Barcelona Architecture (Watermark Architectural Guides)

This new full color architectural guide to Barcelona fills a long overdue need for visitors to one of Europe’s most design conscious cities. Starting with the ancient quarter, it covers each area of development, explaining in detail the planning and expansion of Barcelona. The incisive text and vibrant images chronicle its spine-chilling and intriguing history...here a stone insignia at the entry door for the Tribunal of the Inquisition, there a wisp of Hebrew, hinting at a synagogue, long gone. From the palaces, parks and churches of earlier centuries it moves on to Cerda’s famous 19th century grid plan, modernista and the resplendent Gaudi buildings. In the Post-Franco era, this book examines "normalization" and then the recent developments of the Olympic sites and enormous urban re-construction, the re-shaping of the waterfront, the parks and concentric ring roads. Brilliant works by both local and international architects, designers and sculptors have made this one of the outstanding cities of Europe. This is the most far-reaching guide published for decades. The author is an architect and academic who lives in Barcelona.