Allow us to guide you around Madrid with our programme of technical tours. Tours run on both Thursday 16 May (15:00-18:45) and Friday 17 May (10:00-12:00).
Please note that due to the travel time involved for some of our tours we have created longer tours on Thursday afternoon to allow for this. Delegates choosing a seminar or short tour from session three are also invited to pick a seminar or short tour from session four. Those opting for a “long tour” will not be able to choose a second option on Thursday afternoon.
Most tours require advanced lists of attendees and passport numbers, therefore we regret it will not be possible to change tours on site, even if spaces are available.
SESSION 03 (Short Tours)
14:45-16:30
(T1) ENDESA
In 2002 Endesa occupied twelve buildings in central Madrid. A decision was taken to relocate all 2,600 staff to a site north west of the city with excellent connectivity to the airport and 1,000 parking spaces on site.
The concept design references the traditional Spanish form of a large internal courtyard surrounded by six storey office wings. The atrium roof comprises steel trusses spanning almost 50m with external shading provided by galvanized steel grilles. Pre-cooled fresh air passes through underground ducts before being introduced to the offices and base of the atrium. Temperature and humidity are monitored in every part of each floor and the data is displayed in the public reception area at ground floor.
The visit will take in all of these features as well as show off the office environment.
(T2) MADRID CITY HALL
Completed in 1917 and formerly The Post Office, this building has recently been refurbished and is now the City Hall, headquarters for regional government. Alongside office space, the building also contains a series of cultural spaces, a café and viewing platform. The building was originally constructed around a large open courtyard where mail and parcels were collected prior to sorting and onward distribution. This courtyard has now been totally covered with an asymmetric glass diagrid dome. The guided tour will take in the newly refurbished cultural spaces, gallery and roof top viewing platform as well as the covered courtyard.
(T3) TOWER DISTRICT TOUR 1
The Tower District is a prominent feature on the northern limits of the Madrid skyline. All four towers were constructed at roughly the same time in the period 2007-2009. The tallest tower is 250m and the lowest 224m, and they sit over a large parking basement. This allows the towers to be surrounded by public realm and landscaping. Torre Caja Madrid (now Bankia) was originally constructed as the Repsol headquarters, but not occupied by them. Torre PWC is used by PWC on the upper floors and a hotel in the lower floors. Torre de Cristal, the second tallest (behind Bankia), is clad with super reflective glass and was conceived as a cut diamond.
Each building addresses the issues of façade treatment, energy, sustainability and occupation style in a different way. The tour will start in the Torre Cristal on the 50th floor followed by a visit to one of the fitted out floors. Later it will be possible to see the public realm and the setting of the Towers within Madrid.
SESSIONS 03 & 04 (long tours)
Thursday 16 May, 15:00-18:45
(T4) SANTANDER & TELEFONICA
This tour includes both of the recently completed major office campus environments. Full details of building features are given in the descriptions for Tours T12 and T13.
(T5) SANTANDER & TOWER DISTRICT URBAN REALM
This tour includes a visit to the Santander Headquarters situated to the north west of Madrid as well as a close inspection of the urban realm and setting of the Tower District at the northern city limit. Full details of building features are given in the description for Tours T1, T3, T12 and T18.
(T6) BBVA NEW HQ & TOWER DISTRUCTION URBAN REALM
The new BBVA headquarters will be an iconic and extraordinary addition to the Madrid skyline as well as an intriguing new building in its own right. When completed, the buildings will provide 250,000m² of office space for the majority of the bank’s 6000 employees in Madrid. The campus is being developed in two phases and the first will be occupied in 2013. The building form is very unusual with windows set well back within the slab edge, external concrete columns and narrow inner streets with gardens. The second phase will create a tower 100m high together with a recessed plaza containing many trees.
Delegates will be able to experience this different type of office environment and see the adjacent works of Phase 2 in construction. The tour will also take in the urban realm aspects of the four towers which were built between 2007 and 2009 and dominate the skyline to the north of the city.
Please note BBVA New HQ is a construction site and places on this tour are very limited.
(T7) CLASSIC BUILDINGS
The tour takes in three of the most iconic office buildings in Madrid. They date from 1981 to 1996 and all have particular innovative features.
BBVA HQ
This is the current home of BBVA in Madrid. The building was completed in 1981 and is a well recognised innovative classic building of its time and sits within the original tower cluster in Madrid. The building comprises 36 floors including four levels of basement. Solar shading in the form of external steel shelves gives it a distinctive look. The 45,000m² tower is boldly expressed as six separate stacked blocks where the lowest level of each block comprises a concrete platform upon which the five floors above are supported. The tour will take in the distinctive features of the building and from the upper levels its position and context in the wider Madrid area can be understood clearly.
Castellana 50
Designed by architect Rafael de La-Hoz (Senior), Castellana 50 was completed in 1986. The architectural intent was to create an abstract prismatic main office building hovering over the ground scraper podium. This results in over 85% of the building area floating above the lowest levels. This effect was achieved by supporting the upper floors with 24 steel rods attached to an off centre core situated at the rear of the building. The double skinned glass façade completes the weightless floating feel as well as allowing daylight into the building without causing it to overheat. The building is currently in the process of refurbishment by Rafael de La-Hoz (Junior).
KIO Towers
The KIO towers are known as Gate of Europe or simply Torres, as they mark the northern end of Madrid’s business district. The development was completed in 1996 and consists of two 114m, 26 storey office blocks at an incline of 15º with a total area of 108,700m² for the whole project. These classic towers were the world’s first inclined skyscrapers.
(T8) REPSOL
The headquarters building comprises four, five storey office buildings positioned around a garden courtyard. Below ground are two levels of basement parking for 1,800 cars. The building will be fully occupied towards the end of 2012 and provides Repsol with almost 55,000m² of office accommodation. The form of each of the four office buildings is similar and extremely unusual.
Above ground level the offices are arranged as offset pairs of floors each around 20m wide. This arrangement is achieved with the help of expressed structural mega-frames (111 in all) which wrap around the upper four levels of offices. Within this basic framework the offices are sometimes offset and additional areas added on. The vertical circulation is always positioned at the ends of the floor plates and glazed link bridges connect the flour blocks at every level. The tour will enable delegates to appreciate the scale of the building, how the corporate spaces are positioned and the nature of the office environment to be experienced. This is a truly different kind of building and will achieve LEED gold accreditation when fully occupied.
SESSION 04 (short tours)
Thursday 16 May, 17:15-18:45
(T9) SANITAS
The Sanitas Headquarters is located on Calle de Ribera de Loira in Madrid. It is a low rise building with six floors above ground and three below. Sustainability is central to the building design and at the time of completion, Spain’s first truly green building. The building has an elliptical form with its major axis orientated north-south and contained within the ellipse perimeter are three rectangular office blocks separated by atria. It is noticeable that low energy, local, recyclable materials have been used throughout. The structure has also been prefabricated to allow not only for easy assembly, but also in the future disassembly and recycling. The tour will enable the full interior office environment and exterior to be experienced alongside impressive sustainable credentials.
(T10) MADRID CITY HALL
See T2 for a full write up.
(T11) TOWER DISTRICT TOUR 1
See T3 for a full write up.
SESSION 05
Friday 17 May, 09:45-12:00
(T12) SANTANDER
Completed in 2004, the Bank’s group headquarters became Santander Group City, a campus located in Boadilla del Monte, 15 km to the west of Madrid and reported to be worth more than €2 billion. The city was designed to house the Santander Group’s head office departments, which previously had been spread out over twenty-five different buildings around Madrid. The Campus consists of low buildings interconnected by courtyards, plazas and parking for 4,600 cars and is now the workplace of 6,700 people.
The complex is a sustainable and constantly developing business space which reflects Banco Santander’s scale and global reach. The eastern area of the campus is the site of the El Solaruco training and development centre. Amongst other features there are 28 lecture rooms and an auditorium with capacity to seat 1,600 people. An art gallery, sculpture park, ancient olive trees, swimming pool, football pitches, an 18 hole golf course and crèche for 400 children support the corporate culture. The tour will show off the scale of this huge campus and provide an opportunity to visit the art gallery and wide ranging facilities.
(T13) TELEFONICA
The building is located in the newly developed suburb of “Las Tablas”, 15 km north of Madrid, near “La Moraleja” park. It is the head office campus of the Spanish multinational telecommunications firm Telefonica S.A. The site consists of a total of 140,000m2, and had a net cost of over €500 million. The site hosts more than 14,000 people, including the Group’s staff and visitors. During construction it was the biggest European construction project in terms of glass. The glass was developed specifically for the project appearing transparent from the inside and opaque from the outside. The entire site consists of twelve office buildings; four ten storey “cornerstone” buildings defining the perimeter of the campus, and eight four storey office buildings in between. Over the whole complex is an extensive roof structure defining the campus area, unifying the buildings into one site. It is, unlike most other company sites, open to the public and fully accessible. Our tour will take in the offices, grounds and support facilities.
(T14) SANITAS
This tour will depart at 10.00hrs
See T9 for a full write up.
(T15) ENDESA
This tour will depart at 10.00hrs
See T1 for a full write up.
(T16) MADRID CITY HALL
This tour will depart at 10.00hrs
See T2 for a full write up.
(T17) CLASSIC BUILDINGS
This tour will depart at 10.00hrs
See T7 for a full write up.
(T18) TOWER DISTRICT TOUR 2
The Tower District is a prominent feature on the northern limits of the Madrid skyline. All four towers were constructed at roughly the same time in the period 2007-2009. The tallest tower is 250m and the lowest 224m, and they sit over a large parking basement. This allows the towers to be surrounded by public realm and landscaping. Torre Caja Madrid (now Bankia) was originally constructed as the Repsol headquarters, but not occupied by them. PwC occupy a third of the tower vertically whilst the hotel occupies the remaining two thirds of the tower. Torre de Cristal is the second tallest (behind Bankia) is clad with super reflective glass and was conceived as a cut diamond. Each building addresses the issues of façade treatment, energy, sustainability and occupation style in a different way. The tour will include a visit to a floor in the Bankia tower followed by a visit to the British Embassy floor in Espacio. The tower public realm and setting will also be experienced.
(T19) TOWER DISTRICT TOUR 1
This tour has been cancelled on Friday 17 May but will run as planned on Thursday 16 May. See T3 for further information and the full write up.
(T20) REPSOL
See T8 for a full write up.
