Torre Agbar

Construction of the Torre Agbar

Construction of the Torre Agbar

Introduction

The Agbar Tower is a skyscraper in Barcelona. It is situated in the Placa de les Glories Catalanes, in the district of Sant Martí. It was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and opened on September 16, 2005 (Vázquez, 2011).

It has 30,000 m² for offices, 3,210 m² for services and technical installations and 8,350 m² for general services, including an auditorium. The Agbar Tower has a height of 144 m, 38 plantes, 4 of which are underground.

The facade has temperature sensors in the outside of the tower that regulate the opening and closing of glass slats that make up the skin of the skyscraper, plus spectacular lighting (Nouvel, 2005).

Construction, explained Nouvel himself was strongly influenced by some of the most representative symbols of Catalan culture. As the architect said, had been inspired by the work of Gaudi, on the pinnacles of the mountain of Montserrat. The architect even said that the tower could be a distant echo of old Catalan obsessions, carried by the wind blowing from Montserrat. Agbar tower arises from the power and lightness of a geyser, reaching for the blue sky Barcelona.

The process of building the tower, made by Dragados lasted almost 6 years, from mid-1999 until early 2005 that ended the work. A total of 1,174 professionals and workers collaborated in its construction. The main materials used in the construction of the building was the concrete with which the structure of the tower is carried, aluminium and glass in the form of different colour coated sheet and the first slat of 120 x 30 cm second ( in a total of 59,619) covering all of the approximately 16,000 square meters of outer surface thereof (Álvarez Keller, & Ramis Marcet, 2003).

The slats have different inclinations and opacities, which together with the different shades of aluminium, alter the colour balance of the tower depending on the time of day and season of the year concerned. For the completion of the project required a total of 25,000 were employed m 3 of concrete and 250,000 pounds of steel.

The structure is constituted by two non-concentric oval concrete cylinders so that one is fully covered by the other. The outer cylinder is finished with a dome of glass and steel which as a result give the tower its characteristic bullet shape. This outer cylinder, with a thickness of 45 cm. at the base and in the top 25 openings, 4,359 in total, and the windows are located 4,500, while in interior, 50 cm. at the base and 30 is its highest point, is where the elevators are, stairs and facilities (Lozano Fusté, 2012).

In total 50,693 square meters, of which 30,000 are offices, 3,210 technical facilities, 8,132 services, including an auditorium, and 9,132 parking. It is owned by the multinational group Agbar which has its corporate headquarters in it and takes most of its plants, allocating the rest to rent.

One of the most characteristic features of the building is its nocturnal ...