Torres Blancas Madrid Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza

Abstract

Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza had intended Torres Blancas as a logo for construction company Huarte. Juan Huarte, who built some of Spain’s most prominent buildings in the 1960s and 1970s, was the initiator behind the ‘white towers’, the plural indicating that the original plan provided for two towers. Only one was built; the other became a horizontal office building. The completed tower block is a beacon, marking the entrance to the city from the Barcelona motorway.

Torres Blancas is an experiment in building the vertical green city. Sáenz de Oíza designed a building with freehold properties, which puts Le Corbusier’s ideas about the villa and the garden city to the test: a vertical version of his immeuble-villas (1922). The architect was also indebted to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower (1952): unity of form and structure, biological analogy and tree structure, coherence between overall form and detailing, and a circle-based geometry. The sculptural shape of this radically organic, reinforced concrete building marries the opposing styles of rationalism and organicism.

The 71-m tower consists of two basement floors, where cars can be parked around the base of the tower, below the entrance-level terrace; 21 floors with dwellings, including a mezzanine for technical facilities. These are topped by two floors with communal facilities: a large reception room with a circular bar, commercial space, a restaurant and a large service area with a kitchen. Located atop are a cafeteria, multifunctional rooms, a conference hall that seats 120 people, and four guest rooms. The rooftop terrace features a meandering outdoor swimming pool.