Barcelona Vodokanal office building: a fantasy realized. The Agbar Tower is one of the symbols of the majestic Barcelona. Evening illumination of the Agbar Tower
Address: Spain, Barcelona, Diagonal Ave.
Start of construction: 1999
Completion of construction: 2005
Architect: Jean Nouvel
Height: 144.4 m
Number of floors: 34 above ground and 4 underground
Coordinates: 41°24"12.8"N 2°11"22.3"E
General view of the tower
Agbar Tower has 38 floors. Many sources mention that the skyscraper in Barcelona consists of 34 floors. The thing is that four floors are underground and are not captured by the cameras of enthusiastic tourists. The design of this tower was created by the famous modern architect Jean Nouvel. However, to recreate this miracle, he needed help: specialists from b720 Arquitectos became co-authors of the project. Jean Nouvel, in numerous interviews after the grand opening of the tower, said that this project was inspired by the raging water elements, the legendary bell towers of the Sagrada Familia and the conical rocks mountain range Montserrat, which can be admired near Barcelona. Whether this is true or not is for experts to decide: many of them claim that the Agbar Tower is a kind of copy of a building rising in the capital of Great Britain. They are even called the same - “cucumbers”.
View of the tower at night
Architectural "mismatch"
From the middle of the 19th century, Barcelona began to actively unravel and “go beyond” the walls erected in the Middle Ages. The construction of new buildings was carried out according to a clearly verified and meticulously calculated plan by engineer Ildefonsin Cerda. This plan can be called an orthogonal planning grid. Thanks to such development and the ban on construction based on the principle of free planning, “flat” and convenient avenues, boulevards and streets appeared in Barcelona.>
It is impossible to get lost in them, everything is clear, convenient and, one might even say, cozy. In 2005, a so-called “hole” appeared among this orderliness. This was the Agbar Tower, built by Nouvel. To date, the area adjacent to the tower cannot be brought into compliance with the above-mentioned orthogonal planning grid. According to authoritative experts, the Agbar Tower, which is the office of the water supply company Aguas de Barcelona, is causing chaos in the calm life of the Catalans.
Tower illuminated at night
Agbar Tower through the eyes of Barcelona guests
No matter how much the architects criticize Nouvel’s creation, the Agbar Tower total area more than 50 thousand square meters, is a truly fantastic sight. Each office, each room, including the technical one, is designed in an open plan. As a result of this, the tourist will not be able to find any symmetry in the arrangement of the windows. All of them, and there are no more or less than 4.5 thousand of them, are located chaotically. However, this speaks more about the architectural complexity of the project and the accuracy of construction calculations, rather than about Nouvel’s “freedom,” which in turn cannot but delight tourists. During the daytime, city guests, looking at the Agbar Tower, admire the unusual play of colors that arise thanks to the multi-colored transparent and translucent panels that cover the entire structure. They seem to be alive: they open and close automatically, contributing to proper ventilation and proper energy saving throughout the building. However, all these details are visible only if a person is directly near the building. If you look at the tower, built in the style of abstract symbolic expressionism, from a distance, you get the impression that it is built from liquid metal, somewhat reminiscent of mercury. Everything merges together: panels, windows, partitions.
Illuminated view of the tower
As soon as dusk falls on Barcelona, the Agbar Tower appears before the eyes of amazed tourists in all its glory: four and a half thousand LEDs turn the building into a “dome” shimmering with neon lights. Many compare Nouvel's project at night to a New Year's tree decorated with a thousand garlands. The lighting system is amazing: it seems as if the entire building consists of glowing pixels. About 16 million colors create effects that cause a silent shock in the person who sees the Agbar Tower for the first time.
As mentioned above, the Catalans treat their tower with irony: almost the same way the French once treated Eiffel’s creation. “Cucumber”, “suppository” - the most harmless nicknames of the Agbara Tower. The rest of the associations that one of the tallest architectural structures in Barcelona evokes among the Catalans, to put it mildly, is not for publication...
Tower fragment
Despite all the “shortcomings” and criticism from architects, the Agbara Tower is still one of the main symbols of Barcelona. The townspeople are accustomed to giving it unflattering names, but they are proud of it, like everything that attracts attention to Catalonia and its capital. The Catalans are such a people: pride, devotion to their native land and love for everything that has ever been built on it are the main traits of their character. If you ask any guide giving tours of Barcelona what you need to see in the city, he will definitely point out the Agbara Tower, along with the masterpieces of Gaudi and the legendary Camp Nou.
Many tourist brochures for Barcelona say that you should not be influenced by skeptical architects, and be sure to visit the amazing architectural structure located in Glorias Catalanes Square. Moreover, according to the assumptions of many townspeople, even more amazing buildings will soon appear behind the Tower. After all, it is located on the border of the so-called technological quarter, which means that beyond this border the flight of imagination of designers is unlimited.
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"No, and not under an alien sky,
And not under the protection of alien wings, -
I was then with my people,
Where my people, unfortunately, were"
Anna Akhmatova, epigraph to the poem Requiem.
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Barcelona Vodokanal office building: a fantasy realized
This 144 m high water scraper is the office building of Barcelona Water Utilities.
What is typical is that in Barcelona you cannot drink tap water, unlike a number of European cities.This urban planning error of Torre d'Agbar is shoved into the city center not far from the Cathedral of the Sagrada Familia (Sagrada Familia) by the architect Gaudi (Here they are nearby). The blunder is shown in only one of the three city guides that I bought. It is mentioned as rarely as possible and attempts are made to hide from tourists. But views of almost every building included in various lists, including UNESCO, are necessarily replicated in all guides.
Now imagine that this gloomy member will stretch 2.5 times and hang over the great city of Petra. And the whole world will see someone’s sexual fantasies day and night. And also - for our money. Do we need it?
Barcelona is not only about Gothic cathedrals and the masterpieces of Antoni Gaudi, beautiful parks, monuments and memorials. Here you can also find new architectural masterpieces built in the 21st century. One of them is the Agbar Tower.
Torre Agbar is not hundreds of years old, it was built in 2005. But this does not make this attraction cease to be very interesting for tourists and guests of Barcelona.
Agbar Tower in all its glory
To be honest, I have a rather vague attitude towards such buildings. This building in the city center spoils the uniform style of construction and stands out from the general structure of the city. To be fair, it should be said that the Agbar Tower is not located exactly in the very center of the city. For example, it would be completely sad to see the Agbar Tower. The analogy suggests itself very quickly. I think the Montparnasse Tower in Paris will keep real Parisians awake for a long time, but it’s a very serious case there. The tower was built right in the city center, plus the center of Paris is more homogeneous than in Barcelona, where Gothic is adjacent to.
Agbar Tower
What is surprising is that the name of the tower is absolutely not connected with religious themes, as it seems at first glance. That's what the owner of Spain's largest holding company, the Agbar Group, called it. It is here that the office of the largest water distribution company in Spain, Aguas de Barcelona, is located.
Features of the building's architecture
The Agbar tower owes its unique shape to the imagination of the famous Spanish urban planner, the Frenchman Jean Nouvel, who designed it together with the b720 Arquitectos company. Work on the tower was carried out with the participation of builders from the Dragados company. The construction of the skyscraper took 6 long years and was distinguished by large-scale construction. September 16, 2005 – the opening of a new skyscraper took place. Moreover, the King of Spain himself, Juan Carlos, took part in this event.
Despite the fact that outwardly, the structure is a bit reminiscent of the famous skyscrapers of Abu Dhabi, in fact, it owes its shape to two images: the majestic waterfalls and cliffs of Montserrat, as well as the outlines of the bell towers of the cathedral. The author of the project was passionate about the architect Antonio Gaudi and really wanted his building to be different from many standard “living boxes”. The height of Torre Agbar was 142 meters, in addition, four of the 38 floors are underground. However, it does not appear everywhere on the horizon. For example, we saw it for the first time on As a result, it turned out to be a kind of “geyser that came out of the ground.” The facade of this building reminds me of a game of Tetris. 🙂
In addition to the strange shape of the building, the interior of the skyscraper is also very unusual. All the windows inside the building are not located strictly according to plan, but are made chaotically. It turns out that this was not done by a human hand, but by a special computer program that, based on a free selection of windows, created a similar solution. There are special panels on all sides of the building. To prevent residents and visitors of the skyscraper from feeling too hot, sensors control the opening of thousands of glass blinds, as well as their closing automatically. This ensures maximum reflection of solar energy, in addition, the presence of space between the blinds and the concrete facade ensures normal circulation of fresh air, without the need for air conditioning and other means of ventilation.
Futuristic facade of Agbar Tower
As a result, the skyscraper contains both office and technical premises, and the Agbar tower also has a large parking lot and concert hall. It is interesting that residents of Spanish Barcelona simply call the Agbar skyscraper - a cucumber and even a “candle”. This is such a huge cucumber! 🙂
Evening illumination of the Agbar Tower
Tourists should definitely look at the Agbar Tower in the evening and at night. Outside, on the surface of the skyscraper there are about 5,000 different lighting elements. They are capable of displaying up to 16 million colors. Every minute, it seems that the skyscraper is shimmering with more and more new colors. Also, color images and various images appear on the walls.
Light show at Agbar Tower in the evening
Special light shows according to schedule: Monday, Saturday and Sunday from 20.00 to 23.00 in winter, from 21.00 to 00.00 in summer. On every holiday or special event, its lighting changes.
How to get to Agbar Tower
The 34-story building itself is located a little north of the park Citadel, in Plaza Glorias Catalanes, block 22@. The tower is easily accessible by metro. The station you need is Glòries. By the way, about the metro... I recommend that you read my article about Barcelona transport, if you don’t already know how you can save up to 100-150% of the cost of your trip using T-10 travel cards.
You can also walk to Torre Agbar from the city center. At the same time, you can look at the article about which I published a few days ago. The duration of the walk will be no more than 1 hour one way.
Agbar is a Barcelona symbol of abstract expressionism and at the same time the most popular tower in Spain.
The cone-shaped structure looks like a gigantic cucumber or an unlit cigar. Due to its curious design and introduced lighting effects, Agbar has become a really popular landmark in Barcelona.
Construction started in 1999, led by Jean Nouvel, and performed by the construction company Dragados. Everything ended in 2005 - the tower was completely built and officially launched. The name “Agbar” refers to the company of the same name, the owner of the attraction.
Drawings of the Agbar Tower in Barcelona, Spain
Design
The exterior of the structure is inspired by the landscapes of Montserrat and the variability of water, which is directly related to the main activity of Agbar. Among the 34 external and 4 underground floors of the building is the office of the Barcelona water supply company. The building was originally built for her.
The result was a two-layer giant cone. The inner layer consists of haphazardly placed windows and metal sheets with built-in LEDs, the outer layer is a kind of frame hung with reflective plates. The latter are automatically adjusted: lowered or turned towards the sun so that the walls of the structure regularly change color. When the luminary leaves the sky, Agbar begins another light show.
Night performances
At night, about 4 thousand multi-colored blocks, mounted across the entire surface at the same level as the windows, light up. The squares, like monitor pixels, illuminate Agbar, creating a single abstract pattern. The height of the building is almost 145 meters, resulting in a truly spectacular performance that illuminates the entire block.
Agbar Tower at night, Barcelona, Spain In total, the design produces about 16 million shades. However, all the diversity of Agbar’s palette needs to be observed up close - from afar, complex color combinations inevitably merge into 2-3 basic ones. Of course, it is impossible to maintain the show uninterruptedly, which is why the attraction is lit only for a few hours, which depends on the season.
Inside Agbara
The building is also originally designed inside. The key here is the principle of asymmetry. All rooms, regardless of purpose, have a unique layout. This makes each floor different from the others. You can really notice the internal disorder from the outside - the windows are located completely chaotically.
Apart from a curious system of offices, there is little to see inside Agbar, although the corridors contain historical passages about Barcelona's water supply. The top of the structure is decorated with an observation deck.
On one of the most important streets of Barcelona, as if cutting this city from west to east, the wide and beautiful Diagonal Avenue, stands this strange, unlike anything else building - Torre Agbar. However, in fact, this rather militant name is deciphered quite peacefully - it comes from an abbreviation of the words “Aguas de Barcelona” (after all, the building was built for the needs of this company, which controls the water supply in the city).
Why can the Agbar Tower, whose history begins quite recently, be confidently called one of the most popular attractions in Barcelona? Perhaps, first of all, because upon completion of construction in 2005, it was inaugurated by none other than the King of Spain. However, this is not all that can attract attention to it.
Despite quite large number floors, the building is strikingly different from other “high-rises” - and this is not only because of its shape, which from a distance resembles a cigar rounded upward or even a space rocket. By the way, the author himself, Jean Nouvel, assures that the “muse” for his building was the peaks of Mount Montserrat and the water elements (in particular, the geyser gushing out of the ground). In addition to the form, there is a lot of original and interesting things here.
For example, Torre Agbar has a special double facade: its first layer is a concrete shell, which is lined with bright metal sheets, the second is a special system of translucent blinds, thanks to which it is possible to do without the usual air conditioners and air ducts. In addition, it is thanks to the peculiar “scales” of the blinds that the tower has a mystical appearance.
By the way, in the first layer of the shell there are also 4400 windows, which are placed here randomly, absolutely without any system or any architectural canons.
The metal panels contain about four thousand LED lighting devices, thanks to which the building constantly changes color at night, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. On holidays, thanks to this system, colored images and images appear on the walls of the tower.
Once inside, you can only see the building’s lobby; all other rooms are occupied by offices, most of which belong to the customer’s company.
How to get there
Metro – L1, get off at “Glories” station.
Do you know what?
- Lighting devices located in metal panels are capable of producing a fairly large palette of colors - up to sixteen million shades.
- Among the objects that the famous French climber and builder, Alain Robert, also known as “Spider-Man”, conquered, is the conquest of this skyscraper
