Word on the Street: IE’s newest campus
Photo: Fenwick Iribarren Architects
Rumor has it that in the coming years, IE will have in its faculty, a brand-new campus in Madrid, one that will scrape the skies and leave its mark on the city’s still bare skyline. “A tower to be seen from any given point in Madrid”, built no sooner than June 2019. That’s what the rumors say, but when you look up to Madrid’s clear sky and find no fifth skyscraper on the horizon and with 2019 just around the corner, the campus seems like a far-off dream.
However, start believing the rumors and shake off your doubts, because skyscraper #5 is happening, it is a reality and it has a name… let me introduce you to Caleido.
The first thing you should know is that Caleido is not a normal building. Definitely the first of its kind in Madrid, and a player to revolutionizing campus life in general. Caleido will host Spain’s first “vertical campus”, composed of fifty floors with the capacity to hold 6,000 students acting, living, breathing, as a real campus, with the same feeling of passages, corners, nooks and crannies, beautiful green spaces, and innovative interiors.
A vertical campus has its amenities, and I’m not just talking about the gorgeous views over the city. Caleido will provide us with “a massive cafeteria and a private gym, as well as a library and an Aula Magna,” informed project leader, Carmen Valle, in an exclusive interview for the Stork.
Photo: Fenwick Iribarren Architects
“A great part of the park is exclusively reserved to IE,” lots of space and opportunity to socialize, be in nature, exercise physically and healthy lifestyle is one of the most important features Caleido intends to project.
Upon completion, Caleido will be awarded the prestigious Gold LEED classification, because of its environmentally conscious construction. The building also houses a multitude of restaurants, over 5000 square meters dedicated to green space, an Olympic swimming pool, and shopping. It is divided three ways between education (our own IE university), health (research center) and public parks and platforms, providing scarce services in the district.
Because of Caleido’s multi-use structure, the same building will be a hub of commercial activity, shopping and business entrepreneurship; we will on a daily basis, encounter and share the space with the future that we wish to thrive in and achieve, giving us the opportunity to view and be a part of the field we want to make our difference in.
Located right in the heart of Madrid’s Castellana financial district, amidst the city’s most contemporary and high-end towers, Caleido will be the platform to connect its neighboring towering buildings, to the surrounding people and environment.
The future campus will bring something which has long been missing in Madrid’s most up-scale district: youthful vibrancy. And we, the students, will be the transmitters, bringing new life to the monotonous business-driven district, pumping culture, recreation, and lifestyle.
As Mark Fenwick, project architect, explained “We are talking about much more than a building here: we are talking about a project to humanize the whole area” in a video interview with Agencia EFE.
Photo: Edgar Gonzalez.com
Caleido will be an exciting culmination of eclectic people, coming from both around the world and around the city: business people, shoppers, tourists, visitors, professors, and students! Believe the rumors people, not long from now, we will be able to look at the skyline of Madrid and see a fifth tower, projecting our university’s logo to the world.
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