Toyo Ito – New Architectural Genius at Work in Barcelona

Architecture, Things to see on June 15, 2009 3:48 pm

This year, during the celebration of Trip Choice’s Travellers Choice 2009 awards, Barcelona was named as the city with the best architecture in the world.

Barcelona has changed over the years, keeping its old emblematic buildings but adding other new ones which have given the city its identity. Nowadays, the Agbar Tower, the Camp Nou and the Telecommunications Tower are as emblematic as the Cathedral, Santa Maria del Mar or any of Gaudí’s works.

Like many of the great minds of architecture, Toyo Ito, one of the most innovative and influential architects in the world, decided to leave his mark on Barcelona.

Throughout his brilliant career he has carried out important and innovative projects such as the Sendai Mediatech, the Shinome Apartments or the TOD’s Omotesando building, but it’s his last two creations which prove why he’s known as the new Antonio Gaudí.

It seems Barcelona gets the best out of all the architects. Toyo Ito wasn’t the exception and its buildings, Torres Fira and Suites Avenue are now considered the city’s new future architectonical gems.

The Fira Towers are made up of two towers; the first one of these is a red building which has a strange shape that rotates at 90 degrees from the roof until its base. You will definitely not be able to find any building similar in the whole world.

The second tower is completely made of glass and it seems that inside there was some red structure. Both will be finished by the end of this year.

The Suites Avenue is a building characterised by some strange balconies which resemble Gaudí’s designs but with a cleaner and more modern touch. It was completed a month ago and it’s almost ironic that the building can be found opposite the Casa Milà. That’s because the Passeig de Gràcia is the perfect location for the creations of two masterminds, which, together with many other buildings, decorate all of Barcelona, the city of architecture.