EXPANSIÓN – Articles on financial architecture

Grup Idea has collaborated with Expansión magazine in the series of articles on financial architecture published in digital and paper format in July and August 2023. Miquel Ángel Julià Hierro, Director of Design and Marketing, and other expert architects such as Eugeni Bach and Fermín Vázquez, have accompanied the author and Expansión journalist David Casals on a tour of several global benchmarks of financial architecture.

As an expert in corporate and financial architecture and innovation advisor to the Barcelona branch of the Col-legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC), Miquel Àngel has contributed articles on aspects such as the technical and architectural details of the building, the purpose of the design and the history behind emblematic buildings of contemporary architecture such as the hermetic and contrasting design of the Danmarks NationalBank in Denmark; the risky and powerful proposal of Bank of London or the DZ Bank buildings in Berlin or HSBC in Hong Kong, works of the renowned architects Frank Gehry and Norman Foster, respectively.

In the compendium of articles, we have approached the European Central Bank (ECB) building in Frankfurt, known for its symbolic power as a meeting place where Europe is ’embraced’, or the ING headquarters in Amsterdam, built between 1998 and 2002 and which stands out for its futuristic style. The story of the extension of the Bank of Spain by Rafael Moneo understood as ‘copy’ and not ‘plagiarism’ or the curious story of how a student detected a calculation error and ‘saved’ the Citicorp building from collapsing are also stories that have been shared and where we have had the pleasure of participating.

As on previous occasions, the collaboration with Expansión has also contributed to highlighting Grup Idea’s work for financial institutions and corporate offices, such as the design and construction of the Bank Degroof Petercam offices in Madrid and the renovation of the CaixaBank offices. Access the original articles in Expansión (in Spanish) at the following link:

1. Danmarks Nationalbank: surprise effect in a grey ‘bunker’
2. A journey into the bowels of a whale at Berlin’s DZ Bank
3. Building, engineering and feng shui at the HSBC in Hong Kong
4. European Central Bank Frankfurt: The ECB, the complex where Europe is ’embraced’.
5. Financial architecture : A ‘sculpture’ of reinforced concrete
6. ING’s Amsterdam headquarters: ‘Star Wars’ style for an ‘unbanked’ bank
7. Banco de España Madrid: When a copy is art and not plagiarism
8. Financial architecture: Citicorp, the tower ‘saved’ by a student