CaixaForum Madrid

This guide to CaixaForum Madrid opens with the brick wall overhead that seems to float with no visible support, and traces the building back to its earlier life as the Central del Mediodía power station, pumping electricity into the city in the early twentieth century. It follows Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron as they took on the derelict shell in the early 2000s and describes the drastic operation they carried out on its old stone base. Then it turns you toward the living wall beside it, planted with hundreds of species by botanist Patrick Blanc.