As I promised on a previous post, I went checking the newly refurbished former bullfightring of Las Arenas, now transformed by Richard Rogers and his team in a shopping mall.
The most remarkable technical achievement was removing the land under the building structure in order to enable the access to the shopping mall from the streetlevel: the ring had been built on top of a little hill, so as the hill was digged away, the whole building had to be suspended by hidraulic cranes in and reseated on metal beams that are currently receiving the structure wheight. Quite unique!
Appart from this technical progidy, the inside of the mall looks like any other. Of course, very modern, but in my opinion too full of post-modern big tubes and metal pipes. The stores selection is similar to any other shopping mall in town (but since it's not that big, some brands such as Zara are missing).
What noone should miss, however, is the ride to the top floor where an outstanding balcony has been open for visitors to enjoy the city views. The panorama overlooking Plaça Espanya is spectacular, but the rest of the city views are also worth seing.
A needle-looking spire has been attached to the bullfight ring as an alternative access to this vantage point.
Would you like to learn more about Barcelona contemporary architecture? Take one of my contemporary architecture tours!
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