In the distance, its structure is already beginning to be guessed and, closely, what will be its interior is intuited. The construction of Caleido, the fifth tower - although in reality it is much more than that - of the financial district of the north of La Castellana, advances at a dizzying pace. Walking today among its concrete blocks with those who know the project as the palm of your hand is like taking a small trip to the future, one that will be a reality in just over a year.

Advancing at a rate of one plant per week, and meeting the established deadlines, before next summer the works will see their end, although the complex will not be operational until the second half of 2020. To arrive on time, 4,000 workers work during the day and at night seven days a week since February last year, when the project started.

Designed in a T-shape inverted by the Fenwich & Iribarren architecture studio in co-authorship with Serrano-Suñer, the 180-meter building - the lowest in the area - is composed of a four-story horizontal structure on which a tower rests of 35 floors.

Its tenants will be the Instituto de Empresa (IE), one of the most prestigious universities in the country, and the QuirónSalud Group, which will focus on this facility with athletes. But in addition, in the immediate vicinity and in the building itself, there will be a large commercial area and a park of more than 30,000 m2 that, in the words of architect Mark Fenwick, will "humanize" the financial area and "improve the experience of people who are move around, through squares and streets protected from the wind ».

"Iconic building"

Since construction began, every Tuesday, architects, owners, builders, safety, health and quality managers and other companies involved in Caleido visit the work to assess its progress. And, for the moment, everything "is going as planned in the drawing," says Fenwick, who talks about how he created this "iconic building" without having a blank paper, taking advantage of the "modern archeology" left by the ill-fated Center of Conventions when, back in 2008, an attempt was made to raise.

The construction, in the hands of OHL, advances today by different points at the same time. The structure of the building reaches this week the 27th floor and the latest generation glass (black on the outside, of course on the inside) that will cover the facade and can be seen on both sides of the tower - up to the 11th floor - and in the basement of the building, according to the director of furniture operations of Caleido, Elena Muñoz.

Inside, the workers already work on the 16th floor with the finishes and facilities, drawing on the tower what will be the classrooms, meeting rooms and laboratories, and on the basement, the pool, the auditorium and the sports center of the university .

In addition, the partition of the premises integrated in the building - between 60 and 80 - has also begun, although these will not be fully defined until Espacio Caleido, owner of the building, does not close all commercial agreements. So far, «40% of them are closed and many of them are in negotiation», according to the company's commercial director, Rocío Zunzunegui.

Shopping street

Outside, you can see what will be the commercial street and the double-height structure of the so-called Cubas de Castellana -five on each side of the tower-, some buildings where shops and restaurants will be installed.

Understanding the uniqueness of the building is not simple to the naked eye. From the bottom up - without counting the four garage heights - it has three basement floors, one commercial, another terrace and 35 tower floors.

The base of the building, which saves the 20 meters of difference between the Paseo de la Castellana and Monforte de Lemos, is 50% divided between its two tenants. On one side of the tower will be the most transit facilities of the IE, such as an auditorium for 600 people, a sports center, a swimming pool or a cafeteria. And on the other, you will find the QuirónSalud consultations, which will have recognition, training, biomechanics, rehabilitation, nutrition and sports cardiology units.

On this base there will be two squares, which will be surrounded on the sides by stores with trend stores - fashion, sports, technology -, services - hairdressing, pharmacy, arrangements, florist - and gastronomy. In the extremes, there will be a supermarket of more than 800 m2 designed «with the spirit of Caleido» and a boutique cinema, a «new concept that does not exist in Madrid» and that is between «luxury and traditional cinema», Zunzunegui details. Between both courtyards and just under the tower, a glazed space will be built - with possibilities of opening to the squares - that will have a gigantic screen. There, it is planned to hold exhibitions, concerts, parades or technological presentations.

One of the squares will house four greenhouses that will become a kind of gourmet market. And between each of them there will be skylights that will provide natural light to the Quirón clinic, following the maxim of the building: get the light to reach any point.

Two green covers

On these commercial spaces there will be two green terraces (or decks) of 7,000 m2 and U-shape. One of them will be for use by university students and will house a meadow and areas where students can perform sports and events. The other, on the hospital center, will be of free access and will be linked to the commercial part.

The interior of the tower, destined for the university, is a succession of linear plants with others open -by the center or the ends-, where large squares will be created, with coffee corners , for students to make life. The plants «will not be divided by schools but by themes: entrepreneurship (with spaces for talks), technology (with a virtual room), sustainability (with gardens and greenhouses) and innovation (with areas to show prototypes)», details the architect Fernando Serrano-Suñer, who has been designing projects for IE for more than a decade.

In addition, there will be classrooms - some 70 in total for about 6,000 students - of different types: some with mobile partitions that will allow two classes to be joined in 360º, others more reconfigurable with innovative furniture and a lot of technology and other experimental ones, with video walls for presentations. Together with these classrooms, the offices of academics, rooms for group work, silence rooms and furniture for individualized studies will be arranged.

Outside the building, between it and the Cubes, there will be a shopping street that will allow you to cross from Castellana to the end of Sinesio Delgado with stores of well-known, premium brands - although not positioned in luxury - and trends.

On the side of Monforte de Lemos, and so that "everything is a unit" with Caleido, according to Mark Fenwick, a public park of more than 30,000 m2 will be built, with seasonal and children's areas and designed for sports.

Finally, of the four garage floors, only two will be put into use: one to service the commercial area and another for IE and Chiron.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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