Mirador Torre Glòries is a new type of observatory that allows us to take a fresh look at Barcelona: to perceive the beat of the city that affects our daily lives, of which we are often unaware. Like a new type of telescope and microscope, it reveals our non-human neighbours, the daily dance of all its systems and infrastructures, and the celestial bodies and satellites that cross its sky. A surprising way of presenting the city as a mesh of natural, social and technological forces. To discover Barcelona with fresh eyes.
The world moves forward and with it our way of thinking. In the 21st century, we are moving towards a new idea of our place in the world: a place where “our world” coexists with that of others, where humanity is no longer the centre of the universe.
Barcelona, like all large metropolises, is changing. As the fossil fuel era comes to an end and we search for a new balance with nature, we have started to dream of a new greener and more friendly Barcelona, powered by sustainable energy and intelligent technology. A new city where, furthermore, we are now aware of the fact that humans do not live alone.
Mirador Torre Glòries is a journey that provides three exceptional new looks at Barcelona:
The visit begins with Hyperview Barcelona, on the first basement floor. There, we will discover a different type of vantage point. An observation platform that reads and amplifies the city’s pulse, where Barcelona, beyond the city we see at first glance, can be observed and understood as a living being, the heartbeat of which has a significant impact on our way of inhabiting it.
We live in an ecosystem where systems, infrastructures and technologies intertwine, ones on which we rely to live, and the sustainability of this ecosystem depends, in turn, on the use we make of it. Using big data instruments, which gather data from urban systems, and spectacular installations that combine art, music, technology and large-format audiovisual productions, the pulse of the city is taken, discovering Barcelona to be a living organism, inhabited by human and non-human neighbours.
After this first part, the visit continues on the 30th floor, at a height of 125 metres, in the only observation deck that offers a 360° view of the city, from the centre of the Barcelona envisaged by Ildefons Cerdà. From there, the mountain of Montjuïc, the Mediterranean Sea, Sagrada Família and the 22@ district can be contemplated, among others.
The highest point of Torre Glòries is dominated by a spectacular work of art by Tomás Saraceno. Cloud Cities Barcelona is a large-format walk-in sculpture, suspended inside the dome and built based on a structure of tensioned cables. Visitors can walk through the installation as if they were flying above the city at a height of 130 metres. The concept plays on clouds and takes us to the very edge of our comfort zone, leading us to reflect on the interdependence and interconnection between all living beings. A unique experience to conclude this journey and discover Barcelona from the centre of the city.
Ildefons Cerdà, the urban planner who invented modern Barcelona, envisaged Plaça de les Glòries as its absolute centre. Today, it is a new green space in the city, a vegetation-filled Canòpia Urbana, with a large park at its centre called the Gran Clariana. However, it wasn’t always like this. In the last century, Barcelona decided to ignore Cerdà’s original plan and Plaça de les Glòries became a huge intersection where three of the city’s largest roads converge: Meridiana, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes and Diagonal. In the 21st century, with the traffic calming plan for the three roads and the square where they intersect, Glòries has recovered the status it should never have lost, that of the centre of Cerdà’s Barcelona: an open, green and sustainable city.
Bordering the Gran Clariana park are Disseny Hub Barcelona and the Encants Vells flea market, which within just a few years have become two of the most important buildings in Barcelona. Dominating the square, like a bubbling geyser, stands one of the most visible structures in the entire city: Torre Glòries. From the top of the tower, you can see the expanse of a metropolis that is over 2000 years old. Its mountains, its two rivers, the Mediterranean Sea that embraces it and the sky above it. Inside the building, underground, hides an observatory for discovering Barcelona like never before. A place where the city’s pulse can be taken, its breathing read.
Mirador Torre Glòries is a huge antenna that gathers the tempo of Barcelona and the passage of its days. It is a double vantage point that traces the connections between the elements that determine life in the city at any time, revealing Barcelona from many perspectives.
