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Monthly Archives: August 2011

World Architecture: Barcelona Part 2

Posted August 18, 2011

Following last week’s Barcelona blog, we continue our look at the best of the Catalan capital city’s architecture, from the famous and the luxurious to the minimalist and the undiscovered…

6. HOTEL ARTS

Hotel Arts – Photos by Photo Kamil and [bastian.]

As the joint tallest structure in Barcelona, the Hotel Arts was designed to be noticed. Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who have been behind such iconic architecture as the John Hancock Center and the Willis Tower in Chicago and 1 World Trade Center, currently under construction in New York, the Hotel Arts was constructed in 1994 as luxury hotel accommodation on Barcelona’s sea front. As with many of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill creations, the Hotel Arts is a classic example of structural expressionism, with the exterior aesthetics made up of the structural elements of the building (although whether these beams are fully functional or simply decorative is questionable). Operated by Ritz-Carlton, the hotel is extremely luxurious and considered one of the top ten places in the world to indulge in some celebrity-spotting.

7. CASA VICENS

Casa Vicens – Photos by ctsnow, Lico43 and Morgaine

Casa Vicens is one of Gaudí’s first important works of architecture, with building work beginning in 1883 and completion in 1889. Although at first glance it seems to shun Gaudí’s usual Catalan influences, Casa Vicens draws from Barcelona’s Moorish past, as well as adding biographical details about its owner, Manuel Vicens.

The Moors conquered Barcelona in 717AD, and much of historic Barcelona still demonstrates their influence. Las Ramblas, one of the most famous streets of Barcelona and a favourite of the tourists, derives its name from the Arabic ‘ramla’, meaning sandy riverbed. Although re-conquered in 801 by the son of Charlemagne, the Moors left behind Mudéjar – a Moorish influenced architectural style that was adopted by Muslims and Christians alike. Gaudí taps into this history with Casa Vicens in its ornate tiling, red brick, undressed stone and use of geometric columns and arches and minaret-style towers. The ceramic tiles and red bricks also relate to Manuel Vicens, owner of a brick and tile factory, and the yellow flowered tiles on the facade were manufactured by his own factory.

As a forerunner to Gaudí’s later, more famous works, several signature patterns can be noted, including the use of bright colours, ceramic tiles and elaborate chimneys, not to mention Gaudí tapping into Catalan history for inspiration. Gaudí also worked as an interior designer for this project, with the interior just as extravagantly and intricately decorated as the exterior. The Smoking Room in particular is a beautifully lavish affair, with a carved wood Mudéjar ceiling, elaborate stained glass and floral tiles. Whilst the house remains a private residence, its owners generally open Casa Vicens to ‘neighbours and citizens’ on May 22^nd.

8. IGUALADA CEMETERY

Igualada Cemetery – Photos by axmiller, Cecilia and Fred Scharmen

Whilst a cemetery may seem to be an unlikely source of inspirational architecture, Catalan architects Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós designed Igualada Cemetery as something completely different from the norm. An entrant into a design competition to replace the old cemetery, Miralles and Pinós’s concept of a ‘City of the Dead’ that complemented the landscape and contemplated the relation between living and dead won and construction began in 1985, finishing in 1994. Originally there were plans to include a chapel and a monastery; whilst these were not completed, the spaces that would have housed them exist on the second floor.

The cemetery is set up as a ‘river of life’ that flows from a processional pathway, past the gates of rusting steel that are reminiscent of the crosses at Calvary (see photo above), down into the burial areas. The materials used are wood, concrete and stone, designed to blend into the landscape rather than stand out from it, which creates the effect of the cemetery seeming to have naturally come from the land rather than having been built upon it. This is particularly noticeable in the wooden railway sleepers set into the concrete floor, the placement of trees emerging from the pathways, subdued earthy colours and the sloping gabion walls that resemble hills and mountainsides. This sense of immersion and seamless linking with nature and the surrounding landscape is intended to create a link between the living and the dead, breaking down binary oppositions and creating a space for gentle contemplation.

Miralles himself is buried here, sadly passing away in 2000 at the age of 45.

9. SAGRADA FAMILIA

Left: Sagrada model (Graceycat)

Centre: Passion Façade as of Feb 2011 (Howard Walfish)

Right: Interior (Montxo-Donostia)

Sagrada Familia is Gaudí’s most famous and impressive work, with vast amounts of tourists flocking to see it each day, and yet it is not expected to reach completion until 2026. Amazingly, work began on Sagrada Familia (full name: Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família) in 1882, and when Gaudí sadly passed away in 1926 less than a quarter of the project had been completed. Despite this, the project continued to progress, with the project reaching the halfway stage in 2010.

Sagrada Familia began life as a very different design, when a Catalan bookseller called Josep Maria Bocabella was inspired by a church in Loreto, Italy and returned to Barcelona with the intention of building a similar Gothic Revival church. Work began in 1882, but when the architect retired in 1883 Gaudí was drafted in and changed the entire design to the radical structure seen today. Gaudí was an extremely religious man, with previous works including several small scale churches and others such as Casa Batlló and Casa Milà containing religious symbolism, so the chance to work on such a project must have been enticing. Apart from some extremely small scale projects, Sagrada Familia almost exclusively dominated his professional life from 1915 until his death. His work has been continued by a team of architects that have been inspired by Gaudí’s work and have tried to follow his original directions and plans as much as possible.

The most noticeable features of the exterior design are the spires and the facades. The spires, of which there should be eighteen, represent the twelve Apostles, four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, and each of these groups should be at a different height with the Jesus Christ spire being the tallest. At present, only four of the apostle spires have been constructed. There will also be three grand facades detailing important events in Christ’s life – the Nativity façade to the east, the Passion façade to the south and the Glory façade to the west. All three are very different, with the Passion façade evoking a sombre and severe mood with its bare stone cut into angular columns that represent sequoia trunks. In contrast to this, the Nativity façade is joyful in its ornamental sculptures and use of natural imagery such as the turtles and tortoises that decorate the base of each column. Gaudí also intended for this façade to be brightly painted, in contrast with the bare stone of the Passion. The Glory façade will be the largest of the three, offering access to the central nave and depicting scenes of both Heaven and Hell. Construction began on this in 2002.

Opinion has been divided over Sagrada Familia; it has been praised both for its ‘ruthless audacity’ and as being ‘sensual, spiritual, whimsical, exuberant’, but has also been termed ‘one of the most horrendous buildings in the world’. Funded privately by donors and through visitor ticket costs, Sagrada Familia is not supported by any government or church authorities.

10. MONTJUÏC COMMUNICATIONS TOWER

Montjuïc Communications Tower – Photos by Stefan Schmitz and Wojtek Gurak

Built to transmit television coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the Montjuïc Communications Tower, also known as Torre Téléfonica or Torre Calatrava, is a novel design for a potentially very plain piece of telecommunications apparatus. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, an architect that incorporates engineering and sculpture into his designs, the tower is 136 metres tall and represents an athlete holding the Olympic flame. The ring-shaped element holds the transmitting dishes and connects to the pylon in the middle, and the whole structure is covered in trencadis, the mosaic method that Gaudí pioneered using ceramic tile shards. As well as transmitting television signals, the tower also doubles as a sundial as it casts a shadow on the circular platform on which it stands.

World Architecture: Barcelona Part 1

Posted August 8, 2011

The capital city of the Catalan region of Spain, Barcelona has had a turbulent and often tragic history. Once a completely independent state with its own language and culture, it was gradually ceded into mainland Spain as part of royal intermarriage over the centuries, although its identity and politics still remained fiercely Catalan. A hotbed of anarchists, revolutionaries and bohemians in the 19^th and early 20^th century, Catalan nationalism grew in the face of Franco’s rule, and pride in Barcelona’s Catalan roots is still present today. Catalonia has even given birth to its own architectural traditions: Catalan Gothic and Modernisme, to name a few. However, when Barcelona architecture is mentioned, most people automatically think only of Antoni Gaudí, the revolutionary Modernisme architect – albeit with good reason. Barcelona, however, is hiding far more treasures within its city walls than many realise.

1. PALAU DE LA MÚSICA CATALANA

The Palau de la Música Catalana (right: ticket booth); photos by Emilio Pereira, Jaime Meneses and su-lin

Designed by Lluís Doménech i Montaner, who was also the creator of the Hospital de Sant Pau, the Palau de la Música Catalana follows the popular Modernisme (Catalan modernism) style of the late 19^th and early 20^th century. This style harnessed the growing Catalan nationalism and fused it with the popular European Art Noveau movement, creating a style that incorporated flowing curves, rich decoration, floral or organic symbolism and dynamic shapes, all of which often related back to Catalan history, culture and identity. In response to demand for more Catalan symbolism within the building, Doménech i Montaner commissioned local artists and craftsman to create some of the lavish decoration and ornamentation throughout the building, including Miquel Blay’s sculpture, ‘The Catalan Song’ (above left photo), which fuses fine detail and organic symbols with flowing lines and clear nationalistic pride.

Despite the beautifully decorated aesthetics of the building, Doménech i Montaner made sure that the structure was technically superb, using cutting edge technologies and materials in its construction. He also emphasized elements of space and light within the structure, using stained glass, columns, arches, mosaics, windows and colonnades to blur the lines between interior and exterior. Inside, the concert hall itself is lit in the daytime with natural light from stained glass windows on two walls and much of the ceiling, and the vestibule ceiling has star-shaped moldings, further confusing the inside/outside binary. The building itself was completed in 1908 and won an award for architecture from Barcelona City Council.

2. TORRE AGBAR

Torre Agbar; photos by Geoffrey Gilson and Jérôme Decq

Nicknamed ‘the suppository’ for obvious reasons, Torre Agbar is the brainchild of Pritzker Prize winning French architect Jean Nouvel and is a 474 ft high office tower. The strange, and rather suggestive, shape is based on Montserrat, the chain of mountains near Barcelona that holds great significance for Catalonia, and the iconic Sagrada Familia bell towers (covered in Part Two of this Top Ten), and also loosely on the shape that a geyser forms when rising into the air, taking inspiration from the water utility company that occupies it. Nouvel rejects the idea of the traditional skyscraper in his use of these influences, bottling them down to their loosest form and creating this elegantly minimal shape.

As the third largest structure in Barcelona, Torre Agbar doesn’t exactly have to compete for attention. However, the structure defies the staticity of the traditional skyscraper model through 4,500 LEDs situated in its glass facade, capable of producing over 16 million colours. These LEDs create fantastic light shows, which its creator described as ‘a vaporous cloud of colour that seeks moiré’. In addition to this, the glass panes in the façade all have different inclinations and opacities, meaning that the colour of the tower changes with the time of day and the seasons.

3. BARCELONA PAVILION

The Barcelona Pavilion – Photos by gandolas, Gëzim Radoniqi and Toni Bianchetti

The Barcelona Pavilion is perhaps one of the most architecturally important buildings of the 20^th century, employing minimalism and the aesthetics of function to further the cause of modernism and Bauhaus. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the greats of modern architecture, for the 1929 International Exposition, the Pavilion represented the reborn Weimar Germany – prosperous, glamorous and forward-thinking. The Pavilion was designed to blur the lines between inside and outside through its extensive use of full height glass panes, the floating roof, the extension of the floor materials from inside to outside and the use of continuous, partitioned space rather than separate rooms within the house. The travertine, marble and golden onyx finishes added to the air of luxury, together with the purpose-built furniture – such as the world-famous Barcelona Chair, as seen in the photos above. Even the sculpture placement (Alba, by Georg Kolbe) revolutionized the interplay of art and architecture, with the statue being placed within the small water pool and not the large one so as to offer multiple differing views from within the house: “From now on, in the sense of equality for juxtaposing building and visual work, sculptures were no longer to be applied retrospectively to the building, but rather to be a part of the spatial design, to help define and interpret it. To the day, one of the most notable examples is the Barcelona Pavilion” (Ursel Berger).

Rather than relying on trade exhibits, the Pavilion became the exhibit itself, with visitors wandering through to reach the next part of the Exposition. Sadly, the building was temporary and torn down in 1930; however, it was rebuilt in the 1980s from old photographs and now stands as a permanent structure.

4. ESGLÉSIA DE SANTA MARIA DEL MAR

The Església de Santa Maria del Mar – photos by Trey Ratcliff and Son of Groucho

The Santa Maria del Mar (St Mary of the Sea) is one of the purest examples of Catalan Gothic architecture in Barcelona, not least because of the speed of construction of the Cathedral meant that it was uninfluenced by changing fashions in architecture. Construction of the Santa Maria del Mar began in 1329 and finished in 1383 – a mere 54 years. Because of this, the Cathedral’s features are typical of the Catalan Gothic era: flat-roofed octagonal bell towers, exceptionally tall interiors, rib vaults and soaring columns set thirteen metres apart. The exterior, unlike European Gothicism, seems to be a triumph of width over height, but the interior seems endlessly airy and tall, with the stained glass windows adding a tremendous amount of light. Whilst the furnishing inside may seem austere, much of this is because of Barcelona’s troubled history; during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939, the Church backed General Franco, causing the opposing Republicans to set fire to the Cathedral in retaliation. Parts of the vault can still be seen to have smoke damage as a result of this fire.

5. WALDEN 7

Walden 7 complex: Photos by Vcolliga and Jacqueline Poggi

Looking like something from a sci-fi film, Walden 7 is as far removed from the typical suburban housing project as possible – and, indeed, it was named for B.F. Skinner’s science fiction novel Walden Two. It was designed by the Catalan post-modern architect Ricardo Bofill and constructed in 1974 on a budget significantly lower than usual for subsidised housing, and was designed to subvert the usual grim aesthetics of large housing projects by creating a ‘vertical labyrinth’. Built on the site of a former concrete factory, the eighteen tower blocks are displaced from their bases, forming a ring-shaped complex with seven interconnecting courtyards housed inside. Whilst the amount of dedicated communal space was reduced in favour of extra residential accommodation, the complex still houses meeting rooms, games rooms, bars, shops and two swimming pools.

Next time we’ll complete our top ten with a look at works including the Sagrada Familia, Montjüic Communications Tower and even the Igualada Cemetery.