Jordi Todó: An Artist’s Tour of Barcelona
Aerial Photographer Jordi Todó offers us free admission to one of the world’s greatest open-air museums: Barcelona, Spain.
Barcelona, Jordi Todó’s hometown and the fourth most visited city in Europe, boasts eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, a number-one rated beach, and endless examples of why it’s ranked a world-class metropolis. His images, shot from the Catalonia sky, serve as exclusive tour guides through this grand museum of art.
The first stop on the tour is Barcelona’s top-billed collection: the work of Antoni Gaudí, the figurehead of Catalan Modernism. Known for his integration of the geometry found in nature and the fluidity of curving lines, Gaudí created some of Barcelona’s most famous architectural attractions.
La Sagrada Familia, though still unfinished, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2010 was consecrated a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI.
His other famous works, Park Güell, Palau Güell, Casa Milà, Casa Vicens, Casa Batlló, and the Crypt in Colonia Güell are all considered World Heritage Sites and captivate millions of visitors intrigued by the undulating shapes and flowing movements of Gaudí’s architectural design.
However, it is not only Gaudí’s work which draws international crowds and entices explorers to venture further into this city ‘museum’.
From the Torre Agbar (Agbar Tower), a 38-story skyscraper designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and influenced by the nearby mountain Montserrat; to the Santa Catarina Market, a building designed by architects Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue and whose colorful mosaic cover was designed by artist Tonia Comella; to the massive solar panels located at the Forum Esplanade, an urban project designed by architects José Antonio Martínez Lapeña and Elías Torres; Barcelona is filled with examples of innovative architectural achievements.
Jordi’s images also feature the visionary and pioneering design of Ildefons Cerdà, whose incorporation of traffic, transport, sunlight, and ventilation as equal factors in civic design made way for the Eixample District. The broad streets, his characteristic octagonal buildings, and the straight-lined grids of Cerdà’s style lie in sharp contrast to the typical Roman layout of the famous Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter).
Here, visitors can easily lose themselves in the labyrinthine alleyways that shoot off one of Barcelona’s main attractions: the tree-lined pedestrian mall known as La Rambla.
With such world-renowned architecture, revolutionary civic design, and numerous art installations, it is no wonder that Jordi Todó’s birthplace draws millions of visitors every year and why it is the first (and currently, only) city to beat out an individual for the RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture.
Jordi’s vantage point above this famous street allows for a rare perspective of what countless passersby overlook everyday: the mosaic tiling of Joan Miró, famous Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist whose work has been described as surrealistic, or “a sandbox for the sculpted mind.”
Not far away, a more literal interpretation of a sandbox can be found in Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada’s installation of a 2.5-acre sand painting of American President Barack Obama.
With such world-renowned architecture, revolutionary civic design, and numerous art installations, it is no wonder that Jordi Todó’s birthplace draws millions of visitors every year and why it is the first (and currently, only) city to beat out an individual for the RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture.