Abstract of the article written on 24 May 2011:
"Las Arenas, formerly Barcelona's second bullring is now its newest shopping mall. The ornate, Moorish-looking circular facade of the original remains; but inside, architect Richard Rogers has inserted a colourful circus of leisure, in an atrium criss-crossed by escalators, walkways and giant structural elements.
Las Arenas had more than 300,000 visitors in its opening week this March: that's around a tenth of the city. The rooftop public viewing terrace has been a huge hit, offering an unrivalled 360-degree view of the city.
Next January, Catalonia will become the second Spanish state after the Canary Islands to have abolished bullfighting. Barcelona has been the epicentre of the anti-bullfighting movement; but, despite the fact that an estimated 70% of Spaniards are indifferent to the sport, and much of the outside world regards it with horror, the rest of Spain is unlikely to follow just yet.
Catalonia's rejection of bullfighting could be seen less as a cultural shift than a political one, part of its long-running beef with central government over issues of autonomy – though it has proved a red rag to nationalists. As a riposte, Madrid last year classified bullfighting as a protected part of the region's cultural patrimony. Valencia and Murcia did the same.
Las Arenas had not hosted a bullfight since 1977. It was built in 1900, on what was then the city's south-western edge. One of three bullrings in Barcelona, it had been a local landmark; but when the architects took possession of it, the building was covered in graffiti, trees were growing in it, and homeless people sheltered in its stalls.
The exterior is in a style known as neo-mudéjar, a 19th-century revival of Moorish architecture, characterised by striped stone arches and ornate tile and brickwork. This style was adopted by many bullrings of the era.
The shopping and cinema levels within are an independent structure, organised around a central atrium, while the top two floors and the roof deck, which jut out over the old facade, are held up by four giant structural arms rising dramatically through the atrium.
The term "hi-tech" now seems a quaint way to describe Rogers's style, especially in a historic refit like this; but, as with his breakthrough design for the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the structural and service systems within the building are openly expressed in bright colours, and the joins between old and new are treated with similar honesty."
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