The Curve is The Whole Point
MAD Architects revealed Qondesa in 2023 and it has not stopped circulating since. The building will stand 142 meters tall across 36 floors and will become the tallest in Quito once it opens. But none of that is the reason people keep sharing it.
The reason is simpler than that. As Qondesa rises it curves outward away from the buildings around it. That curve is not decorative. It is there so the tower does not block its neighbors’ sunlight and views. Think about how unusual that is.
Most tall buildings go up as a straight slab and whatever ends up in shadow just ends up in shadow. Whoever designed Qondesa sat down and asked: what happens to the people already living here when this goes up? That question shaped the whole building.
It will still block some light. No building that tall can avoid it entirely. But compared to a standard flat glass tower it is a real improvement and that counts for something.
Quito is having a moment right now
Quito sits at 2,850 meters above sea level on the slopes of Pichincha an active stratovolcano in the Andes. It is the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz. It has a UNESCO World Heritage historic center and the best preserved colonial architecture in South America.
For most of its history the city stayed low. Height limits kept buildings to around 15 storeys. Then in 2015 the international airport moved out of the city center and those limits jumped to 40 storeys overnight. Since then Quito has been drawing some of the biggest architecture firms in the world. BIG came.
Carlos Zapata Studio came. Safdie Architects came. MAD came. They all came through the same developer: a Quito company called Uribe Schwarzkopf who have been the engine behind almost everything interesting happening on that skyline.
It will be taller than any building Quito has seen
Right now the tallest building in Quito is Iqon. It was designed by the Danish firm BIG and completed in 2022 at 130 meters. It was BIG’s first project in South America.
Qondesa will top it at 142 meters. Both towers sit near La Carolina Park and both were built by Uribe Schwarzkopf. If you wanted to pick a city where the world’s best architects are quietly competing at the moment Quito is it.
It looks like something that grew out of the ground
The outside of Qondesa is genuinely striking. The facade is designed to look like vines wrapping around the building as it rises. It tapers toward the top and real plants grow from planters on every balcony.
There is a rooftop garden at the crown. The whole exterior is a warm stone color taken directly from Quito’s Old Town where the historic buildings are made of volcanic rock from Pichincha itself.
The result is a building that feels futuristic in shape but familiar in color. It looks like it belongs there even though nothing like it has ever been built there before.
271 homes and a reason to actually talk to your neighbors
The bottom seven floors of Qondesa are commercial and office space. The 271 residential units start from the eighth floor up. MAD designed the building with communal spaces woven through it because the idea from the start was a vertical community not just a stack of apartments where nobody ever meets.
The location helps with that too. The Iñaquito Metro station is right next to the building so residents can get anywhere in the city without a car. And the building faces La Carolina Park directly. La Carolina is a 67 hectare park and the largest public green space in Quito.
Waking up with that view every morning is something you cannot easily put a price on.
Green thinking built into the structure from day one
The greenery on the balconies and the rooftop garden are the parts you notice in the renderings but the sustainability work goes further than that. The building is designed with eco efficient engineering across its energy and resource use throughout its entire life. Waste is tracked and managed from the construction phase onward rather than addressed later as an afterthought. This is part of how Quito wants to grow: bigger but not dirtier.
The Man Behind the Building
MAD Architects is led by Ma Yansong. His firm is known for exactly this kind of work: buildings that take the surrounding environment seriously rather than ignoring it. The Harbin Opera House in China is probably his most celebrated project. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles is his most prominent in the West.
In late 2025 he was named Guest Editor of Domus 2026 making him the first Chinese architect to hold that position.
Qondesa is his firm’s first building in South America. When it opens it will be the tallest thing in Quito. It will also be one of the more thoughtful tall buildings anywhere on earth and that combination is why it keeps getting attention more than two years after it was first announced.
