KOI
KOI is a building that offers a full sensory experience where space, matter, and time merge into a single dimension. It is a building that will allow any work organization to flourish with a contemporary focus on creativity and innovation. The creative concept the guides the full rehabilitation is that of an underwater world where everything flows and where ecosystems coexist and nurture one another. The name KOI means the perfect harmony between opposites and is representative also of the KOI legend. The main creative objective was to design a space where everyone who enters feels in harmony with himself, with others, and with his environment. The Architectural challenge was to create a space where everything flows. Nature is fully integrated visually and physically both in the indoor spaces and outdoor gardens, accompanying you throughout the entire journey. The building presents itself with a magnificent glass curved faced that undulates like ocean waves making every corner special. The organic geometric dialogue between all spaces surrenders itself to curves and sinuous lines. This relationship between the interior and exterior of the building is also enhanced by the elegant integration of wood in the façade profiles, generating a symbiosis between the interior and exterior of the building. The Atrium is the heart of the building. This triple-height space serves as a place where it all converges, the light, the occupants, the work, the creation. It is the physical and visual connection made possible by the design of the building. The architectural intervention carried out to create this magical space full of organic forms and functions requited ambitious structural and work, design, and shoring of the building. Standing in the center of KOI´s atrium one understands the entire building, and at the same time appreciate the catwalks and glass fairings of the sculptural elevators that crown this space. As a finishing touch to the building, a magnificent garden has been designed and created on the roof deck garden, giving rise to a landscaped terrace full of spaces and corners for collaborative work. KOI is in the process of being certified by the most internationally renowned sustainability organizations. It will be LEED platinum and Well platinum certified. Both Leed and Well guarantee not only environmental sustainability but wellness and mental health harmony for all those who visit the building. KOI building offers a unique experience of the senses while providing flexible organic spaces prepared to face current corporate challenges.
Ancora 40
Ancora 40 breathes new life into a former car garage to create a sustainable and vibrant office hub in central Madrid to create a ‘sustainable campus’ comprised of workspace, café, outdoor terraces, and events space. The design involves the refurbishment of two existing buildings (built 1955) adjacent to Madrid’s central Atocha railway station, and the insertion of a new hybrid cross-laminated-timber (CLT) and steel structure to connect these two existing buildings. The development also includes terraces, a new central courtyard and new car and bicycle parking below ground. Connected by a shared central reception and private courtyard, the workspaces at Ancora 40 are adaptable to suit a range of tenants and can accommodate up to 5sqm per employee. We have ensured that the new floorplates are spacious, flexible, and abundant with natural light - with some spaces benefitting from 4m floor-to-ceiling heights. Over 500m2 of landscape terraces connect the two principal buildings, creating breakout space for meetings and events. 57 underground parking spaces and 61 bicycle stations sit beneath the building. The project was designed to incorporate more than 50% of the existing structure on the site, with other materials responsibly sourced and carefully selected for their low environmental impact. Upon completion Ancora 40 was awarded LEED Gold Certification, recognising its environmental credentials, such as the use of a composite steel and a CLT structural frame, high-transmittance glass to ensure maximum natural light, quiet zones with noise reduction technology, extensive terracing, bikes storage and changing rooms for the convenience of all users. The building has built-in strategies to keep the air inside the building as pure as possible, resulting in a 30% improvement based on ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2010 that far exceeds RITE standards. These include a silent ventilation system with RESET air-quality certification that allows for humidity control and air filters capable of screening out viruses and microscopic particles. We worked with lighting designers to develop a lighting system that cuts out glare and optimises colour reproduction throughout the interior, whilst all outdoor lighting has been calibrated to prevent light pollution. The building has been designed to alleviate the “heat island effect” by using light-toned flooring and maintaining plenty of green space. High-performance bathrooms, showers and tapware produce water savings of over 45%, while selective specification of outdoor planting has cut outdoor water use in half. The building also incorporates smart technology, to promote technology, efficiency, security and sustainability. The result is one of the city’s most future-proofed office properties, operated through a central computer at reception, a bespoke tenant app and touch screens at the entrance to each floor. These control the working environment, monitoring of communal areas, finding and booking meeting rooms or parking spaces. Security includes passes, touch-free automatic doors to rooms and service areas, environmental monitoring, visitor management system, and number plate recognition.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
National museum of art in Madrid, Spain.
Acciona Campus
Acciona’s goal is to make a positive contribution to the planet. As a global business developing and managing infrastructure and renewable energy, it designs and implements projects which seek to leave a positive environmental, economic, and social impact on the communities they serve. The Acciona campus in Madrid puts employees and their wellbeing at the heart of the design in response to the company’s aspirations. Set amongst 10 hectares of verdant landscape at the highest ground in the city, it connects 4,000 people in a progressive workplace at the intersection of sustainability, community and innovation. A design narrative rooted in the natural elements that energize our day-to-day life: light, shadow, air, and water, shapes architectural gestures and inspires the look and feel of the project. These precious resources are celebrated across the campus through the interior architecture, reinforcing our joined commitment to sustainability, and our missions to preserve them for future generations. The project explores beauty through the clarity and simplicity of its architecture, with a dialogue between the existing building fabrics and new interventions. The existing textures of the campus: concrete, galvanised metals and masonry, as well as the inner workings of the buildings, are juxtaposed with refined materials to define an honest aesthetic where the old and the new coexist harmoniously. Architectural interventions bring daylight to deep floor plates to minimize artificial lighting. Access to nature is reinforced with external pavilions and terraces designed for outdoor work, access to controlled shading and fresh air. Daylight, shadows, space, and nature are celebrated through a restrained palette of white, wood and reflective materials, a nod to vernacular Spanish architecture. Organic, sculptural interventions set against the Iberian light create impactful chiaroscuro moments, and an ethereal yet warm atmosphere that brings delight to employees and visitors alike. The design takes advantage of the generous proportions and volumes of the existing structures, as well as the impressive views to the surrounding landscape, emphasising visual and physical connections across the campus. An array of amenities distributed on each building promote interactions. Staircases across the working floors and public areas encourage movement and interactions, fostering community and a sense of belonging. A hierarchy of materials promotes simplicity and economy of design gestures, and led to focused research of products, the interrogation of existing building fabrics, and the impact on the scale of our interventions. Modularity allows for maximum flexibility and ease of disassembly with minimum waste or disruption. Locally sourced timbers, naturally antimicrobial metals, and Acciona’s own new low carbon materials are deployed in key areas of the design. 3D printed joinery items and bespoke large scale ceiling fans, both designed in collaboration with Acciona’s innovation lab, highlight technological innovation. The campus looks to redefine the workplace, offering more than just offices—it creates experiences that attract and retain talent. Its spaces foster collaboration, integration, and engagement. From coworking areas to event spaces, it blends efficiency with hospitality, ensuring employees do not just work here, they thrive, connect, and enjoy it.
Plaza Mahou
A remarkable collaboration with Mahou San Miguel, Spain's leading beer company, has led to the creation of ‘Plaza Mahou,’ the first brewery-branded venue in Spain to brew beer inside a sports stadium. This unique space, located within the iconic Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, offers exclusive views of the Real Madrid pitch. Spanning over 1,000 m², including a restaurant and terrace, Plaza Mahou is anticipated to attract around 400,000 visitors each year. The project celebrates the essence of Madrid by connecting three key elements: football, Mahou beer, and the city itself. A fourth element, the Plaza, serves as a bridge that unites these themes. Designed to provide a unique, user-centric experience, the space is divided into two main areas: a large indoor section of 700 m² and a covered terrace of 450 m². The furnishings are custom-made, featuring display cabinets and tables inspired by industrial beer tanks, as well as stools crafted from reclaimed kegs. Fans can enjoy various immersive atmospheres in this spectacular plaza that “peeks out” onto the pitch, creating an exclusive environment for visitors.
Caledonian Somosaguas
Density or looseness? Intensity or laid-backness? Public or private? Urban or suburban? The problem in creating new housing on the edge of the city is to somehow synthesie all of these seeming opposites - not to choose between them but to lift a little from them all to create a new cocktail of the familiar and the foreign, every day and the exotic. The intention was to create a kind of habitat, a new neighborhood in which the houses are loosely arranged around a web of public spaces - streets, plazas, a pool - and in which the communal streetscape occupies as much area as the dwellings themselves. It is a design for a public kind of living - a nod to the Spanish proclivity for living in the city and occupying the spaces of urbanity arguably more than they do their own homes (which remain as places for sleeping and siestas). The houses themselves blend typologies in the same way as does the development itself. There is a deliberate but delicate touch of the pueblo about their arrangement - the white walls and the cubic blocks. There is a little of the Bauhaus Siedlung - the model village established as an experiment in contemporary living and construction - the restrained, minimal palette and aesthetic and the functions a trailer for how a modernist life might look. In the complexity of its composition, the layering of the landscape and the weaving of a web of public outdoor space, an architecture emerges. The houses are elongated - attenuated so that their walls begin to define emergent streets rather than the staccato landscape of individual cubes. Yet a series of interventions, repeating motifs and urban and landscape devices appears to stop the spaces between the houses becoming alleys and to break down too much regularity. Kinks, setbacks, steps, terraces and greenery create a variety of sub-urban spaces and a coherent internal language which could in theory, be expanded and replicated, which is exactly what the architects intended, creating the development as a kind of prototype for a roll-out programme, a model which becomes more efficient and more practical as experience of building and dwelling grows. Equally important is the separation of traffic from pedestrians. Each house has access to its parking space internally, individually plugged into the parking layer which is otherwise invisible. It is a system that has the advantages of a private garage but without disfiguring the house fronts or clogging up street level with vast expanses of garage doors, driveways and traffic. The individual houses appear quite modest in dimension, with a width of only 5.5m (each is the same width although lengths vary). Yet inside they reveal a surprising complexity of interlocking spaces and configurations of solid and void, wall and opening. The ground floors are transparent - accommodating the public functions of life and entirely glazed walls open into courtyards which mirror the interior spaces so that the broad area appears to flow into the outdoor space seamlessly In the larger versions that more public space is also extended upwards via a void which expands the surface area of the window which appears here as a double-height opening and which will eventually allow the canopy of the trees to impinge on the interior just as the floor appears to steal space from outside. The play of transparency and solidity between the ground and first floors becomes, in a way, the architectural language which determines the whole neighborhood, a juggling of solid block and delicate, attenuated layer, indoor and outdoor room. There is no cacophony of balconies and protrusions as all terraces are subsumed within the overall volumes of the structure. There is nothing extraneous. The minimal nature of those architectural means produces a uniquely restrained sense of place and urban landscape in which all the elements have something to do, all are defined by their function rather than their style. The simplicity of the language and its internal coherence is also a device intended to build a basic vocabulary which is flexible enough to accommodate differing needs, a modular construction based on a 1.25m grid allowing multiple variations within the same architectural language. The four basic types here are not the super-luxury dimensions of villas but, ranging between 94-230 sqm, they cover the requirements for family dwellings. The houses are planned in such a way that they can be packed onto the site with surprising density. Madrid is a dense and intense city with a population of approximately 80 people per hectare. At Somosaguas, a neighbourhood which feels loose, laid-back and very green, the demographic density is a surprising 114 people per hectare. And at the centre of all this is the water. The space in which you might expect to find an urban centre, the plaza defined by church and town hall, gives itself instead to the communal pleasures of the pool. It is, in a way, a denial of the solid core, a relinquishing of the urban heart of the Mediterranean settlement in favour of something less substantial. But it does place a certain communal activity at the heart of the scheme, a sense that each house feeds into something larger than itself rather than trying to create its own fenced-off and self-contained utopia. The streets and spaces here flow so fluidly that to separate them from their surroundings seems harsh and counter to the spirit of the plan. The problem with these edge-city developments is that they easily become defensive, over-private and, in shutting themselves off, they relinquish the capacity to develop into genuinely public places. Perhaps as the neighbourhood develops and expands the streets created here will begin to weave and insinuate themselves into the emerging surrounding fabric like the tendrils of a creeping plant. But as a seed, a mechanism to catalyze a communal and generous-spirited life, it is a fascinating and elegant prospect.
The Penthouse by WOW
The design brief for The Penthouse by WOW to interpret the penthouse of the former Hotel Roma as the home of the hotel owner, creating an unusual, sophisticated, and exclusive ambiance. The creative concept used for the interior design was to think of the restaurant as an apartment that adapts to a gastronomic space. The idea was to create a cozy and elegant atmosphere that would make diners feel as if they were in the home of a unique and eccentric character, such as "The Spanish King." The restaurant has been conceived as an apartment for a person who started living there in the 70s, so there is a direct reference to the design of that decade. To achieve this, each room of the restaurant was interpreted as a domestic space transformed into a dining area. From the kitchen to the living room, study, and bedroom suite with a bathroom, each area was designed to evoke surprise and a feeling of comfort and familiarity. The target audience is disruptive, original, and sophisticated, seeking a unique occasion. The design establishes a significant connection between the type of cuisine and the interior design, making the culinary concept adapt perfectly to the space's design, resulting in a high-quality gastronomic experience that complements the visual and aesthetic experience of the space. The open kitchen is visible to diners, creating a unique and intimate environment between the chefs and customers. The space has also been designed to adapt to different special occasions, such as private dinners or corporate events, while maintaining the coherence and aesthetics of the space. The result is a unique and sophisticated gastronomic experience that transports diners to the home of an eccentric character while enjoying high-quality cuisine in a visually stunning setting.
Ombú
Ombú is a transformative office building built for the Spanish infrastructure and energy company ACCIONA. This retrofit project breathes new life into a historic industrial building in Madrid, creating a sustainable exemplar of building reuse and revitalising the surrounding area. With over 10,000 square metres of new office space, the project unifies a unique mix of private and public land with green landscaping that extends to the adjoining Méndez Álvaro station. Originally built in 1905 by the architect Luis de Landecho, the building once supplied energy to the surrounding areas. It later fell into disuse until ACCIONA acquired it in 2017, saving it from demolition, a fate that other similar structures in the area had experienced in recent years. The project capitalises on the existing load-bearing structure that supports the pitched steel trusses. The historic building envelope has been retained to conserve over 10,000 tonnes of original brick and mitigate the environmental impact. The lightweight structure inserted inside the space is made from sustainably sourced timber from local forests and allows for spatial flexibility, while also integrating lighting, ventilation and other services. The timber structure will save more than 1,600 tonnes of CO2 and is recyclable and demountable. A central skylight brings natural light to the interior, reducing the need for artificial lighting, while the glazing incorporates photovoltaic technologies that generate electricity. Taking advantage of Madrid’s temperate climate, a new courtyard offers the option to comfortably work outdoors. The courtyard connects to a large 12,400 square-metre park with 350 trees featuring outdoor working spaces and areas for informal meetings sheltered by a green canopy of trees. Local species have been carefully selected to reduce water consumption, which will come from local sources. The new green, public space connects the building with the surrounding community and generates a positive social impact. Located in the lively Arganzuela district, Ombú also benefits from direct access to rail and bus networks, encouraging employees to travel by public transport. One of the most sustainable projects by Foster + Partners, the project was presented at COP26 in Glasgow as a case study for the World Green Building Council. Its environmental impact is compatible with the original 2°C aim of the Paris Agreement and its carbon footprint has been carefully measured and controlled. The design reduces embodied carbon by 25 percent when compared to a new build over the whole life of the project, while making allowances for future refurbishment. The operational energy is calculated to be 35 percent below normal expectations. Using the concept of ecological footprint, the life cycle impact of the project was quantified and improved across all aspects of the development. When contextualised in terms of planets the result was approximately equal to 1. This means Ombú’s carbon emissions will be absorbed by the capacity of the earth, achieving the balance of sources and sinks required by the Paris Agreement.
WOW Concept
WOW is an articulated project, with a digital marketplace that complements the online shopping experience through interactive systems. This project nourishes the physical space, whose first spectacular point of sale. Each floor is unique and dynamic making WOW a theatre of retail, an iridescent scenography that changes on every floor, that transforms to wow the customer. This innovative space blends reality with fiction, the physical becomes digital, and shopping becomes an immersive experience. The six floors dedicated to retail, are designed as a stage for a constant contemporary show, where a product is discovered through various sensory experiences that alter from floor to floor and change over time. In WOW each space is unique, exceptional, and provocative, and they host activities that create an unforgettable experience for the user. Different shopping scenarios imply that there will also be a continuous replacement of products, brands, and digital natives which are not sold in other physical stores and will have their exclusive spaces in WOW. In the WOW tour, the user starts on the ground floor dedicated to cosmetics. On this floor, External Reference has imagined that classical sculptures across time and space colonize the building of the former Neo-Classic Hotel Roma. These pink painted statues have undergone spatiotemporal deformations which manifest themselves in glitches and are used as displays for product demonstrations. The lower floor houses the technology products in a space inspired by the evolution of human nature towards the artificial and digital. A landscape of marine corals 3D printed with PureTech material (a natural mineral compound that neutralizes greenhouse gases by capturing and converting CO2 into inert minerals) is the setting where digital and physical dimensions are integrated to generate an unprecedented shopping experience. The first to the third floor is dedicated to fashion represented by digital-native brands, established companies, and streetwear firms respectively. All of them are aesthetically and conceptually independent. The first floor will be changing its skin entirely as if it were a dress, completely renewing its aesthetics each season. Whereas, the second floor, with its imaginary inspired by a fashion show, will be changing scenarios for events. And the third floor, inspired by sports and street aesthetics, immerses the user in a more technical and urban space. The fourth floor of the mall is dedicated to home and host avatars under an aesthetic inspired by the Metaverse, theatricalizing a game situation where outer and inner space are mixed, and reality becomes a pixelated fantasy. The whole WOW project is inside a protected building, the former Hotel Roma, the first one built on Gran Vía dating back to 1915. The design of the interior space, therefore, generates a dialogue between an extremely contemporary layer and its historical context. All of WOW's internal structures and components have been designed as ephemeral elements, removable skins, and furnishings conceived as free-standing art installations. The result, in addition to respecting the historical heritage, manages to generate a dialogical, artistic, and sometimes ironic reading.
WPP Madrid
As part of its workplace transformation project for the WPP, BDG architecture + design has created an impactful and dynamic campus for WPP’s operating companies in Madrid, accommodating circa 2500 employees. The relocation to central Madrid, supports WPP’s strategy to increase the diversity of their workforce and participate actively in the communities where they live and work –breathing new life into a difficult building and providing economic stimulus for the area. The former Telefónica headquarters on Calle de Ríos Rosas, in the Chamberí neighbourhood of central Madrid, had been derelict and gloomy for the past 8 years and the welcome arrival of WPP has transformed this eyesore to a source of life, injecting into the city a much-needed dose of regenerative optimism. The building has innate assets: the largest single floor plate of any office building in the centre of Madrid, at 7,000sqm and the highest floor-to-ceiling heights, just short of 5 metres. 26 Rios Rosas is at the scale of an urban block, located in a mixed residential and commercial area. The scars from the terrorist attack in the 1980’s (by separatist group ETA who purposefully targeted and bombed the telephone network) were still visible in the building fabric when BDG began to creatively re imagine this existing structure as a vibrant hub for WPP’s Madrid based companies. Each of the 30+ companies have a sense of ownership over their spaces, balancing branded and brand-neutral environments. The most noticeable change to the public is its façade, consisting of the replacement of the 140m long North and South facades, with high quality glulam timber framed glazing to the North and minimal aluminium frames and louvres to the South, which respectfully reflects the beautiful University of Madrid Mining and Energy Faculty building on the opposite side of the street. The newly defined double-height reception, sets a tone of openness and airiness that is synonymous with the design, as well as providing a physical and visual link to the building’s 3,000sqm of split-level outdoor space at the rear of the building. This external space was previously an unused asset, and now has been transformed into a courtyard garden, landscaped with species appropriate to Madrid’s altitude and harsh summer climate. The garden has connections to a café and shared workspaces at ground floor and to the canteen, restaurant, and bar spaces at lower ground level. The project included the refurbishment of the existing core, and the addition of a new core, the latter provided the opportunity to add dedicated lifts to the building’s top floors, creating another major transformation in the form of a dedicated event and conference space, a 150-person theatre and a terrace – a destination both during work hours, and beyond. The agility of the architecture is key and BDG’s process of robust on-site analysis with each incoming team has informed the initial arrangement, inbuilt flexibility was created through walls sitting below the ceiling and service grid, means that dismantling and rearranging them as required is uncomplicated, quick and minimally disruptive, thus future proofing the space.
Caja Madrid Obelisk
Monument designed by Santiago Calatrava located in the Plaza de Castilla in Madrid, Spain.
Valcotos
A housing complex with ten 180 sqm single-family houses on a 6,120m2 plot located 15 minutes from the center of Madrid. This was the client’s briefing. An internal street cuts the plot in half and separates the two sets of houses. The street, covered in white gravel, does not separate a space for the car and one for the pedestrians; this normally existing limit is diluted and creates a feeling of a linear park. From the inner street, you can see the slatted wooden walls on both sides and the projections of white volumes, out of alignment between themselves. These volumes house the private areas of each house. In order to maintain the privacy of each residence, the front facade is blind and the side one (bedrooms facade) has a small balcony protected by a cobogó wall. The balconies face the central courtyard of each house and, in this courtyard, each residence has a swimming pool. On the ground floor is the social area of the house. Large glass panels retract to create total integration with the garden. Escaping the usual configuration of housing complexes, Concept Valdemarín creates, in a simple way, a playful game of volumes and an internal circulation that does not categorize the use of pedestrians or cars.
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Open in Atlas MapFrequently Asked Questions
How long does the Madrid architecture walking tour take?+
The self-guided walking tour covers approximately 11 km with 6 stops. Allow approximately 4 hours including 20 minutes of viewing time per building.
Is the Madrid architecture tour free?+
Yes, this is a completely free self-guided walking tour. You can view the route on the interactive map, export it to Google Maps for navigation, and explore at your own pace.
Do I need to book the Madrid architecture tour in advance?+
No booking is required — this is a self-guided tour that you can start at any time. All buildings can be viewed from the outside. For guided tours with expert commentary, we recommend checking GetYourGuide for local architecture tours.
What is the best time to do the Madrid architecture walking tour?+
Morning light (before 11am) is ideal for photography of building facades. Weekdays tend to be less crowded around commercial buildings. Allow a full half day for the complete tour.