House of cucumber in Barcelona. Agbar Tower, Barcelona, ​​Spain: description, photo, where it is on the map, how to get there. Barcelona Vodokanal office building: a fantasy realized

On one of the most important streets of Barcelona, ​​as if cutting this city from west to east, the wide and beautiful Diagonal Avenue, stands this strange, unlike anything else building - Torre Agbar. However, in fact, this rather militant name is deciphered quite peacefully - it comes from an abbreviation of the words “Aguas de Barcelona” (after all, the building was built for the needs of this company, which controls the water supply in the city).

Why can the Agbar Tower, whose history begins quite recently, be confidently called one of the most popular attractions in Barcelona? Perhaps, first of all, because upon completion of construction in 2005, it was inaugurated by none other than the King of Spain. However, this is not all that can attract attention to it.

Despite the rather large number of floors, the building is strikingly different from other “high-rises” - and this is not only because of its shape, which from a distance resembles a cigar rounded upward or even a space rocket. By the way, the author himself, Jean Nouvel, assures that the “muse” for his building was the peaks of Mount Montserrat and the water elements (in particular, the geyser gushing out of the ground). In addition to the form, there is a lot of original and interesting things here.

For example, Torre Agbar has a special double facade: its first layer is a concrete shell, which is lined with bright metal sheets, the second is a special system of translucent blinds, thanks to which it is possible to do without the usual air conditioners and air ducts. In addition, it is thanks to the peculiar “scales” of the blinds that the tower has a mystical appearance.

By the way, in the first layer of the shell there are also 4400 windows, which are placed here randomly, absolutely without any system or any architectural canons.

The metal panels contain about four thousand LED lighting devices, thanks to which the building constantly changes color at night, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. On holidays, thanks to this system, colored images and images appear on the walls of the tower.

Once inside, you can only see the building's lobby; all other rooms are occupied by offices, most of which belong to the customer company.

How to get there

Metro – L1, get off at “Glories” station.

Do you know what?

• Lighting devices located in metal panels are capable of producing a fairly large palette of colors - up to sixteen million shades.
• Among the objects that the famous French climber and builder, Alain Robert, also known as “Spider-Man”, conquered, is the conquest of this skyscraper

|| ECtHR|| Publications || Documents || Appeals to the authorities

"No, and not under an alien sky,
And not under the protection of alien wings, -
I was then with my people,
Where my people, unfortunately, were"
Anna Akhmatova, epigraph to the poem Requiem.

PUBLICATIONS

Barcelona Vodokanal office building: a fantasy realized

This 144 m high water scraper is the office building of Barcelona Water Utilities.
What is typical is that in Barcelona you cannot drink tap water, unlike a number of European cities.

This urban planning error of Torre d'Agbar is shoved into the city center not far from the Cathedral of the Sagrada Familia (Sagrada Familia) by the architect Gaudi (Here they are nearby). The blunder is shown in only one of the three city guides that I bought. It is mentioned as rarely as possible and attempts are made to hidden from tourists. But views of almost every building included in various lists, including UNESCO, are necessarily replicated in all guides.

Now imagine that this gloomy member will stretch 2.5 times and hang over the great city of Petra. And the whole world will see someone’s sexual fantasies day and night. And also - for our money. Do we need it?

The cone of the Agbar Tower (Spanish: Torre Agbar) on Glories Square, flickering with multi-colored lights, is one of the main ones of modern Barcelona. Since 2006, when the construction of the residence of the municipal water company was completed. The 144-meter structure is one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Story

Torre Agbar belongs to the Grupo Agbar holding, which consists of 220 companies serving several sectors of the city's infrastructure. From the Castilian Aguas de Barcelona or the Catalan Aigües de Barcelona, ​​the abbreviation for the name of the tower is the word Agbar.

The tower project was developed by French architect Jean Nouvel together with B720 Arquitectos from Barcelona. The master was inspired by organic forms in Barcelona and. The structure is often compared to a natural geyser reaching the sky above the city.

Design

The building consists of two oval cylinders topped by a glass and steel dome. There are no internal columns inside the structure, but there are technical services and emergency staircases. Twenty-eight of the thirty-four floors are currently used for offices, three containing the technical components of the building.

One floor is dedicated to a cafe, another contains conference rooms and another one is occupied by. Four underground floors accommodate an auditorium and parking. In the lobby of the tower there is an interesting exhibition telling about the history of water supply in Barcelona.

Idea

Since the main focus of the Torre Agbar project is water, the tower shows a metaphorical resemblance to a fountain that constantly changes its appearance. The walls of the tower reflect light thanks to aluminum plates painted in 40 vibrant colors. The surface of the building is lined with thousands of glass louvres, which serve as sun protection and can be tilted at different angles to ensure maximum reflection of solar energy. The space between the facade layers allows natural air circulation in the building.

Illuminations

The night illumination of the Agbar Tower leaves an incredible impression - four and a half thousand illuminated glass panels constantly change their colors. The tower looks especially spectacular from a distance. Special light shows on weekdays occur as scheduled: Monday, Saturday and Sunday from 20.00 to 23.00 in winter, from 21.00 to 00.00 in summer. On holidays, residents and guests of the city can also enjoy original installations on the surface of the tower.

In the near future, the Torre Agbar building was plannedopen luxury 5 star Hyatt with restaurants and an observation deck, but work has been suspended.

Address: Torre Agbar, Av. Diagonal, 211, 08018 Barcelona

Anastasia Khvatova

Not so long ago, in 2005, an unusual skyscraper appeared in the center of Barcelona on Avenida Diagonal. This 34-story office building, shaped like an elongated egg or a cigar, was designed by a French architect Jean Nouvel(Jean Nouvel). Torre Agbar- the headquarters of the Aigues de Barcelona company, which controls the city's water supply, sewerage and other utilities.

It's called Torre Agbar building, and it is the headquarters of the company Aigues de Barcelona, ​​which controls the various public services of Barcelona. The King of Spain, Juan Carlos himself, took part in the opening of the headquarters of the city government. The building can be seen from any part of the city. The buildings in Barcelona are very unusual, so Nouvel's skyscraper had to match them. Particularly interesting is the facade of the building, consisting of thousands of multi-colored windows, representing complex color combinations, like in a mosaic. All of them are painted with 40 shades of enamel paint and sparkle in the sun like the surface of the sea. All these overflows create the effect of movement and vibration, which is very reminiscent of pouring water; this was Nouvel’s idea to make a giant geyser or fountain out of his building. In the sun the building shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow.

A special computer program determined the location of all 4,400 windows of the skyscraper. This created certain problems with maintaining the statics of the building shell and its cost, because each floor had to develop its own plan. The total office area is 39,000 sq. m. m, and the cost of the skyscraper is about 133 million euros.

Torre Agbar is interesting not only for its bizarre shape, but also for its complex multi-layered shell, similar to the scales of a giant fish. The façade of the skyscraper consists of two layers. The first of them looks like a hard concrete shell, lined with bright metal sheets and randomly scattered squares of windows. The second layer is a whole system of translucent glass blinds, fixed at arm's length.

This method, the so-called double facade, has become increasingly used in modern construction. These layers create excellent ventilation of rooms naturally, and also save a lot of space, because air conditioners and air ducts become unnecessary. In the cold season, this layer serves as an air buffer, delaying the release of heat to the outside, and in the summer, all the air accumulated during the night tends inward.

Torre Agbar looks especially beautiful from Mount Montjuic, when the whole of Barcelona lies before you. The spiers of the Gothic Quarter reach into the sky, followed by Nouvel’s skyscraper and Gaudi’s “sand castle.” And no matter how stupid it may sound, gothic, high-tech and modern look very harmonious and holistic. That's how Barcelona is.

Biography

Jean Nouvel was born in 1945 in Sarlat, France. Since childhood I wanted to become an artist, but my parents wanted their son to receive a more serious education. And therefore, from 1966-1972, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux. Shortly before graduating in 1970, he opened his first office together with F. Senior. And in 1994 he founded his own Atelier Jean Nouvel, which in 2006 became one of the largest French architectural bureaus. Currently, he is working on more than 40 projects simultaneously, both in France and abroad. The headquarters is located in Paris, and the bureau's branches are scattered throughout Europe: Rome, Barcelona, ​​London, Minneapolis, Copenhagen.

World fame came to Nouvel in 1982 after his victory in the competition with the project of the Institute of the Arab World.
In 1991, Nouvel was appointed vice-president of the French Institute of Architecture, and in 1993 he became a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Jean Nouvel is a very versatile architect, he knows how to combine materials, colors and surfaces into a single whole like no one else. He is one of the best architects in France and does his projects throughout Europe, as well as North and South America and Asia. His style is not only interesting architectural solutions, but also the perfect fit of his projects into the landscape.

Torre Agbar became a new milestone in the construction of high-rise buildings. Its iridescent design and fusion with the environment cannot be expressed in words, it must be seen, like any other work of Jean Nouvel, because they are all a surprise and the brilliance of architectural thought.

Outstanding buildings

Such works of Jean Nouvel as the Fondation Cartier once again brought France to the forefront of the architectural world. The largest representative of French high-tech, Nouvel creates not just smart buildings, but often plays on the optical disappearance of the building in the environment. His dissolving rainbow skyscraper in Barcelona - Torre Agbar - became a new word in the construction of high-rise buildings. In 2006, Nouvel's new work opened - the Museum of World Cultures on Quai Branly in Paris, where the author managed to create an interflowing game of museum, environment and exhibits. Each of his works is a surprise and brilliance of architectural thought.

1993 - Opera, Lyon
1995 - Cartier Foundation, Paris

1996 - Galeries Lafayette, Berlin
2000 - Concert Hall in Lucerne
2001 - Golden Angel, Prague; Gasometer, Vienna
2002 - Monolith, exhibition complex, Mora, Switzerland
2003 - Gallo-Roman Museum, Perigo, France
2004 - New wing of the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
2005 - Torre Agbar, Barcelona.
2006 - Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN, USA
2009 - Copenhagen Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
2010 - 100 Eleventh Avenue, Manhattan, NY, USA
2010 - One New Change, London
2011 - Tower 25 in Nicosia
2012 - Doha 9 skyscraper, Doha, Qatar
2012 - City Hall, Montpellier.

Prepared by Andrey Getsevich

Of course, Agbar Tower cannot be called a historical building. But this unusual building is a decoration of the city and a good landmark during a walk. The skyscraper is decorated with special panels that shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow. It is especially beautiful in the evening lighting.

The Agbar Tower (Spanish: Torre Glòries; cat. Torre Agbar) rises above the Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes and business districts. The Catalans call it the “Barcelona cucumber”. The appearance of a huge tower in the shape of a giant cigar is completely mystical. The monumental building sparkles with a leaden-rainbow sheen under the rays of the sun and shimmers with a multi-colored glow against the background of the night sky of Barcelona.

The idea of ​​creating a skyscraper

Torre Agbar (photo: Kenny (zoompict) Teo)

The authors of this innovative project were Jean Nouvel, an architect from France, and the Spanish firm b720 Arquitectos. The customer was the Agbar Group holding company (Grupo Agbar) (hence the name of the building). The shape of the skyscraper was inspired by the main symbols of Catalan culture - bell towers and the bizarre contours of Mount Montserrat. Nouvel did not want his structure to resemble the skyscrapers of North America. And since the client was a water company, the idea was that the building should emerge from the ground like a geyser escaping from the depths of the sea.

Construction

Torre Agbar (photo: John Zacherle)

Large-scale construction was carried out by the Dragados company. The building was built for quite prosaic purposes - it housed public utilities: the water supply and sewerage company Aguas de Barcelona. The 34-story skyscraper (plus 4 underground floors) was built by September 2005 and inaugurated in the presence of Juan Carlos I.

Torre Agbar (photo: Machine Made)

The Agbar Tower soared 144.4 meters above the city. Today it ranks 14th on the list of the tallest buildings in the country. The 4,400 windows on the cylindrical facade of the skyscraper resemble a fairy-tale mosaic - the arrangement of window blocks on each floor was developed according to an individual plan. The outer “shell” of the facade is lined with translucent panels that are driven by photo sensors. The facade is double: a well-thought-out system of windows, blinds and air conditioners allows you to automatically control the temperature in the building.

High-speed elevators run inside the skyscraper. Office employees work on 30 thousand m² of space; the rest of the space is occupied by technical services, public spaces, and underground parking. The total area of ​​the interior of Tore Agbar is more than 50,000 m². At night, the building is illuminated by 4,000 LED lamps, generating combinations of up to 16 million shades.

Torre Agbar (photo: Javier Terol)

In 2013, it was announced that the skyscraper had been acquired by the American hotel chain Hyatt, which decided to turn it into a luxury hotel. Since 2017, the building has been owned by Merlin Properties, a Spanish real estate investment company.

When does the backlight work?

• from 19:00 to 23:00,
• March 28 – October 31 from 21:00 to 00:00

How to get there?

Take metro L1 to Glòries station.

Take bus 7, N7 to the stop Av Diagonal - Ciutat de Granada. Take tram T5, T6 to the La Farinera stop or T4 to the La Farinera stop.

How do I save on hotels?

It’s very simple - look not only on booking. I prefer the search engine RoomGuru. He searches for discounts simultaneously on Booking and on 70 other booking sites.