From the entrance of the apartment my friend & I rented in Barcelona, we could see this colorful modern building. It's a 38 story skyscraper known as Torre Agbar. It was designed by a French architect named Jean Nouvel & was completed in 2005. Here are some interesting facts about the building from Wikipedia: "According to Jean Nouvel, the shape of the Torre Agbar was inspired by Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona, and by the shape of a geyser rising into the air. Jean Nouvel, in an interview, described it as having a phallic character. As a result of its unusual shape, the building is known by several nicknames, such as "el supositori" (the suppository), "l'obus" (the shell) and some more scatological ones. It is also somewhat similar in shape to Sir Norman Foster's 30 St. Mary Axe in London, often called "the Gherkin". Its design combines a number of different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, and over 4,500 window openings cut out of the structural concrete. The building stands out in Barcelona; it is the third tallest building. It has temperature sensors in the outside of the tower that regulate the opening and closing of the window blinds of the facade of the building, reducing the consumption of energy for air conditioning. The main materials used in the construction of the building were concrete which comprises the structure of the tower and aluminium and glass in the form of 59,619 strips of painted sheet metal of different colours, covering the approximately 16,000 m2 of exterior surface. In addition, the glass has different inclinations and opacities which combined with the different shades of aluminium alter the colour balance of the tower as a function of time of day and season of the year concerned. One of the most characteristic elements of the building is its nocturnal illumination. The tower has more than 4,500 luminous devices that can operate independently using LED technology and enables the generation of images on the outside of the tower. The system is capable of creating 16 million colours, thanks to a sophisticated system of hardware and software. It has the ability to quickly transition between colours which can create a shocking effect. The tower has twice been scaled by Alain Robert. The first, on 3 August 2006, was an action which sought to call for peace in the conflict in Lebanon. The second was in September 2007." Let the phallic puns & jokes begin...