Torre Agbar

The Torre Agbar ( Catalan for, Agbar Tower ') in Barcelona is a 32- storey office complex on the Avinguda Diagonal next to the Plaça de les Glories Catalanes. The concrete high rise building with a glass and aluminum facade has a floor space of 39,000 m², is with 142 meters the tallest buildings in Catalonia. In its external form it resembles the about the same time in London built office building 30 St Mary Axe.

Facade

The tower looks with its shimmering, 16,000 m² of façade like a water fountain, with the beginning of darker blue loses up to the tip in a white. The outer skin of aluminum acts like the skin of a reptile. Seen from a distance it appears optically as a liquid or organic matter. For the surface 40 different paint colors were used, which, depending on the natural light changes color. About the facade was a glass skin, consisting of 56,000 blades drawn. Each of these glass louvers hosted a size of 120 cm × 30 cm and is at a certain angle, in total there are 16 different positions. This was how the different color reflections. At the same time, this type of facade is an ideal sun protection dar. Overall, the tower has 4,349 openings - covered by 4,500 windows - which are arranged at irregular intervals in order to achieve the shimmering effect, a total of 40 different colors adorn the building.

The actual dome begins from the 15th floor; including the building runs quite vertical, but it is not a cylinder, since the layout of the building is slightly different from the circuit and therefore is an Oval. The floors above the floor 26 are already on the upper dome.

Only for the construction of the facade next 59 619 transparent and partially translucent glass plates and 250 tons of aluminum and 25,000 cubic meters of concrete were used.

At night, the tower of 4,500 LED projectors of Barcelona's company lightLED ( Product Type: Eos ) is illuminated in color.

Interior of the building

As the sunlight in Barcelona is comparatively strong and it would therefore be detrimental to attach the offices directly to the outer skin facade, most rooms are located in the inner concrete core of the building. In contrast to the predominantly blue skin the color red dominates in the interior of the tower.

Overall, the Torre Agbar 34 above-ground floors: 28 for offices as well as for a Cafeteria, one for a multipurpose hall, a technical for the observation deck and three for installations. The clear height of the floors is 2.6 meters, plus each comes a 15 cm high " technical floor ". The four underground floors are divided across two parking floors and an auditorium with 316 seats. In addition, the building houses eleven lifts, one of which is a service lift and two others are destined for the underground floors. Particularly interesting are some elevators on the south facade of the building, because they are made of glass and you can then look out through the glass while driving.

Planning, construction and builders

The peculiarity of the color scheme is no accident. The owner of the building, Grupo Agbar, the waterworks of Barcelona ( Aguas de Barcelona, ​​Catalan Aigues de Barcelona), hence the dazzling and colorful design of the tower. The immediate area of the building was designed so that the viewer has the impression that the tower stands in the middle of a water surface. In fact, the Grupo Agbar uses only about 50% of the building.

It was planned to the Torre Agbar by French architect Jean Nouvel. In the planning Nouvel has also included considerations of the 1926 late Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. The tower is intended as a homage to Gaudí, so Nouvel took care that the Torre Agbar was not higher than that is also located in Barcelona 's Sagrada Família in the final state it has to this day not yet reached.

Construction was started in February 2001, 500 to 600 workers were working on the construction site every day, so that about every five days a floor was completed. Was completed, the tower in the first half of 2004; its final structural height he reached but only on 19 October 2004. September 16, 2005 took place the inauguration, which was also attended by the King and Queen of Spain, instead.

Others

Jean Nouvel was awarded with prize money of 50,000 euros International Highrise Award 2006 for the high-rise building on November 17, 2006.

Because of its appearance, the building is compared by the inhabitants of Barcelona also jokingly with a penis.

Externally similar to the Torre Agbar the 179.8 -meter-high building London 30 St Mary Axe (2001-2004) by the architect Norman Foster, nicknamed "The Gherkin" ( English for Cucumber ').

More images

Torre Agbar, construction, April 2004

The inside of the dome

Illuminated facade at night

Torre Agbar, 2006

Torre Agbar, 2011

780508
de