Walden 7

Designed by famous Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, Walden 7 is located on the same lot as Bofill’s firm, La Fabrica, which he built inside an abandoned cement factory.

The building is composed of 18 towers forming a curve, which are connected by a complex network of bridges and walkways. The result is a vertical labyrinth with seven interconnecting interior courtyards. There are two swimming pools on top of the 14-story building.

With a few exceptions, each apartment looks out onto both the exterior and one of the interior courtyards. The building was named after a utopian community from the 1940s sci-fi novel Walden Two, and the public spaces and airy apartments were geared towards creating a similarly utopian living environment.

The façade was originally covered with small ceramic tiles, but the tiles kept falling and eventually became a hazard for pedestrians. In 1995, a refurbishing of the building removed the tiles, and the façade was painted instead.