Torre Espacio occupies an exceptionally privileged site on the most important avenue in Madrid, Spain. The program consists of 43 office floors, two corporate floors at the top of the tower, 3 floors of commercial spaces at the base of the building, and 6 levels of underground parking. Besides providing efficient and attractive office space, Torre Espacio is designed to energize the space in which it stands and animate the skyline of Madrid.
The design of Torre Espacio evolves from a square plan at its base to a gently curved lozenge, shaped by the intersection of two quarter-circles, at its crown. Were this a work of sculpture, such a form could readily be carved from a solid block of stone. But as a work of architecture, its intersecting curved surfaces are necessarily composed of many separate panels that must be individually fabricated and assembled. Hence there was a need to discover and adopt a geometric order that can rationalize and facilitate the desired evolution from square to quarter-circle. We have found this order by subdividing the building section into 44 horizontal layers and then subdividing each quarter-circle of the plan into an equal number of radial segments. The intersections of successive layers in section with successive segments in plan define points along a vertical curve. Because the mathematical formulae describing this curve are based on the cosine, we call it a cosine curve.
An important characteristic of the cosine curve is that while it simplifies fabrication and assembly of the curtain wall, its rate of curvature is not constant but rather changes gradually over its entire length. This gives the resulting tower form its distinctive and visually appealing sense of energy, almost as if it were a living organism that has sprung from the earth on which it stands.
Location:
On a 7,500 m2 site, Lot 4 of the Plan Parcial de Reforma Interior “Ciudad Deportiva”
Building Type:
Office Tower
Gross Building Area:
75,250 m2 above grade, 45,000 m2 below grade
1,810 m2 largest office floorplate
1,240 m2 smallest office floorplate
Client:
Torre Espacio Castellana S.A.
Grupo Villar Mir
Time Frame:
Planning commenced: 2001
Construction start: 2004
Construction completion: 2008
PCF&P Services:
Architecture, exterior envelope, interior design of public spaces
Sustainability:
BREEAM In Use Excellent
Aawrds:
Design Award of Honor
Society of American Registered Architects, 2019
Design Awards: Citation
American Institute of Architects, New York State Chapter, 2013
Best Commercial High-Rise Europe
International Property Awards, 2015
Architect:
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects LLP
Henry N. Cobb, Design Partner
José Bruguera, Associate Partner (Project Architect)
Sherry Lin, Associate (Job Captain)
Associate Architect:
Reid Fenwick Asociados
Consultants:
Structural Engineers: MC2 Madrid, Spain
HVAC Engineers: PROMEC Madrid, Spain
Mechanical Engineers: R. Úrculo Ingenieros Consultores Madrid, Spain
