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Projects   Project Portfolio – January 2006
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Torre Agbar

Barcelona
Ateliers Jean Nouvel

The effervescing surface of the Agbar Tower is the startling symbol Ateliers Jean Nouvel has created for Barcelona’s newest commercial district


Photo © Roland Halbe, courtesy The Museum of Modern Art
   

By James S. Russell, AIA

Barcelona’s Plaça Glories is anything but glorious. The subway exits to a beat-up sunken alley. Reaching the street, the visitor faces a throng of vehicles headed up a massive elevated roundabout that flings them onto the intercity highway network. Rising improbably out of the blocks of crumbling and boarded-up warehouses and factories is what Jean Nouvel calls his “ambassador,” the bullet-shaped, 31-story “symbol of the international metropolis,” the Agbar Tower.

It’s hard to miss Nouvel’s tower on the city’s skyline, once dominated only by Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia Cathedral. That’s because Agbar is a 466-foot-high advertisement for the city’s desire to remake the Plaça into a new commercial center in a section of the city located apart from established centers of commerce. By creating a newly well-connected, 40-acre, high-density development, Barcelona planners hope to spur growth without sacrificing the historic core.

Under a vast new green square, the city will bury the roundabout, creating a transportation nexus comprising an added subway line, a regional-rail station, and a high-speed intercity rail line. Agbar and a recently built hotel will be joined by other commercial development around the green. Confronted with today’s scruffy surroundings, all this may seem unlikely, but consider that the city has already extended its famous Diagonal boulevard essentially from Agbar’s door through the adjacent Poblenou neighborhood to the oceanfront Barcelona Forum, where new parks, marinas, commercial and residential development, and a convention center have all been willed into being by officials in a few short years [RECORD, June 2004, page 109].

In Agbar, Nouvel abandoned the acres of gridded glass that are the signature of skyscraper office towers. Instead, he opened only about a fourth of the panels in an apparently random pattern as red-trimmed windows (in clear glass, except for a few tinted with integral film to enrich the palette). Another remarkable aspect of the design is that those windows are punched out of a continuous exterior concrete bearing wall that rises almost the entire height of the tower.

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the People

Owner
Layetana Inmuebles, S.L.

Architect
Ateliers Jean Nouvel
10, Cité d’Agoulême
F-75011 Paris. France
T. 01 49 23 83 83 F. 01 43 14 81 10
www.jeannouvel.fr

Project chief:
Jean Pierre Bouhana, Cristiano Benzoni

Architectes:
Florence Rabiet, Alexa Plasencia, Sophie Thuillier, Reza Azard, Toshihiro Kubota, Emmanuelle Lapointe, Cristina Algas, Julie Fernandez, Fransisco Martinez, Manell Bermudo, Pascaline Paris, Jane Landrey, Mirco Tardio, Fina Urpi, Marie Najdovski, Ester Demoraes, David Fagart, Gianluca Ferrarini, Susana Vitoria, Mattias Raasch

b720 arquitectos
Josep Tarradellas 123 9ª planta
Barcelona 08028. Spain
T. 93 363 79 79 F. 93 363 01 39

Jean-Pierre Bouanha (AJN’s project architect), Vander Lemes (b720’s project architect), Cristiano Benzoni, Pablo Garrido, Alexa Plasencia, Cristina Algás, Francisco Martínez, Elisabeth Farrés, Julie Fernández, Emmanuelle Lapointe, Pascaline Paris, Florence Rabiet, Juan Alberto Aibar, Marc Martínez, Doris Sewczyk.

Architect of Record
Jean Nouvel -
Fermín Vázquez Huarte-Mendicoa

Interior Designer
Jean Nouvel (AJN), Fermín Vázquez (b720 arquitectos), Gerardo García Ventosa (GVA)

Engineer(s)
Structural:
R. Brufau & A. Obiol

HVAC:
Gepro S.A.

Consultat(s)
Façade:
Xavier Ferrés (Biosca&Botey)

Landscape:
Manel Colomines – Factors de Paisatge

Lighting:
Yann Kersalé

Acoustical:
Higini Arau

Color:
Alain Bony

Models:
Étienne Follenfant

General Contractor
Dragados S.A. www.drace.com

Sub-contractor(s)
Mechanical Installation:
Axima S.A. www.axima.ch

Electrical Installation:
Emte S.A.

Elevators:
Thyssen-Boetticher S.A.
www.thyssenkruppelevadores.com

Façade:
Permasteelisa Group S.A
www.permasteelisa.com

Interiors:
UTE-Dragados - ACSA

Photographer
Rafael Vargas
932 46 36 02
615 87 93 57
www.rafaelvargasfotografia.com

Renderer(s)
Mirco Tardio (Artefactory), Francisco Martinez (AJN)

CAD system, project management, or other software used
AutoCAD usa.autodesk.com, Rhinoceros, 3D-Studio

the Products

Structural System
Peri S.A., ULMA S.A.

Exterior cladding
Fractal S.A.

Metal/glass curtainwall:
Permasteelisa Group S.A. www.permasteelisa.com

Roofing
Elastomeric:
Katorce www.katorce.com, Bettor S.A., Texsa www.texsa.com

Windows
Technal www.technal.co.uk

Wood:
TDM

Aluminum:
Hydro www.hydro.com

Glazing
Glass:
St. Gobain www.st-gobain.com

Skylights:
Colt

Doors
Entrances:
Dorma S.A. www.dorma.com

Metal doors:
Fichet S.A. www.fichetsistemas.com

Wood doors:
Fichet S.A. www.fichetsistemas.com

Sliding doors:
Dorma S.A. www.dorma.com

Fire-control doors, security grilles:
Dorma S.A. www.dorma.com

Hardware
Locksets:
Dorma S.A. www.dorma.com

Hinges:
D-line www.dline.com, Arcon, Sobinco www.sobinco.be

Exit devices:
Dorma www.dorma.com

Pulls:
Dorma www.dorma.com, FSB www.fsbusa.com

Interior finishes
Acoustical ceilings:
Erco www.ercoonline.com

Cabinetwork and custom woodwork: TDM www.tdm.es

Paints and stains:
- Tollens – façade concrete wall’s inner face and entrance hall
- Valentine S.A.

Floor and wall tile:
Pavimentos Mata S.A. (stairs, underground); Caesar (standard toilets)
www.pavimentosonline.com

Resilient flooring:
Pavindus, Bettor S.A. www.pavindus.com

Raised flooring:
Espacio S.A. www.espacio.es

 
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