The Agbar Tower in Barcelona was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. Its unusual shape was inspired by the nearby Montserrat mountain and the organic buildings of Antoni Gaudi. The 144m tall tower has a distinctive illumination system and wavy glass facade that reflects the city lights like water. Some critics consider it to be Barcelona's new architectural icon.

1. Torre Agbar
Agbar Tower
Jean Nouvel

2. Agbar Tower
The Agbar Tower, is a 21st century skyscraper at
Information Glories Square, Barcelona. It was designed
by French architect Jean Nouvel in association
An Icon with the Spanish firm b720 Architects. It opened in
June 2005 and was inaugurated officially by
Comparatives the King of Spain on 16 September 2005.
The Agbar Tower is located in the
Construction Poblenou neighborhood of Barcelona and is named
after its owners, the Agbar Group, a holding
company whose interests include the Barcelona
Architect water company Aigües de Barcelona.
Quite remarkable is the nocturnal lighting, that
saturates the tower's colors and turns it into a
spectacular kind of lighthouse.

3. Agbar Tower
Information A water company headquarters, next to Glories
Square. This 144 m tall, 35-storey tower is quot;a
geyser under permanent, calculated pressurequot; in
An Icon Nouvel's words (the reflections of the city lights
on the glass cladding are a metaphor of water).
Comparatives
Some critics qualify this tower as the city's new
Construction architectural icon and say that it will substitute
La Sagrada Familia as the great tourist attraction
Architect of Barcelona.
A defining feature of the building is its nocturnal
illumination. It has 4,500 LED luminous devices
that allow generation of luminous images in the
façade. In addition, it has temperature sensors in
the outside of the tower that regulate the
opening and closing of the glass blinds of the
façade of the building, reducing the consumption
of energy for air conditioning.
It will house the head office of the Aigües de
Barcelona Group (Spanish: quot;Aguas de
Barcelonaquot;, English: quot;Waters of Barcelonaquot;).

4. Agbar Tower
Information The bullet-shape silhouette of the building
takes its inspiration from a nearby, astonishing
An Icon mountain called Montserrat (one of the
legendary, iconic myths of Catalonia's
history), and the wavy, organic buildings of
Comparatives Gaudí (with a contemporary approach).
Furthermore, some critics think that the tower
Construction being a replica of Norman Foster's Swiss Re, in
London.
Architect

5. 04/06/1999 21/08/2002
Agbar Tower
Information
An Icon
Comparatives
Construction
Architect 25/01/2005
10/10/2003 05/06/2006
02/02/2003

6. Agbar Tower
The architect of Agbar Tower is Jean Nouvel, and
Information is a french architect.
An Icon According to Jean Nouvel, the shape of the Torre
Agbar was inspired by Montserrat, a mountain
Comparatives near Barcelona, and by the shape of a geyser
rising into the air. Jean Nouvel, in an
interview, described it as having a phallic
Construction character. As a result of its unusual shape, the
building is known by several nicknames, such as
Architect “the suppository’’, “the shell’’ and some more.
The Agbar Tower measures 144.4 m of height
and consists of 38 stores, including four
underground levels.
Furthermore, Nouvel said: I tried to play with a belonging to a
geography and history. quot;quot; Some 80 percent of buildings in
cities are unfortunately parallelepipeds, North American
models, while the tower has a clear identity. Furthermore, only
a certain number of towers in the world to symbolize the city.
Here you have the Sagrada Familia or the communications
tower of Norman Foster, who is very particular. All these
towers being shown in Barcelona, not elsewhere. quot;