The 5-star Hotel Vela, designed by Ricardo Bofill, will become Barcelona's most stunning hotel- it will be 100 meters tall and in the shape of sail. Construction is to start in 2005 for an opening date of 2007.

Hotel Vela
Height: 100 meters
Area: 48 000 m2
Initial cost estimate: 160 million €

Construction is being financed by the joint venture FCC/Comsa, while Starwood (Sheraton, Westin, Four Points) will be the hotel managers. Arup has been contacted by Ricardo Boffil to consult on the structural engineering and building services which will meet Starwood's global standards. Arup is also responsible for fire and façade enegineering design.

Arup Spain and Arup Hotels & Leisure's past experience and relationships with both Ricardo Bofill and Starwood were key to this appointment.

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hmm dont know....to massive and too low

The renders aren't great, am sure this building looks better than that.

more pics


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Looks interesting, much better renders though than the original ones. Hopefully it'll look even better when completed.

Very beautiful building!
;)

Very much like the building in Dubai, forgot it's name... But it looks very much the same. Same function, on the waterfront... hmmm...

Well, it´s obvious this building was inspired by the Dubai building

soooooo, i mean the building it´s nice but it´s not original so it doesn´t impress that much

I like the design, congratulations to Barcelona by this hotel :okay: ani ideia of high and number of floors?

it's about time. How long this project has been around ? at least 5 years.

Sorry to distract from the subject, what about Hotel Esperia ? is it u/c ?

nice design, love it, reminds me of Dubai one, but this one is better cose it is in Spain:-)
Don't like Dubai anymore, they are to egotistical.

Pretty interesting, I like it. It somewhat resembles Burj Al Arab, not only considering the design, but also the location on the shore.

It's not very amazing but I think it will look very nice on that location, congratilations to BARCELONA!!!

very beautiful

i like only the first renderings when its all white... there its really really beautiful. and yep it seems like a twin of burj al arab in the other rendeirngs.

seems that barcelona are trying to have the same buildings than in other major cities, like the st mary axe's in london and this one like the burj al arab...????????
i like the design, seems like a copy though...
are they going to reclaim the part where the building is going to be, i've been in this place, wich i can see is barcelona's marina, and there is no place right now for the building... am i right???

seems that barcelona are trying to have the same buildings than in other major cities, like the st mary axe's in london and this one like the burj al arab...????????
i like the design, seems like a copy though...
are they going to reclaim the part where the building is going to be, i've been in this place, wich i can see is barcelona's marina, and there is no place right now for the building... am i right???

well...the design of torre agbar is previous to the construction on st mary axe's so I think there is no chance to say it is a copy....and the Hotel Vela...well,I think it was designed in the 2000. Anyway if you want to build a hotel in the marina place, it is clear that the subject will be something related to the sea....and a "vela"-shaped hotel, or a fish-shaped hotel, or a...whatever...is the most appropriate. On the other hand there's enough place to build this hotel..in fact, the place is waiting for the construction and meanwhile the Cirque du Soleil has settled down there for a couple of months.

I think it's a beautiful edition to the world's most beautiful city.

it's about time. How long this project has been around ? at least 5 years.

Sorry to distract from the subject, what about Hotel Esperia ? is it u/c ?

yes, I remember the previous news about this project in 1999.
I was so young!:D

Hotel Hesperia is under construction and has already topped out. You can
see that at Spanish forum.

I'm not all that extremely impressed by the designs, but still this building might look very good with all the waters, surroudings, etc..

The design its plain ugly -a fat and lower bad copy of Burj Al Arab- and its placed on the wrong location... it will disgrace the Old City's maritime views.. this is not Dubai, for f*ck's sake!

wrong strategy, wrong architect, worst tall building of the city, worst and most irrationally infantile design (oh!, its in the sea, well let's design a sailboat then, like that city in the desert...)

As usual, like everything coming from Bofill since the mid-eighties, this Hotel is pure crap. Thanks heaven it isn't a 350 ft corinthian column raised on a stone pedestal standing in front of a gothic city.... still, a complete nightmare.
Bad corporative bullsh*t, I'd rather hire some international starchitect to do the job or bring fresh air, there are hundreds of local architects way much better than this guy ...

:puke:

I like the location,it has a kind of Dubai feeling on it.