The Plaza de Castilla complex
This is a listing self-critical, joker and as scoundrel as this city is . But above all, the demonstration that ** Madrid ** is what it is because of its inhabitants, its iterance and its eclecticism sweetened by its party.
VIEWPOINT BUILDING
Although this ranking includes places that were intended to be touristic and iconic, it is impossible to forget the greatest residential abomination that this city knows: Sanchinarro. This PAU in January is atrocious and in August it looks like a landscape by Chirico . Among its different rarities with windows, one takes the architectural Razzie: the lookout building. His ugliness knows no bounds, even the Telegraph chose it in 2012 as one of the most emetic constructions on the planet . And there are plenty of reasons. To its risky form (take euphemism!) we must add that appearance of having survived a nuclear holocaust and those colors that are so unnatural and suitable for balanced human life.
Lookout Building
MAGIC BOX
Now that the Vicente Calderón stadium is going to cease to be the building that worst adapts to the brand new Manzanares, you just need to follow the channel a bit to find a worthy replacement. maybe this underutilized complex designed for tennis be an engineering prodigy because of the retractable roofs, but he is still a opaque, dark and Martian prism in the middle of a garden. Not even the diverted channels of the river, often stinking and brown, add a natural touch to a monstrosity in which light is conspicuous by its absence and temperatures are always extreme.
The magic Box
GREAT ROAD 48
But why? What need was there to erect a new building on Gran Vía? And above all, Why did it have to break with the classic, vintage and showcase harmony of the most emblematic street in Madrid? Let's see, maybe in another context the luxury housing building designed by Rafael de la Hoz and inaugurated less than a year ago has its one, but not here. Not even the radical eclecticism in which Madrid feels comfortable saves it. No. Too shocking, futuristic and inexplicable.
FACULTY OF INFORMATION SCIENCE
The Moncloa Campus of the Complutense University was raised in the 20's with very good intentions and manners. For the new buildings, some of the best architects of the time were employed, leaving nice faculties such as Medicine for posterity. And yet, her neighbor across the street, the always belligerent Faculty of Information Sciences took the worst of the enlargement of the 1960s: the disconnection, coldness and pragmatism . It is a building without soul or heat, with large rooms and soulless corridors. A survivor of Cuéntame that not even the lenses of his Audiovisual students are capable of making up.
BRUTALISM THAT DOESN'T
University buildings have not been the only ones where brutalism has been horribly and disproportionately misunderstood. And not even the church has gotten rid of them. The 50s, 60s and 70s were a gold mine for architects who were followers of Le Corbusier who rubbed their hands thanks to the (state) budgets of the Madrid diocese. But being a 'fan of' doesn't guarantee anything, as some creations more typical of apocalyptic science fiction that of a city that wanted to be modern. Examples of them are the church Our Lady of the Rosary of the Philippines (in List) , that of Saint John of the Cross (in New Ministries), or the Hispano-American Basilica of Mercy, located in the same neighborhood.
Information Sciences Building
VALENCIA TOWER
Seen from its feet, this skyscraper built in the 70's is not so bad. Yes, it is pure concrete, but the crudeness of its material is saved with a somewhat original and picturesque form. And that's it. Crime comes when you look from afar , when it becomes the black sheep of the center of Madrid, an ocher punch that hurts the eye and annoys the photos of the Cibeles and the Puerta de Alcalá. Already in its day the works had to be paralyzed due to neighborhood complaints, but it could not be avoided that the aristocratic skyline of the neighborhoods of Salamanca and Retiro would be poisoned by this mass.
OBELISK OF CALATRAVA
The Kio towers they get rid of entering this list of shame for having become the symbol of modern Madrid, despite their histrionics and gratuitous spectacularity. But the obelisk that Calatrava planted right in front has no forgiveness . It is simply a very expensive gift to the city. So much so that it has not even been put into motion (it is assumed that the movements of its plates emulated a wave that rose to the sky) due to its high maintenance cost. With or without this icing, the column continues to seem like a decontextualized whim that barely converses with its leaning neighbors.
Obelisk of Calatrava
MONCLOA SET
The Municipal District Council of Moncloa and the Arco de la Victoria form a dandruff, irritating and outdated marriage. Both are a product of the Madrid of the winners, the one that transformed the city to the liking of a few to give it a solemn, military and 'glorious' air . And yet it oozes mothballs and is embarrassing. Fortunately, progress and the A-6 have condemned them to ostracism.
Moncloa complex: a Leni Riefenstahl-style forumogram
MONUMENT 11-M
The intention was not bad. On paper, a cylinder of glass bricks that keeps the names of all the victims inside is a precious tribute. But in practice, neither their accesses are adequate , nor the smoky rattle of its exterior provides the peace and space that this place requires. Come on, that in the end does not do justice to the objective of the monolith.
SOL COMMUTER STATION
There is only one urban race that loves this glass conch shell that emerges in the most charismatic square in Madrid: the modern one with SLR. They have a blast taking photos of their reflections and playing with their effects. But for the others it doesn't stop being an anachronistic glob capable of stealing traditionalism from the heart of the city . If Tio Pepe has been returned, why not take this robotic distant cousin with him?
PYRAMID BUILDING, CASTELLANA 33
Oh, the Castilian. Step by step, number by number, the great artery of Madrid exhibits an overwhelming number of styles and picturesque buildings . Or what is the same, the Stendhal syndrome, but in reverse. In this mosaic of rarities, the occasional success and many kamikaze bets, buildings such as Castellana 33, better known as the Pyramid, stand out. A failed attempt to be original in an office building located between mansions . The contrast ends up being very harsh. One more example of a street with an infinite list of aberrations that could be completed with the Palacio de Congresos, the Mutua Madrileña building or the Nuevos Ministerios.
Sol suburban station
ALMUDENA CATHEDRAL
There is no doubt, the great church of Madrid is the biggest missed opportunity . As data, a painful comparison: the Almudena began to be built a year later (1883) than the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. While in Barcelona they bet on the Vanguard, in the capital they decided to build a neo-gothic mass more tacky and bland with a clear objective: load the views from the Garabitas hill.
Worst of all, it has never managed to overwhelm with its historicist and medievalist aspirations, and it is said that they were inspired by the work of Viollet-le-Duc in France. It is difficult to explain why this abomination can not even be justified by claiming the need to respect the harmony of the neighboring Royal Palace. And on top of that, the passing of the years has not served to repent or to redeem himself and if not there are the paintings and stained glass windows of the apse, decorated by Kiko Argüello, which is once again a display of anachronism.
ROYAL COLLECTIONS MUSEUM
Another missed opportunity. Although it is not yet open, this building is already the talk of all those who like to go to Las Vistillas to observe the less ugly face of the Almudena made up with the sunset. It may be that the environment does not help because of being under a building on this list, but this kind of toothless grimace has no justification or forgiveness. Although its interior promises to be minimalist and grandiloquent (a possible paradox), the fact of having destroyed one of the most beautiful postcards of the capital only deserves condemnation, ostracism and hatred.
Almudena Cathedral