164- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
The big names head for Spain
The great and the good of contemporary world
architecture have laid down some of their best work in
Spain. Barcelona found itself particularly blessed with
new builds in the early 1990s – the lure of being an
Olympic host proving a powerful one. Norman Foster’s
Torre de Collserola and Arata Isozaki’s Palau Sant Jordi
were among the best received. Neither, however, has
done for Barcelona what Frank Gehry’s inexplicable but
hypnotic Guggenheim Museum did for humble Bilbao in
1997, giving the city a global importance in both art and
architecture. More recently, the golden boy of French
architecture, Jean Nouvel, designed Barcelona’sTorre
Agbar, a phallic colossus that changes colour at night
with the help of 4,500 LEDs.The locals apparently call it
el supositorio– the suppository.The newTerminal Four
of Madrid’s Barajas Airport, designed by Brit Richard
Rogers and completed in 2005, is almost unique as an
airport that actually enthrals.Norman invasion
The futuristic stations
of Bilbao’s new metro
network were designed
by British architect
Norman Foster. The
Bilbainos have duly
dubbed the entrances,
shaped like the body of
a lobster, asFosteritos.