Of the forty-seven architectural firms that have received the Pritzker Prize since 1979, fourteen have built in Barcelona. According to a widespread cliché among local architects, they have left behind their worst works. Being a subjective cliché, it is debatable: I would say that in half of the cases it is not true and in the rest it is debatable. However, it is a fact that most of the Barcelona commissions were awarded to the architects before they received the prize. Except in the cases of I.M. Pei (awarded in 1983), co-author with Cobb and Freed of the World Trade Centre (WTC), and Richard Meier (1984), responsible for the MACBA.
The route begins precisely with Meier who, invited by Mayor Maragall to begin the architectural regeneration of the Raval, fitted in the neo-rationalist MACBA headquarters. It continues with Las Arenas, a bullfighting venue with a Mudéjar façade that Richard Rogers (2007) revamped with futuristic elements. Walking along Gran Via to L’Hospitalet, you reach the City of Justice, nine sober, ochre-coloured blocks by David Chipperfield (2023). Further on, in L’Hospitalet’s Plaça d’Europa, are the works of Toyo Ito (2013) and RCR (2017): the Fira towers, particularly the reddish, tree-like one, and the Olympus building, with its stepped metal exostructure.
Climbing up Montjuïc, we find Arata Isozaki‘s Palau Sant Jordi (2019), and, on the other side of the mountain, in the port area, Pei’s WTC. Following the coastline, we come to Frank Gehry‘s gleaming copper Fish (1989). And a little further on, Álvaro Siza‘s circular Meteorological Centre (1992).
Still by the sea, at the northern end of Diagonal, is Herzog & de Meuron‘s Forum building (2001), triangular, blue and self-absorbed, and on Diagonal, next to Glòries, Jean Nouvel‘s Agbar Tower (2008). Near the southern end of this avenue stands the reclining skyscraper by Rafael Moneo (1996) and Manuel de Solà-Morales.
Two works on the outskirts of Barcelona bring this itinerary to a close: the slender Collserola Tower by Norman Foster (1999), presiding over the city, and, in Santa Coloma, the La Pallaresa residential complex by Eduardo Souto de Moura (2011).
