Parc del Fòrum
Vast seaside plaza and park built for a world cultural expo, capped by a giant tilted solar canopy on stilts.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Parc del Forum in Barcelona goes back to the summer of 2004, when mayor Joan Clos staged a Universal Forum of Cultures here, complete with a specially bulldozed neighborhood, a colossal blue triangular building, and names like Mikhail Gorbachev and Angelina Jolie attached to the cause. You'll hear how the promised millions of visitors compared to who actually turned up, and the arguments over cost and ambition that followed. Look up at the tilted solar canopy overhead, raised on stilts above the plaza, and consider what it was built to power.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Arc de Triomf
Red brick triumphal arch built in 1888 as the ceremonial entrance to a Universal Exposition.
Port Olímpic
Modern marina with over seven hundred moorings, built atop a former shantytown for the nineteen ninety-two Olympics.
Palau Sant Jordi
Turtle-backed indoor arena whose steel-lattice roof was assembled on the ground, then hydraulically lifted into place.
Plaça d'Espanya
Grand roundabout plaza with twin Venetian-style towers and a former bullring turned shopping mall.
Parc del Centre del Poblenou
Shaded, willow-arched park of four garden islands built over reclaimed industrial land, with a preserved brick factory now a history museum.
Olympic Ring
Hilltop Olympic park of stadiums and arenas built for a 1929 fair and reborn for the 1992 Games.