The international competition convened for the expansion of the Barcelona Trade Fair precinct, won by architect Toyo Ito, was a great opportunity for Escofet to develop new landscape elements that conjugate nature and the Fair pavilion architecture.
The large pavilion entrance areas are turned into a meeting point, and invite visitors to stay there through the generation of suggestive reliefs that pattern the space and give it a use. These relief elements are like waves that emerge from the ground, sometimes generating small steps to match the contours, while in other cases they reach the necessary height to become benches.
Light and water as living elements, and the search for weightlessness are constants in work of this Japanese architect, materialised in new proposals for street furniture: Naguisa benches, installed in front of the main entrance to the Fair precinct, a clear allegory of the frothy curves left by the sea on the sand; the suite of Ola benches which emerge and submerge in the pavement, recreating an undulating seascape; Alcorque trees surrounds, another extremely sculptural liquid metaphor, and finally Floral drinking fountains, an artificial reference to lilies floating on a film of water. The Barcelona Fira project on Gran Vía de Les Corts Catalanes was produced in 2004.
