One of Barcelona’s most striking architectural symbols, Torre Agbar — the Agbar Tower — has come to life with a helping hand from Araldite^® adhesives and the engineering adhesives team at Huntsman Advanced Materials.

Created by French architect Jean Nouvel, the Agbar Tower officially opened in September 2005. Standing at over 142 meters, the bullet-shaped skyscraper is the third-tallest building in Barcelona and a dramatic addition to the city’s skyline. Located at the entrance to Barcelona’s new technology and business district, it took 1,000 building professionals over six years to construct the tower, employing a range of different building materials, including 25,000 cubic meters of concrete, almost 60,000 glass sheets and a quarter of a million kilos of steel.

Crowning the tower is a huge composite dome created from concrete, aluminium cladding, glass reinforced plastic (GRP) and galvanized steel. Core elements of the dome’s steel structure were first fixed in place using traditional joining techniques. Key high load areas were then supplemented with products from the Araldite 2000 range of engineering adhesives to provide additional strength, reliability and durability. Specified by Spanish engineering companies involved in the project, three types of Araldite adhesives were selected for their proven track record in the construction industry, ability to enable in-situ bonding and quick setting characteristics: 2015 and 2022 were used to join GRP to GRP, and 2013 was the preferred choice for fixing GRP to galvanized steel.

Ignacio Jareño at Composites Jareño said, “Barcelona, renowned for cutting-edge architectural design, received significant economic investment in readiness for the 1992 Olympic Games. This resulted in a building renaissance, which returned numerous historic sites to their former glory. Today, construction continues apace with new, impressive buildings like the Agbar Tower springing up across the city. Creating a tower of this stature, we wanted to employ materials of the highest possible caliber. We immediately turned to Huntsman to supply Araldite adhesives — the original and best engineering adhesive solution available on the market.”

Floren Entenza, Araldite product manager at Krafft, said, “The Agbar Tower is a prime example of the superiority of Huntsman adhesives for bonding diverse substrates in the construction industry. We are delighted to be able to offer Araldite  adhesives. Their use in such a high-profile architectural project is testimony to the benefits and long-term success of Huntsman’s adhesive products.”

About the Company

Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and commodity chemicals. Its operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging. Originally known for pioneering innovations in packaging and, later, for rapid and integrated growth in petrochemicals, Huntsman today has 15,000 employees and 78 operations in 24 countries. The company had 2005 revenues of $13 billion.