The name of five finalists in the competition to redevelop Madrid’s Azca business district have been made public: Diller Scofidio+Renfro with Porter+Bowman and b720; Heatherwick Studio with CLK; MVRDV with estudio GRAS; Rem Koolhaas-OMA with Battle i Roig and NEXO Arquitectura; and West 8 with Porras Guadiana arquitectos.

After signing a protocol with Madrid City Hall last September, the firm Renazca – which owners of buildings in this superblock complex created with the aim of giving it a revamp – announced a competition directed at professionals of architecture and urban planning, the organization for which was entrusted to Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Prize and dean of the IE School of Architecture, and her colleague at IE, the architect Edgar González.

The history of Azca is laden with frustration. Covering 19 hectares delimited by Paseo de la Castellana and the streets Raimuindo Fernández Villaverde, Orense, and General Perón, it was originally conceived to be Spain’s own Rockefeller Center, but not even in its heyday has it gotten close to resembling that model.

We will know the winner in a few weeks...

El País: ‘Renazca: los cinco finalistas para transformar Azca’