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Herzog and de Meuron – Forum building Barcelona
Barcelona Forum 2004 Building / Edifici Fòrum
One of Barcelona’s most impressive buildings when it comes to modern architecture is the forum building in Barcelona . This “floating blue cheesecake” represents one of the most recent architectural creations in the city. It is officially recognised as Edifici Fòrum and was designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron for the world forum of cultures, an event that was also recognized as “Barcelona Forum“. The Forum building was erected from 2000-2004.
The World Forum of Cultures was a cultural event which was supposed to compete with the importance of the 1992 Olympic Games. The event took place from May to September 2004 and aimed to reinforce peace, sustainability, human rights and cultural diversity. Important figures from culture, politics, religion and science came together and contributed at many conferences and seminars during the 140 days of the forum. The event was initiated from the city of Barcelona (especially the mayor of Barcelona at the time, Joan Clos), the Catalonian (Generalitat de Catalunya) government and the UNESCO. All together 146 NGOs took part in the forum. However, some NGOs such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace boycotted the event due to its commercial approach and because companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé or Telefónica were amongst the main sponsors. Another criticism was regarding the extremely high construction costs of the building and the surrounding areas. The entire project cost around 320 Million €. Eventually only 3,5 Million visitors came to the Barcelona forum event. This was significantly lower than the 25 Million that were expected. The world forum of cultures project could have been considered as a commercial failure, however it gave the Basel based architect team of Herzog & de Meuron the opportunity to design one of Barcelona’s most characteristic pieces of modern architecture. The building was typical of their style as they created new room effects through the use of simple materials.
The Barcelona Forum building itself is a huge blue triangle which serves as a multi functional venue. It is located on the Forum Plaza. The Forum building can host 3200 guests. The triangle-shaped complex is 25m high and each of his sides are 180m long. The ceiling and the walls of the building are cut by asymmetric windows and holes in walls and ceiling. The ceiling is decorated with corrugated mirrors which correspond to light reflexions of the sea next to the forum area. Beside the Barcelona Forum building the whole complex includes the Barcelona International Convention Center and the Auditoriums of the Sea. Herzog & de Meuron’s Forum Building represents an excellent finish of the Avenida Diagonal that used to end in nowhere before.
Today the Barcelona forum is partly used for events such as gigs in the summer or trade shows, but some areas of it are undergoing refurbishment. The Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron is also responsible for having designed many other famous buildings in the US and Europe, such as the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, the home of the German football club FC Bayern Munich or the CaixaForum in Madrid, Spain. Their best known work is the conversion of the old Bankside power station in London into the Tate Modern gallery. They are currently working on the Tate Modern 2 for London’s Bankside as well, which should be completed in time for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Metro: L4 – El Maresme | Fòrum
