Hotel Arts Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
Contributed by Project for Public Spaces
With isolated amenities, this hotel seems designed for people who are afraid of setting foot in a real city.
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Why It Doesn't Work
The rooms of this waterfront high-rise hotel start on the 2nd floor. All of its restaurants and other amenities are far removed from anything that resembles a city. The base of the building serves the automobile with scant attention to human activity. Isolated, it blocks what could be a natural progression of individual buildings that reinforce and complement those around them. In all, this hotel seems designed for people who are afraid of setting foot in a real city. In fact, the whole district, developed for the 1992 Olympics, is a disappointment.