[Barcelona] Forum building - Herzog & de Meuron

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Forum Building - Herzog & de Meuron - 2000/2004

This building marks the end of Avenida Diagonal and its encounter with a huge platform open to the Mediterranean sea. Its triangular geometry seeks to articulate the Diagonal alignment and the Cerdà grid, and to create a built "vertex" at the point where this new seaside platform meets the city.
This building was the focus of the Forum Barcelona 2004, housing an auditorium, exhibition areas and a restaurant. The main functions are placed in the blue triangular prismatic volume, in a single level, suspended above the ground. This volume is however connected to the ground by several elements such as the auditorium, hallways and staircases.
The space underneath the main volume was intended as a public square, protected form the elements by the suspended volume above, favouring the congregation of people and the occurrence of interesting activities. When I was there it seemed more like a desolate lifeless space, where it's easier to imagine the wrong kind of things happening than what was envisioned by the architects and the promoters. Nevertheless, it's an interesting and beautiful building, waiting for a second life and better days to come.

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Adress
Plaça de Llevant (On the corner of Avenida Diagonal and Rambla de Prim)
08019 Barcelona
Tel. 902 24 2004

How to get there
Metro: Line 4 (yellow line) - Station "Maresme/Fórum"
Bus: Lines 7 - 36 - 41 - 43 - 141
Tramway: Line T4, Stop "Fòrum" (a nice way to go to / come from the Agbar tower, located along this tram line)

Opening hours
I couldn't find any info on the web before going there. At Plaça de Catalunya tourist info I was told me the building was open between 2pm and 5pm (?!) from Tuesdays to Saturdays, but if you wish to visit check in advance as I'm not sure this info was accurate (you'll understand why later).

Map
(Barcelona city center is on the lower left corner and the Forum area is on the upper right corner)

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Some web references
Herzog & de Meuron on PPB2
Arcspace website reference
Icon Magazine article
Forum Barcelona 2004 website
Youtube video

Google Earth placemark

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To start with, here's a site plan showing the insertion of the building in the surrounding geometry of the city

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This is how you see the building if you're coming from the subway station, down Rambla de Prim towards Plaça de Llevant

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Crossing the Diagonal

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The vertex pointing to Plaça de Llevant. These first sights of the building reminded me of the first article I read about it (can't tell for sure but I think it was on Wallpaper). The title was "Mies on drugs"...

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The windows are mirrored strips running down the walls

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Looking at the space below the blue volume

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