Main headquarters for the National Health insurance service in Madrid, Spain

Abstract

The main building of the National Health Insurance Services has three levels below grade for carpark and mechanical installations; a plinth, containing the ground floor and mezzanine, following the irregular contour of the terrain, where the meeting rooms and public areas are located, and a troncoconical five-storey tower, raising from the plinth and housing the various offices of the Service's departments and the head offices of the General Councils of Physicians, Pharmacists, Veterinarians and Dentists. The cutstanding character of the building, which stands out amongst the others to the curving shape of the different structural elements, and in the area, is due, on the one hand, on the other, to the match existing between the glazing of the tower, formed by bronze-coloured trapezoid modules, and the treatment of the plinth facade, expressing visually its distinct function by means of grey prefab concrete blank walls, arranged vertically with channels following the conical generating lines of the faces.