Brutalism in Madrid

Madrid developed a distinctive strain of concrete architecture during the desarrollismo boom of the 1960s, when rapid economic growth met a generation of formally inventive architects. Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza built Torres Blancas, an organic tower of curved concrete balconies that became the emblem of Spanish brutalism. Fernando Higueras, working with Antonio Miró, designed the circular Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, known locally as the Crown of Thorns for its radiating concrete structure. Miguel Fisac contributed his own experiments with bone-like precast concrete, including Laboratorios Jorba, the Pagoda, whose demolition in 1999 remains a sore point in the city's architectural memory. University buildings and churches from the same years round out an unusually expressive local scene.