Caja Madrid Tower

An incredible piece of construction is the Torre Caja Madrid (Caja Madrid Tower) is the largest of the four buildings in the Cuatro Torres Business (CTBA) Area of Madrid, at 250 Meters high; it's the highest building of all Madrid and Spain.

 

The building was built for Caja Madrid which is the oldest of the Spanish savings banks, founded in the 3rd of December 1702 initially as the Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid, Caja Madrid is owned by the Community of Madrid. The idea for building the Torre Caja Madrid was to consolidate the massive team of the bank in one location that also would reflect the company's core values and encouraging a strong social connection as well as giving the bank an opportunity to show its art collection. 

Torre Caja Madrid (Caja Madrid Tower)

  

The site where the building now stands was the former training grounds of Real Madrid football team, initially known as the Madrid Arena, on the broad, tree lined Paseo de la Castellana, about 1 Kilometer from the Plaza de Castilla, the Paseo de la Castellana is the main artery boulevard of Madrid running from the North entrance to Madrid to the heart of Madrid City itself.


Inovation 

Built By Foster and Partners along with co–architects Gonzalo Martínez-Pita Copello and was completed in 2009, the structure can be thought of as an arch, made of two external reinforced concrete cores. Each core contains seven elevators, stairways and service area, leaving the internal space area free for large open office areas, a strategy first used in the design of the Hong kong Bank, the roof space of the tower hosts an empty space area, designed to hold wind turbines, depending on the viability and feasibility at some time in the future. The design of the building also allows for the possibility for Caja Madrid to sublet parts of the building, which gives the company more flexibility in terms of expansion or contraction of its use of the building if needed. This degree of flexibility in moving the service areas to the edges of the building was first used in the design of the Hong kong Bank building and creates uninterrupted 1200 square-metre floor areas. The building is vertically circulated from the sides, saving space as a result of a smart lift system that requires fewer lifts than conventional building structures. The Caja Madrid Tower is strategically positioned so as to block west/east direct sunlight, with spectacular views of the hills of Sierra de Guadarrama to the north and the centre of Madrid to the south.

 

Sir Norman Foster, the renowned English architect and Pritzker Prize winner, which is considered the architecture's Nobel and the profession's highest honor, is the founder and chairman of Foster + Partners. Founded in London in 1967, it is now a worldwide practice, with project offices in more than twenty countries. In 1990 Norman Foster was granted a Knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honors and in 1999 was honored with a Life Peerage, becoming Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

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