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Barcelona Architecture City Guide: 30 Buildings and Places from Gaudí to Today

Barcelona is a city where architecture has long served as a laboratory of urban experimentation, each era leaving its mark on the city's fabric. From the dense streets of the Gothic Quarter to the ornate interiors of the Palau de la Música Catalana, the city expanded outward through Ildefons Cerdà's Eixample, a stage where Gaudí and his contemporaries challenged the rules of form, scale, and ornamentation. These experiments defined a local identity and culminated in the Sagrada Família, a vision that continues into the 21st century through the integration of advanced technology.

The city's twentieth-century transformation forged an architectural language with global influence. The principles of International Modernism are embodied in Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion, while later developments—from Bofill's explorations in collective housing to the urban interventions of the 1992 Olympics—reshaped the skyline and the city's relationship to its waterfront. Subsequent contemporary projects continue to negotiate form, landscape, and urban scale, contributing to a layered and evolving city.

Barcelona Architecture City Guide: 30 Buildings and Places from Gaudí to Today - More Images+ 29

L'ALZINA Residential Complex / Jaime Prous Architects

L'ALZINA Residential Complex  / Jaime Prous Architects - More Images+ 11

Caldes de Malavella, Spain

Natura Bissé Factory Home / TdB Arquitectura

Natura Bissé Factory Home / TdB Arquitectura - More Images+ 10

  • Architects: TdB Arquitectura
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  15373
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  AutoDesk, Reynaers Aluminium, Arcon Glas, BASWA acoustic, FLOORFLEX, +13

Burés House / TdB Arquitectura + Estudio Vilablanch

Burés House / TdB Arquitectura + Estudio Vilablanch - More Images+ 17

  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  82882 ft²
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Saflex, Antonio Lupi, Bulthaup, Carl Hansen, Cassina, +11

Hippodrome Tower / OAB

Hippodrome Tower / OAB - More Images+ 12

  • Architects: OAB
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  289
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2018
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Atlas Schindler, ATELIER, Construvida, DOCK & DOORS, FF ARQUITECTURA, +6

Aluminum Foam Facades: Architecture Rich in Texture, Porosity and Brightness

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Aluminum Foam Facades: Architecture Rich in Texture, Porosity and Brightness - Image 5 of 4
CaixaForum Sevilla / Vázquez Consuegra. Image © Jesús Granada

Modular coatings for facades and enclosures typically deliver fast and efficient solutions. However, many times they lack richness and character since they are repeated infinitely, without relating to the architectural design and its different functions and requirements.

These aluminum foam panels are manufactured through an air injection process in molten aluminum, which contains a fine dispersion of ceramic particulate. These ceramic particles stabilize the air bubbles, and create aluminum foam panels which provide an interesting level of detail and variability, generating unique facades with different levels of texture, transparency, brightness, and opacity. These ultralight panels can be used as flat architectural sheets, are 100% recyclable and available in standard sized formats up to 3.66 meters long (custom longer panels also available). 

Aluminum Foam Facades: Architecture Rich in Texture, Porosity and Brightness - Image 1 of 4Aluminum Foam Facades: Architecture Rich in Texture, Porosity and Brightness - Image 2 of 4Aluminum Foam Facades: Architecture Rich in Texture, Porosity and Brightness - Image 3 of 4Aluminum Foam Facades: Architecture Rich in Texture, Porosity and Brightness - Image 4 of 4Aluminum Foam Facades: Architecture Rich in Texture, Porosity and Brightness - More Images+ 15

Seafront House / OAB

Seafront House / OAB - More Images+ 16

  • Architects: OAB
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  289
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2016
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Europerfil, Jansen, Miele, Roca, Bosch, +17