W Barcelona Hotel / Ricardo Bofill

Architects: Ricardo Bofill
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Area: 42,818 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Ricardo Bofill

Project Directors: Ricardo Bofill & Jean Pierre Carniaux
Architectectural Construction Director: José Maria Rocías
Geothecnic: Uriel y asociados (Tomas Murillo)
Hotel Structure: Ideam
Parking Structure: Eduardo Palao
Installations: Projectes s.a., Jordi Oste, Carlos Morancho, Pau Riera
Collabor.Loghting: Birgit Walter
Collaborator Urban Surrounding: Jordi Henrich
Projectes S.L. (Engineering): Jordi Oste, Carles Morancho, Pau Riera
Structure Engineering Ideam Enterprise: Francisco Millanes, Luís Matute, Miguel Ortega

W Barcelona Hotel, located on the new entrance of Barcelona’s Port appears as a modern icon rising above the Mediterranean sea, and is the landmark of this new area to be developed with high-end retail, office and entertainment venues. A sail shaped building on a 10 hectares land claimed from the sea, is included in an ambitious urban renovation plan of Barcelona coastline. W Barcelona Hotel is a five star-hotel with 480 rooms, 67 suites, a roof top bar, large spa, indoor and outdoor pool, several food and beverage concepts and a retail store.

The closest volume to the sea is a thin building 105 meters high perpendicular to the dike (1 underground level, 1 ground floor level and 26 storey). The reflecting façade of silver glass blends with the colours of the sky and the sparkles of the sea. Its allegoric shape is a reference point. This volume is inserted in the low atrium building, the lobby of which reveals views of the sea and enjoys zenith natural light. Public functions are accommodated under a platform conceived as two huge terraces. A big congress room with a large window over the sea breaks with its volume the horizontal lines of the base of the building.

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