FCC Construcción

In October 2009 the five-star Hotel W Barcelona, more popularly known as "the Sail Hotel" because of its shape, threw open its doors to its first guests. The hotel was designed by the prestigious architect Ricardo Bofill.

This building is a unique part of the hotel world because of its location (next to the new mouth of Barcelona harbour, on a lot reclaimed from the sea), its creative, innovative design inspired by sails, and its grand facilities.

It has a floor area of nearly 50,000 square metres. This includes a semi-basement, a ground floor and 26 storeys, which in turn house 473 rooms, conference rooms, auditoriums, coffee shops, signature restaurants, a sky bar, a gym, swimming pools and several additional facilities clustered beneath more than 6,200 square metres of rooftop platform.

Geometrically, the building is made up of four easily identified sections:

The Sail: This is the component responsible for most of the building's character. The Sail is entirely taken up by rooms, all of which enjoy views of Barcelona, the open sea or the harbour.

The Atrium: This is a cube intersecting with the sail. It contains rooms and the entrance to the hotel.

The Podium: This is a 17,812-square-metre formal platform on which the Sail and the Atrium rest. This section contains all the hotel's services and its main plant.

The Car Park: The 17,835-square-metre Car Park lies on the southern side of the hotel and has parking for 745 vehicles. Its roof is actually a square, the Plaza Rosa dels Vents.

The hotel is part of a complex consisting of more than 64,000 square metres, which was developed with an eye to reorganising the area and connecting it to the seaside promenade extending from Barcelona's Olympic Port.