We got a tip about “Walden 7”, a beautiful and rather crazy building in a suburb of Barcelona. So after our coffee tour through Barcelona we drove out to take a closer look. Good grief, what a building Ricardo Bofill put up almost 40 years ago! All the symmetry and the colours just before sunset – wow. And we wouldn’t have expected the building to house around 1,000 people. Walden 7 was designed by the studio of architect Ricardo Bofill and built from 1972 to 1975 in Sant Just Desvern, with 446 apartments in 18 staggered towers around seven inner courtyards. The name alludes to B. F. Skinner’s novel “Walden Two”.
Red towers with round balconies and a yellow stripe – Walden 7 near Barcelona.Red round balconies against a blue sky and white clouds.Semicircular tiled balconies, packed close together.Up the red towers into the sky.A courtyard with semicircular balconies beneath a bright sky.Massive concrete pillars and a pendant lamp inside.A turquoise pool in the courtyard, warmly lit rooms behind.A dark concrete shaft, windows in the light above.Tall concrete walls frame the blue-lit space.A narrow light well, small windows stacked one above the other.Letterboxes in the shade, a narrow strip of light from above.A pendant lamp in front of a tiled balcony and a blue wall.Through an opening onto two dark balcony arches.A corridor with a pendant lamp, blue light at the end.Straight up in the light well – blue walls, round balconies.Pure symmetry: orange round balconies against clouds.Two tiled round towers in the narrow courtyard.Two large rounded volumes facing each other in the dark courtyard.An angled view of the tiled round balconies.A deep light well, a patch of sky at the top.Walden 7 on a poster: three photos of the model.A courtyard with a deep blue wall, wooden slats and dense greenery.A tall space, a silhouette in the open door.The rooftop pool, a red tower and clouds behind.Blue walls with narrow windows and round tiled balconies.Down into the deep courtyard, green ground at the very bottom.Between the red towers, a view of Barcelona and the hills.Walden 7 in the evening, the red balconies glowing against a dark blue sky.Small before the great building: a person in orange on the steps.
