Torre de Collserola () is a uniquely designed tower located on the

Tibidabo Tibidabo () is a hill overlooking Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. At , it is the tallest hill in the Serra de Collserola. Rising sharply to the north-west, it has views over the city and the surrounding coastline. The summit of the hill is occupied ...

hill in the

Serra de Collserola The Serra de Collserola (), or simply Collserola, is a mountain range between the rivers Besòs and Llobregat. It is part of the Catalan Coastal Range. These mountains separate Barcelona from the Vallès plain and their tallest peak is the Tibi ...

, in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It was designed by the architect

Sir Norman Foster ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

and by the Spanish civil engineers Julio Martínez Calzón and Manuel Julià Vilardell. This emblematic tower was built in 1991 by the construction company Cubiertas y MZOV S.A. for the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. It features a pod for floor space like many towers but uses

guy wires A guy-wire, guy-line, guy-rope, or stay, also called simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to a free-standing structure. They are used commonly for ship masts, radio masts, wind turbines, utility poles, and tents. A thi ...

for lateral support like a mast. Mainly used as a TV and radio transmitter, this futuristic design provides the highest viewpoint over the city. The top antenna reaches 288.4 m (946 ft) and the top of the pod, which has thirteen floors, reaches 152 m (499 ft). The highest point of this tower is the highest place one could be in the city of Barcelona. The tenth floor of the pod is open to the public.

Events

The tower has a space for event organisations, composed by a reception room and an observation desk set 560 metres above sea level.

Construction

The tower has a hollow slip-formed, reinforced concrete main shaft of only 4.5 m diameter, which reduces to a mere 3 m to hold a radio mast which telescopes from 2.7 m to 0.7 m. The thirteen floors are surrounded by a perimeter of open stainless steel grilles and suspended from the shaft by three primary vertical steel trusses. The total weight of the tower is 3,000 tons. A large number of cables keep the tower upright: *The lower guys are composed three series of 180 parallel strand cables (15 mm diameter) made from pre-tensioned high-strength steel with a polyethylene covering, each; *The upper guys are made of three series of 7

aramid Aramid fibers, short for aromatic polyamide, are a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers. They are used in aerospace and military applications, for ballistic-rated body armor fabric and ballistic composites, in marine cordage, ma ...

fibre cables in parallel (56 mm diameter), each terminated with a resin socket.Torre de Collserola
/ref> The three upper cables have a combined breaking strength of 4,200 tons.

References

External links

Torre de Collserola

*
Torre de Collserola at Factoría Urbana: Photos and technical information about the tower

Torre de Collserola: connecting Barcelona

{{Authority control Towers completed in 1991 Buildings and structures in Barcelona Towers in Catalonia Foster and Partners buildings Sarrià-Sant Gervasi Communication towers in Spain Modernist architecture in Barcelona 1991 establishments in Spain Observation towers

Events

Construction

See also

References

External links