We’re taking a tour of the city from north to south and have put together a list of eight 21st-century buildings that, if architecture is your passion, you simply must visit.

1. Terminal T4 at Adolfo Suárez Airport

Madrid’s fourth airport terminal was opened in February 2006. Designed by the architects at Estudio Lamela and Richard Rogers, it covers more than 470,000 square metres, has 38 boarding gates and a capacity for 35 million passengers a year.

The terminal was awarded the ‘Stirling Prize’ by the Royal Institute of British Architects and, over time, has become one of the capital’s most recognisable buildings.

2. Cuatro Torres Business Area

These four skyscrapers form a business park built on the site of Real Madrid’s former training ground. The four towers are the Foster Tower (Norman Foster), the PwC Tower (Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Álvarez-Sala Walter), the Crystal Tower (César Pelli) and the Espacio Tower. Alongside them stands a fifth building, Caleido, which opened in 2021.

3. Teatros Canal

This is a modern, 35,200-square-metre complex dedicated to the performing arts. The building, winner of the National Architecture Prize, was designed by the architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg and opened in 2009, featuring the latest technological innovations, in the Chamberí neighbourhood.

4. ABC Museum of Drawing and Illustration

Right in the heart of Madrid, this 1900s building—which once housed the first Mahou Brewery—is now home to an innovative cultural space. The building was designed by José López Salaberry, with the subsequent refurbishment carried out by the architectural practice Aranguren & Gallegos. It showcases the most innovative trends in architecture, art and museum design, with a focus on achieving the best technical conditions for conservation and exhibition.

5. Madrid College of Architects

The headquarters of the Madrid Association of Architects (COAM) is the result of a project that began in 2005 with the refurbishment of the former Escuelas Pías de San Antón. To this end, the COAM and the City Council organised an international competition, which was won by the Spanish architect Gonzalo Moure.

6. CaixaForum

The refurbishment of the former Mediodía power station (next to SLEEP’N Atocha) was carried out by the architectural practice Herzog & De Meuron. It has two features that make it easily recognisable: its vertical garden and its apparent state of levitation.

7. Extension of the Reina Sofía Museum

Jean Nouvel’s extension project for the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid (next to SLEEP’N Atocha) was conceived with a clear vision for the future. Structural steel helped to bring this bold design to life, creating highly functional spaces to take the museum into the new millennium.

8. Caja Mágica

Located in the Manzanares Linear Park and designed by the French architect Dominique Perrault, this multi-purpose venue was opened in 2009. It hosts sporting, cultural and corporate events beneath a cube-like structure made of steel, aluminium, glass and concrete.