Palau de Sant Jordi is Barcelona’s sports pavilion, built specially for the 1992 Olympic Games and designed by the architect Arata Isozaki. The construction work was completed in 1990. Set on the hill of Montjuïc, it was conceived as a versatile space for staging not only sports competitions, but musicals, theatrical productions and social events.
The building is enclosed by the east and west façades, made of architectural concrete, which cross the elevated lateral avenues running from south to north as far as the main square. Both façades act as a pedestal or a podium for the building, in which the roof is the most striking feature. The relationship between the roof, the warped awnings and the façade emerges in the form of the large railing made of precast architectural concrete elements with a length of 7.2 m, constituting a fundamental element in the Palau's external appearance. The sand blast treatment applied on site highlights the natural, stable appearance of the aggregate which changes with the light and position of the sun.
