Edificio Espana

On from the cultural centre we didn't visit we looked for another place to rest and came to the Plaza de Espana. The most imposing building here is the Edificio Espana built in the early 50s to celebrate the booming economy of Franco's Spain and still the 8th tallest building of Madrid. It's certainly making a statement. But personally I like this. While form is important, function is paramount. You can see it does something, it doesn't pretend to be something else. It's a box of rooms. And yet its magnificence comes as a direct result of trying to fulfil its role as a very big box of rooms. It's also not just a simple stack of concrete. It's design and function are closely intertwined. And yet this is classified as Neo-Baroque. I have to assume that comes from the little flourishes along the roof line, as otherwise it's very simple. Next to it, and just creeping into the picture at the left is the Torre de Madrid. For me this is where function has drifted too far from form. That tower was to be the tallest concrete building in the world at the time. It's not that tall now but was the tallest office building in western Europe until 1967. It's just a stack of concrete, as was common of the period.