Torres Blancas, Madrid

Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, 1969. Despite the name, which means White Towers, Madrid's most famous apartment tower on Avenida de América is a single tower of bare gray concrete. Sáenz de Oiza wanted it to grow like a tree, so a core of service shafts rises like a trunk while rounded terraces bulge out on every floor and spread into a crown of disc-shaped balconies at the top, all visible in this view. It sits where brutalism meets organic architecture, and it shows that raw concrete does not have to mean boxes.