Torre Agbar

We traversed a good part of the city today. I have to say it was pretty interesting to compare some of the older parts of the city with the newer developments coming up to the northeast. In particular, there's a huge elevated roundabout surrounded by new highrise construction. The Torre Agbar (above) is the only project that is finished, but I'll talk a bit more about it later.

Across from the train station, we went to some public areas accented by a huge ceramic sculpture and a crazy rope jungle gym. The sculpture was done by Joan Miro. It was one of his last works, being completed about 1 year before his death in 1983. A pretty amazing work, but I can't help thinking it could be a character in the next Pixar movie.

This picture doesn't really do the jungle gym justice, but there's a reasonable explanation. The reason there's no people on it is because I snapped a quick shot then we all started climbing up. It was quite a scene I'm sure, and a lot of fun.

After a short trip on the metro we made our way to L'Auditori by Rafael Moneo. It's a concert hall that's a part of a bigger musical complex of music teaching and research. We couldn't go inside, but apparently the acoustics of the hall are pretty remarkable. I'd really like to catch a performance while I'm here. If the outside is any indication of the inside, I'm sure it wouldn't dissapoint.
Now back to the Torre Agbar. It's an interesting architectural specimine. The form of it isn't all that remarkable, but it stands out from anything else in the city, kind of contradicting an established order and making its own urbanism. It's fitting in a way, seeing as it's standing on the site of the most wretched development I've seen since I've been here, a real contrast to the beautiful old city. Still, the tall symetrical building experiences a remarkable change depending on your vantage poing. The images below were taken on our approach.