The most Pritzker-like Barcelona
Barcelona is one of the world capitals of architecture. Whether it's due to the enormous imprint left by Gaudí in this field, or the significant relevance our city has gained since the hosting of the Olympic Games Barcelona '92, the fact is that the best of world architecture has been leaving its mark in the form of pavilions, theaters, auditoriums, and other unique architectural constructions. This is not a presumptuous statement, but one based on concrete fact. Of the 41 architects awarded the Pritzker Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of architecture, 10 have designed at least one building in our city. Therefore, today we propose a tour through the most Pritzker-worthy Barcelona. Will you join us?
Arata Isozaki (2019)
Following a chronological order, from the most recent to the oldest, our journey begins with this year's winner, the Japanese Arota Isozaki, who has left three works of special significance in our city. Of all of them, the most representative is undoubtedly the Palau Sant Jordi2, a building that was constructed between 1983 and 1990 and became one of the emblems of the Barcelona '92 Olympic Games. The construction was so massive that it cost a whopping 54 million euros at the time. The memory of the famous roof being raised will always stay with us, which can be seen in this timelapse about Barcelona's transformation for the Olympic event.
But Sant Jordi is not the only work of Isozaki in our city. More recently, he designed the canopy and the entrance hall to the CaixaForum, as well as the Districte 38 office building, which can be found in the Zona Franca.
RCR Arquitectes (2017)
The latest Spanish winners of the Pritzker Prize. Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta founded the RCR architecture studio in 1988, which they describe as a “creative architecture workshop”. In March 2017, they received the Pritzker Prize. In the interview we were able to conduct with them on the occasion of their award, they left us with a statement that should be analyzed in any school of architecture: “Architecture should evolve towards beauty. Functionality is ephemeral.” Despite their proximity to our city, Barcelona is not a place where they have been particularly prolific. They only have two venues in the Catalan capital: the Sant Antoni-Joan Oller Library, located next to the Raval, and the Enigma Space, the restaurant that three-Michelin-starred chef Albert Adrià opened in 2017 in Barcelona.
Jean Nouvel (2008)
In 2008, the Pritzker Prize jury recognized the Frenchman Jean Nouvel with the highest award an architect could receive. And as it happened this year with Isozaki, Nouvel's name was not unknown to the Catalan public since he was the one who designed one of the buildings that has become an icon of our city: the Glòries tower. Since its inauguration in 2005, it has changed the skyline of our city, as at 142 meters it is the third tallest building in Barcelona, only surpassed by the Mapfre tower and the Hotel Arts. In designing the building, Nouvel took into account other emblems of Catalan culture, such as the Montserrat massif or the columns of the Sagrada Familia, whose shapes inspired the cylindrical and tapered appearance of the building. With such a transgressive shape at the time, the building caused great commotion and controversy in our city.
Beyond its physical appearance and size, the uniqueness of the building becomes more pronounced at night, when it is lit up and becomes visible from various parts of the city, blending into the urban landscape of Barcelona with its 4,500 LED devices capable of generating moving images.
Although it is the most representative, the Agbar Tower is not the only mark of Nouvel in the city: the Parc Central del Poblenou, the Catalonia Fira hotel, or the remodeling of the old Moritz factory, in the Sant Antoni neighborhood, also bear his signature.
Herzog & de Meuron (2001)
The winners of the 2001 Pritzker Prize were the studio formed by the Swiss Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who at that time were already working on another unique building in our city: the Fòrum building, inaugurated in 2004 on the occasion of the Universal Forum of Cultures, an event created in our city with the intention of making it itinerant around the world, like the Olympic Games or the World Expo. That event led to the urban recovery of the Besòs neighborhood and the extension of Diagonal Avenue to the very beachfront, with which Barcelona, this time for sure, definitively opened up to the sea. From that Forum, we have been left with various unique constructions, such as the photovoltaic panel or the building designed by Herzog & Meuron, which currently houses the Museu Blau, of the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona.
Architecturally, we are looking at an avant-garde building shaped like an equilateral triangle in navy blue, with a height of 25 meters and each side measuring 180 meters. Interestingly, the location and orientation of the building on the Barcelona map means that two of its facades are a direct extension of Diagonal Avenue and Rambla Prim, with its third facade facing the rear esplanade and the Mediterranean Sea. The interior of the building features a large auditorium for 3,000 people and a restaurant with an upper terrace, as well as small spaces for conferences, concerts, and offices.
Norman Foster (1999)
Another winner whose name has been associated with the Barcelona skyline for decades. He is the creator of the famous Collserola Tower that was erected next to Tibidabo to facilitate the broadcast of Barcelona'92 to the rest of the world. Standing at 288 meters from its base, it is the tallest tower in Catalonia and the second tallest telecommunications tower in the country. Considering that it is located on the Turó de la Vilana, at 445 meters above sea level, the highest point of the tower exceeds 700 meters in altitude.
The structure consists of a vertical beam or shaft with a diameter of 4 meters that supports a 13-story building, which includes a restaurant, a convention space, and the most spectacular observatory one can imagine overlooking Barcelona. To support the 3,000 tons that this disproportionate structure weighs, foundations had to be made 20 meters below the ground.
Even though these buildings might be the most iconic, Barcelona has many more unique buildings designed by celebrities of the field such as Rafael Moneo, Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, Ieoh Ming Pei, or Toyo Ito... The list doesn't end in a post!
