[Barcelona] Agbar Tower - Jean Nouvel

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Agbar Tower - Jean Nouvel, 1999 - 2004

"This is not a tower, a skyscraper, in the American sense. It is more an emergence, rising singularly in the center of a generally calm city. Unlike slender spires and bell towers that typically pierce the horizons of horizontal cities, this tower is a fluid mass that bursts through the ground like a geyser under permanent, calculated pressure.
The surface of the building evokes water: smooth and continuous, shimmering and transparent, its materials reveal themselves in nuanced shades of color and light. It is architecture of the earth without the heaviness of stone, like a distant echo of old Catalan formal obsessions carried by a mysterious wind off the Monserrat.
The ambiguities of material and light make the Agbar tower resonate against Barcelona's skyline day and night, like a distant mirage, marking the entry into the diagonal avenue from the Plaça de les Glorias. This singular object will become the new symbol of Barcelona the international city, and become one of its best ambassadors."
Jean Nouvel

View from the MNAC

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Adress
Avenida Diagonal, 209 - 211 / Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, Barcelona

How to get there
I used the Metro to get there from the city center. From Plaça de Catalunya take the L1 (red line) towards Fondo and get off at Glòries station.
The other transportation available, according to the Torre Agbar site, is as follows:
BUS - 7, 56, 60, 92, 192, B21, N2, N0, N7
TRAM - Line 4 - Glòries and Ca l'Aranyó stops

Visiting hours
I couldn't find any information about visiting hours, so I decided to go there at normal working hours. Since it is an office building, this is the best time to be able to get inside, although you won't get past the lobby anyway. Unfortunately I forgot to ask while I was there (sorry). I did however ask when is the tower lit at night, and I was told it's on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, between 8pm and 11pm during the winter, and between 9pm and 12pm during the summer.

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Some web references

Jean Nouvel on PPB2
Jean Nouvel Website
Torre Agbar Website
Torre Agbar on arcspace.com

The Torre Agbar Website is great, with lots of info on the building and its concept, pictures and even some drawings.


GE placemark

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Coming out of the subway at Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes

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Passing under the viaduct, you see the tower emerge from its chaotic vicinity

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Looking up at the top section of the tower

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Facade close up

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Walking along the Diagonal, just before crossing Carrer de Badajoz

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The building is surrounded by an ondulating asphalt surface that covers the whole plot, and rises from a hole in the ground

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How the building meets the ground