IE TOWER - Fenwick Iribarren Architects

Offices & Towers

FOR THE DESIGN OF THE TOWER, WE WERE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING MORE TIMELESS, WHERE ITS BEAUTY LIES IN ITS MATHEMATICAL PROPORTIONS AND SIMPLICITY.

Client Torre Espacio SA
Location Madrid Spain
Size 180.000M₂
Status Finished

For the design of Caleido, we didn’t want a tower that would compete with the other four. We didn’t want a trendy tower with spectacular and impossible shapes.

We were looking for something more timeless, where its beauty lies in its mathematical proportions and the simplicity of its rectangular shape, a base and a tower united in an almost humble T-shaped building.

A slender black tower, creating a simple monument among the four larger towers, where the black color of the glass evokes the memory of the first historic towers of Chicago.

With its height of 160 meters (180 from Monforte de Lemos), it’s a small building compared to the other four towers but still stands out for the minimalist beauty of its proportions, its striking slenderness, and it powerfully exemplifies how in this case, less is more. In fact, the tower’s narrowest section has a span of only 17 meters, resembling a monolith that, due to its purpose, becomes a monument to knowledge, health, and social integration.

GEOMETRIC PROPORTIONS

A notable feature of Caleido’s design is its geometric proportion: 1 width by 4 depth and 9 height, which is formulated as the square of the first three integers. It pays homage to the TMA-1, the monolith of knowledge in impeccable geometry, an instrument of a superior civilization that is present in Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” based on Arthur C. Clarke’s novel.

The geometric purity of the exterior of the tower is transformed on the interior into a set of highly versatile spaces with open floors that facilitate changing potential uses over time.

THE TOWER MAKES A REFERENCE TO THE MONOLITH OF KNOWLEDGE FROM STANLEY KUBRICK’S FILM “2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY”

Caleido is unique in its uses, being the first vertical university in Educational Architecture in Spain and possibly in the world. Together with Fernando Serrano Suñer, we aimed to organize the floors of the tower and the base to accommodate the needs of the IE University. In the base, we have large spaces like the auditoriums, sports areas, and the library. In the tower, there are classrooms and office areas, as well as support spaces.

Caleido comprises a variety of uses, including the University, Commercial Area, Green Spaces, Parking, and Quirón Clinic.
The building is not just a container for classrooms. What characterizes this campus is the large open spaces. Every three floors of classrooms create double-height spaces, interior plazas, meeting and gathering areas that are the true social hub of the university.

LINK BETWEEN TWO DISTRICTS AND GREEN AREAS

The urban need to integrate the city into the environment and to use the building to connect and weave together neighborhoods, both from north to south and from east to west. Pedestrian pathways cross Caleido, connecting neighborhoods that were previously isolated from each other. Caleido unifies, humanizes, and tames what was once a wound in the city, a building for the people.

Caleido seeks to create green spaces with large rooftops, terraces, and pergolas, with plants and walkways providing views of the city. This is complemented by Parque Caleido, a new green park in the city that offers new recreational spaces for the northern community of Madrid. This is a significant sustainability challenge, emphasizing energy savings, water conservation, and the use of recyclable materials.

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