The Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation Gas Museum opens an exhibition entitled ‘A Kaleidoscope in the City: 10 Years of the Gas Natural Fenosa Building’

• The exhibition will be open to visitors until 30 April 2017 and shows the architectural features of this major kaleidoscope in Barcelona, a unique building which has become an iconic piece of the city's urban landscape.

• Designed by architect Benedetta Tagliabue, the exhibition has been produced in collaboration with the Enric Miralles Foundation.

To celebrate the 10h anniversary of the building that houses the GAS NATURAL FENOSA corporate headquarters in Barcelona, the Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation Gas Museum is presenting the temporary exhibition A Kaleidoscope in the City: 10 Years of the Gas Natural Fenosa Building, focused on this unique, iconic piece of Barcelona's urban landscape.

The exhibition, which is open to visitors until 30 April 2017, was officially opened today at an event attended by Director of Territorial Services in Barcelona of the Catalan Government's Ministry of Culture Maria Àngels Torras, Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation General Manager Martí Solà , Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation Gas Museum Director Eva Buch, and the exhibition's curator, architect Benedetta Tagliabue.

Designed by Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue and her studio Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, the exhibition reconstructs the volumetric solutions that best define the energy company building: the flame, the aircraft carrier and the waterfall. It also features a recreation of the set of glass and mirrored panels on the façade, as well as sketches, mock-ups and graphics.

According to Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation General Manager Martí Solà: 'Ten years after it was built, the building represents a valuable contribution of the company to Barcelona's architectural heritage, as well as a pioneering social work to transform private spaces into public spaces, with the opening up of a large open plaza for neighbourhood residents.'

A large kaleidoscope integrated into the city

As they walk through A Kaleidoscope in the City, the public will experience the features of the GAS NATURAL FENOSA corporate headquarters through its glinting reflections, which turn it into a large kaleidoscope in the city. Through the exhibition they will also discover the magnitude and originality of the architectural challenge, which the company placed in the hands of Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue in 1999.

With a clear intention to fuse with the immediate urban neighbourhood, the EMBT studio created an overhang that acted as an entrance to the neighbourhood of Barceloneta. It also arranged the building's different asymmetrical structures to form a plaza, which would become a common area occupying the exact space where the first gas factory in Spain was located more than a century ago.

From the GAS NATURAL FENOSA building to other towers from the EMBT studio

In conjunction with the A Kaleidoscope in the City exhibition at the Gas Museum, the Enric Miralles Foundation is presenting another entitled Towers in the World. This exhibition presents an overview of the work done by the EMBT studio after having won the contest for the GAS NATURAL FENOSA Barcelona headquarters in 1999.

A pioneering building in terms of its social function and relationship with the city, with green spaces and a public thoroughfare at its feet, the GAS NATURAL FENOSA headquarters has become a paradigm for future architectural projects. The Enric Miralles Foundation exhibition presents seven international projects that Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue developed in the 1990s. They comprise a series of architectural experiments on the fragmentation of volume in tall buildings.

The Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation

The Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation, founded in 1992, focuses on promoting information, training and increased social awareness about improving energy efficiency and technological innovation in the field of energy while respecting the environment, and promotes cultural activities through the Gas Museum, aimed at preserving and spreading knowledge about the historical and cultural heritage of the sector. It also has a programme to support exports for small and medium-sized enterprises. It carries out international activities in Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Morocco, Italy, Moldova and South Africa.

The Gas Museum is a cultural centre combining a permanent exhibition with the organisation of temporary exhibitions, conferences, an educational programme for schools, activities for all audiences, and film and music seasons.

The Enric Miralles Foundation

The Enric Miralles Foundation is a non-profit private organisation founded in 2011. Inspired by the innovative thinking of Enric Miralles, the Foundation aims to be an open and international space for experimentation and research in the fields of architecture and design. It has an ongoing programme of courses, conferences, seminars, exhibitions and international exchanges. It also aims to support the preservation of the works, ideas and creative spirit of Enric Miralles and has an archive with original documents and more than a thousand original mock-ups of the architect and his architecture studio EMBT.

Barcelona, 20 December 2016.

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