Norman Foster's FC Barcelona Stadium Reform

From the Archinect News:

At last, Foster’s project for the reform of FC Barcelona’s 1957 stadium has been unveiled this Saturday Sept. 22: Foster adds a festive, colorful, sort of snake-like skin -a mixture of Nouvel’s pixellate Agbar Tower and H&dM’s inflatable Allianz Arena-, reminiscent of Antoni Gaudí‘s “trencadís” (that old ceramic breakage technique) you can find in Park Güell or the Batlló House in Barcelona…
This is just the first idea -which won the competition against H&dM, Carles Ferrater and SANAA among others-, but it already shows how it could be.
Works will be carried on without stopping the competitions (check out the link below to see the process of covering the stadium without interfering with the team’s activity).

I’m no expert on Foster’s recent career, but for what I can remember of his highest achievements -Nimes, Ipswich, Commerzbank, Hong Kong, etc-, and leaving aside the new Wembley in London, this must be the “funkiest” Foster I’ve ever seen… seems like he -like did Nouvel before- has been absorbing too much old Catalan Art Nouveau (Modernisme) to design something like this (maybe Foster’s happier than ever or the city’s amiable spirit got him).

This explosion of colour mixed with his trademark eco-high-tech may have unpredictable results but it sure is an exciting proposal.
The stadium should be ready by 2011-2012.

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