.
In the year 1904, the VI International Congress of Architects was held in Madrid, taking as headquarters the building of the Ateneo de Madrid. During this congress the so-called modernist style was discussed. One of the buildings that goes back to this time of transition is the Casino de Madrid that turns out to be a mixture of several designs among which are those of Guillaume Tronchet, Farge (father and son), Martínez Ángel, Tomás Gómez Acebo, Otamendi and Palacios, and Jesús Carrasco, finally delivered with the signature of Luis Esteve.
20th century
At the beginning of the century the censuses show a figure of 539,835 inhabitants, thirty years later that number has almost doubled (giving the figure of 952,832). Before the civil war the city will have one million inhabitants. This population growth translates into a strong demand for housing, the first colonies (district of the Press in 1910), new neighborhoods, settlements. In this period, the taste for brick construction again came back, influenced by the currents of expressionism in brick from northern Europe. The beginning of the century reveals the search for a national identity within architecture. A new typology of buildings appears at the beginning of the century: the hoteldeluxe. The Hotel Ritz was built in 1910 and the Hotel Palace two years later. These new types include commercial centers, offices, large banks, telephone and communications centers. Madrid becomes, at the beginning of the 20th century, from a Court to a modern metropolis. All this is favored by the opening of a large street popularly called: the Gran Vía, as a bridge between the east and the west of the city pretending to decongest the traffic of the Puerta del Sol. It is spoken in the architectural circles of the “Great Madrid”.
Eclecticism
The construction of the Gran Vía of 1316 meters in length was initially approved in 1901 and although it later needed the endorsement of the Royal Order of August 27, 1904. The official termination occurs in 1932, while its construction lasts until the years of the postwar. Its planning and construction was controversial in many aspects: social, political, urban and architectural. The Gran Vía is organized in three sections and two patellae, along which the historical sequence of architectural styles crystallized from the monarchy of Alfonso XIII, through the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the proclamation of the Second Republic, the defense of Madrid in the Civil War and the Franco era. It is for this reason that the architectural styles along the street are certainly diverse.
Giving beginning, already in the first section of avenue of 400 meters of length of the Count of Peñalver the building of the Union and the Fénix (present building Metropolis), some of the buildings own own personality as it is the case of the ” Hotel Rome “, La Gran Peña, the Military Casino (Army and Navy Center), the oratory of the Caballero de Gracia, etc. The style found in this first section coincides with the eclectic architecture typical of the beginning of the century.
The second section of length of 360 meters, or avenue of Pi y Margall (known at that time as the Madrid boulevard) contains the Telefónica building that is supposed to be the first skyscraper in the city by Ignacio Cárdenas in 1929. In this section begin to install the first cinemas and theaters that will make the Gran Vía popular: the Palace of Music, the Callao Cinema. Other buildings are installed as department stores, as is the case of the Paris-Madrid Department Store, the Casa del Libro, the Matesanz House. The third section of 556 meters, or also called Eduardo Dato avenue, was the last to be built, interrupted by the evolution of the civil war. This section is built in the postwar period and stands out for the verticality of its buildings. The beginning of this section has as a “symbolic entrance” the Capitol building and ends in the Plaza de España, ending with the Edificio España (in 1953) conceived as the tallest building in Europe at the time.
Madrilenian rationalism
In buildings erected in Spain during the late twenties began to show a new style. Rationalism appeared as a new architectural language, with some of its greatest exponents being the French architect Le Corbusier and Lloyd Wright. Some artistic currents such as cubism, art deco, Mendelsohn expressionism, Sezzession, the Bauhaus futurism and others, influenced the appearance of this new architectural trend in the capital. The last years of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera defines a period callednew eclecticism that opens a period of architectural avant – garde. 44 One of the architects that most stands out and propagates rationalist ideas is García Mercadal. During the advent of the Second Republic appears in certain parts of the city the so-called Madrid rationalism, closely related to the Salmon style (named after the Law Salmon). It is characterized by the absence of ornamentation, predominance of prismatic volumes with predominance of horizontality, the presence of aerodynamic elements, of naval references as handrailsand portholes (influence of the machinery of the early twentieth century), appearance of wide openings through the design of horizontal windows. The brick is used again as a constructive element. The style is usually shown in buildings after 1929. This architectural style has been identified with the advent of the Second Republic by some authors, The influence of Erich Mendelsohn on many of the architects of the time is reflected in the buildings of Madrid.
The social construction
The concern for housing and high unemployment construction since 1930 made the various governments of the Second Republic made various efforts to revive the sector. From this idea, Indalecio Prieto, Minister of Public Works, conceived the three major projects of the Republic: the transformation of Madrid (the development of a Regional Plan in which the extension of Castellana was converted, according to the Zuazo proposal of 1929, in articulating axis); order, in Alicante, the residential and leisure space that would be known as Playa de San Juan and coordinate the activity of the different hydrographic confederations in what was called the National Plan of Hydraulic Works. The cheap housesbecause of the Law of Cheap Homes. Right-wing governments during this period made laws with tax exemptions in construction, an example was the Salmon Law (referring to Federico Salmón, Minister of Labor at that time) that gave rise to the so-called Salmon style. 48 Due to the period in which it is executed, many of the houses of this period have a variant of rationalism.
The continuous growth of the city makes begin to consider the formation of working villages in the outskirts of Madrid, its construction falls on the powers of the City. Within this evolution, the concept of urban zoning (zonning) is born in the city and urban land is created. Due to this increase in the demand for construction, companies such as the Madrileña de Urbanización Company (owned by the Otamendi brothers), the housing cooperative of the “VEM” are born, all of them responsible for building and building new colonies. The city is projected towards the north, in the union with Fuencarral, Chamartín and the Linear City, and by the south withVallecas and Carabanchel, while it departs from the Abroñigal stream.
Postwar architecture
During the Civil War period (1936-1939) the city of Madrid had a combat front that caused a strong devastation of some areas because of the intense artillery bombardment from the Casa de Campo for a couple of years. The war supposed a drastic point within the constructive style of the capital. Institutions with constructive purposes emerge as National Service of Devastated Regions (created at the end of 1938) and others as Directorate General of Architecture (whose direction falls on Pedro Muguruza, personal architect of Franco) which aims to unify the postwar official architecture. Both institutions, dependent on the Ministry of the Interior, are responsible for restoring Madrid after the Civil War. In the same way, the old organisms such as the National Institute for Agrarian Reform (converted into the Colonization Institute) and the Patronato de Casas Baratas (converted into the National Institute of Housing) are modified, submitting to the ideology and purposes of the new state. Housing).
The architecture of this first decade of the forties is controlled by the National Assemblies of Architects that are organized by the Technical Services of FET-JONS. Large-scale urban planning orders are entrusted to the urban planner Pedro Bidagor in charge of the plan of imperial reorganization for Madrid, called the drafting of the new General Urban Plan of Madrid (continuation of the Zuazo-Jansen project of 1929).
Modern Architecture
The awakening of modern architecture in Spain has been set at the end of the fifties. A moment in which the academic eclecticism and the conservative style of the first era of the regime disappear. Modernity is seen in Madrid with the construction of the House of Trade Unions (current Ministry of Health and Consumption), headquarters of which was National Delegation of Trade Unions on the Paseo del Prado of the architects Francisco de Asís Cabrero and Rafael de Aburto. 55This building was the end of postwar architecture. Appearing a new generation of architects (ie those who finished the race in the forties) and a contribution of the old architects among which include Luis Gutiérrez Soto who in 1949 designed the building of the High Staff in the extension of the Castellana. In this building the transition from the historicist architecture of architecture to modernity takes place.
However, among the new architects there is an attachment to what comes from outside creating what is called international style, among these movements arises the organic style that soon has some allies among the new architects of the sixties. Many of them train in the housing proposals of the targeted villages such as the Caño Roto (1962). In February 1957, El Paso was founded in Madrid, in the house of the architect José Luis Fernández del Amo.
Throughout the years it will be necessary to highlight the church of Alcobendas, by Miguel Fisac (1959), the Seat building in the extension of La Castellana, Madrid (1964), Manuel Barbero Rebolledo and Rafael de la Joya Castro, the Centro building in Calle de Orense (1965), by Pedro Casariego and Genaro Alas (designer of the Windsor building destroyed in fire in 2005 and replaced by the Titania Tower), the residential building in Vigo (1963), by José Barboa, the building of the Village newspaper in Madrid (1964), ofRafael de Aburto, or the Bank of Madrid, in the Carrera de San Jerónimo (1964), by Antonio Bonet.
In the sixties it is the organic concept that prints the designs of Madrid’s architecture. One of its promoters is Antonio Fernández Alba through his College of Santa María (1960), another of the followers is José Antonio Corrales who makes the Huarte house in Puerta de Hierro (1958), the architect José Antonio Coderch with his Girasol building (1967).
Architecture of the end of the 20th century
Urban growth makes skyscrapers are built without analyzing the consequences, one of the most controversial cases while Carlos Arias Navarro was in the mayor’s office in the seventies was the building of the Tower of Valencia. This tower visually affected the aesthetics of the Puerta de Alcalá seen from the Plaza de la Independencia.
One of the protagonists of the late seventies is Miguel Fisac, considered one of the architects of the first generation of post-war, designs and executes a large number of buildings in Madrid. But it is popular for its original design headquarters of the ” JORBA Laboratories ” (popularly called the pagoda for its appearance) that appears in the sixties as one of the works of greater formal daring. The building was demolished at the end of the 20th century.
In the sixties as a resurgence of organic architecture from the building of Europe it is built Blancas Torres on the Avenue of America. The architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza carries out other works in Madrid, the best known being the pavilions of the IFEMA (Trade Fair Center Juan Carlos I), Madrid, 1987. In 1981 the so-called Building Cubes (also called “Fénix Directo Building”) was built.), the project is carried out in France and is owned by the Assurance Gènerale de France. The building consists of six parallelepipeds distributed in three heights. Torrespaña was built this year(popularly known as the “Pirulí”). This tower rises to a height of 232 (with the communications tower).
Puerta de Europa (popularly known as Torres Kio) is built in the Plaza de Castilla (because they were promoted by the Kuwaiti company KIO, Kuwait Investments Office). They are two towers leaning towards each other, 15 ° to the vertical, with a height of 114 m and 26 plants. The Puerta de Europa are the second tallest twin towers in Spain, behind the Santa Cruz Towers in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
21st century
At the beginning of the 21st century, multiple peripheral neighborhoods of extensive avenues and residential buildings called PAU (Urban Development Action Program) were built within the framework of the 1997 General Urban Plan of the Municipality of Madrid. These include: Las Tablas, Montecarmelo, Sanchinarro, Ensanche de Vallecas, etc.
In the 2000s, the Cuatro Torres Business Area (abbreviated as CTBA) was built on the grounds of the former Ciudad Deportiva del Real Madrid. The business park consists of four skyscrapers that are the tallest buildings in Madrid and Spain. The four buildings are the Bankia Tower, the PwC Tower, the Crystal Tower and the Space Tower. The first one is the highest in Madrid and Spain with its 250 meters high. The construction of the four buildings began in 2004. In February 2007, the Space Towerreached its maximum height and on March 19, 2007 the celebration of the end of the civil work took place. It exceeds in 37 meters that until then was the largest skyscraper in the country, the Bali Hotel in Benidorm. The PwC Tower reached its maximum height in June 2008 and in January 2009 the Crystal Tower did the same. The Bankia Tower reached its maximum level in May 2009. The completion of the construction of all buildings occurred at the end of 2009.
In some of the new neighborhoods of the periphery postmodern architecture resurfaced, for example the Mirador Building of Sanchinarro or the BBVA City of Las Tablas.
Source from Wikipedia