24th October 2022

Spotlight on Foster + Partners’ Madrid office

Foster + Partners’ Madrid office is located on Paseo de la Castellana, a prominent street that cuts directly through the centre of the city - from north to south. The team in Madrid has steadily grown since the office first opened in 2007. Currently, twenty employees live and work in Spain’s vibrant capital.  

Taba Rasti, Senior Partner and co-head of the Madrid studio said: “Madrid has always been at the heart of European culture, and our studio is a reflection of the city’s immense energy and vibrancy. We work on projects across the continent and beyond, with an aim to make the world a better place through design.”

The Madrid team has worked on a diverse range of projects including Château Margaux, the first new visible building on the estate since the Château and the existing cellars were completed two hundred years ago; Vatican Chapel, Pavilion of the Holy See, one of ten temporary chapels designed for the 2018 Venice Biennale – a tensegrity structure of cables and timber masts; the new Le Dôme winery, a new building nestled in the rolling hills of Bordeaux and blending seamlessly with the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape of the region; and Inn Hub La Punt a new centre for innovation in the heart of the Engadin valley that seeks to bring new visitors together with the local community to increase prosperity, create new jobs, and revitalise local crafts and produce.

Ongoing projects include the major new extension and remodelling of Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a proposal that seeks to reorient the museum towards the city, while enhancing the institution’s unique identity; and the Prado Museum extension to the Salon de Reinos in Madrid, creating a new public focus for the city by bringing together the various buildings that comprise the Prado with public spaces and underground links.

Most recently, the team completed Ombú - a transformative office building for the Spanish infrastructure and energy company ACCIONA. This retrofit project breathes new life into a historic industrial building in Madrid, creating a sustainable exemplar of building reuse and revitalising the surrounding area.

Pablo Urango Lillo, Senior Partner and co-head of the Madrid studio, added: “We work in close collaboration with our colleagues in London and across the world, bringing our global design expertise to bear on every project at a variety of scales.”