The W Barcelona Hotel, popularly known as the ''Hotel Vela'' (''Sail Hotel'') due to its shape, is a building designed by

Ricardo Bofill Ricardo Bofill Leví (; 5 December 1939 – 14 January 2022) was a Spanish architect from Catalonia. He founded Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in 1963 and developed it into a leading international architectural and urban design practice. ...

located in the Barceloneta district of

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 c ...

, in the expansion of the

Port of Barcelona Managed by Spanish Government The Port of Barcelona ( ca, Port de Barcelona, ; es, Puerto de Barcelona) has a 150-year history and great contemporary commercial importance as one of Europe's major ports in the Mediterranean. It is also Spain's th ...

. The hotel is managed by

Marriott International Marriott International, Inc. is an American multinational company that operates, franchises, and licenses lodging including hotel, residential, and timeshare properties. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The company was founded by ...

marketed under the brand

W Hotels W Hotels is an American upscale lifestyle hotel chain owned by Marriott International that is marketed towards a younger age group. History W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W New York, a conversion of the former Doral Inn hotel on Lexingt ...

. The building, designed by

Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA) is a architecture firm that was founded in 1963 by Ricardo Bofill, initially as Taller de Arquitectura ("Architecture Workshop" in Spanish). It is headquartered in Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona, i ...

, stands in 7 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea surface in the construction of the new entrance to the harbour. It is also known to resemble the

Burj Al Arab The Burj Al Arab ( ar, برج العرب, ''Arab Tower'') is a luxury hotel located in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Managed by Jumeirah hotel group, it is one of the tallest hotels in the world, although 39% of its total heigh ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

. The five-star hotel comprises 473 rooms, 67 suites, 400 employees, a bar located on the rooftop, a spa and fitness centre, indoor and outdoor pools, terraces, beaches, restaurants, rooms dance, and other facilities grouped under a platform of terraces. The hotel also provides a restaurant lead by the Michelin-starred chef, Carles Abellán.

Controversy

The W Barcelona Hotel was built on land owned by the Port Authority of Barcelona, a public entity, but the award method for the project has not been made public. In the Barceloneta neighborhood, there have been voices against the building, arguing that the law states that a building can only be built on land reclaimed from the sea if it is a port facility.

Nudists Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

and surfers, groups that can often be seen on the beaches of Barceloneta and

Sant Sebastià Sant Sebastià beach is located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. At 1,100 meters, it is the longest in Barcelona. This is a sandy beach in the Barceloneta neighborhood of Ciutat Vella district. History *This beach was used by the city's elite in ...

, argue that the hotel complex alters the sea currents due to the extension of the breakwater, as well as altering wind currents, affecting Catalan catamaran competitions and the practice of

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

. Another controversy derives from the fact that it does not comply with the Spanish coastal law, which specifically prohibits building at less than 100 meters from the coast, while the hotel was built at merely 20 meters from the sea.El Periódico
Els detractors de l'hotel Vela volen demanar-ne la demolició.El Periódico
L'alçada de l'Hotel Vela dobla la d'una torre que Joan Clos va rebaixar.

References

{{W Hotels, state=autocollapse Ricardo Bofill buildings Skyscraper hotels in Barcelona

Hotel buildings completed in 2009 2009 establishments in Spain High-tech architecture

Controversy

See also

References