Sacyr's Blog

As land at the surface becomes increasingly scarce, some cities are looking underground for room to grow. Beneath streets and buildings, an expanding network of infrastructure is doing far more than carrying utilities and moving people: it is becoming an integral part of urban development.

Earthquakes, wars, and the passage of time itself have caused some of history’s most monumental sculptures to vanish. What remains of them are texts, archaeological remains, and—in more recent cases—images that allow us to reconstruct part of what was lost. From the Colossus of Rhodes to the Buddhas of Bamiyan, these traces provide insight into how they were erected and, in some cases, help us decide what to do with what remains.

Designed to activate only during extreme events, much of the infrastructure that protects cities was developed using historical hydrological records. Today, rising sea levels and increasingly frequent torrential rains are forcing a reevaluation of systems built for a climate that is no longer predictable.

The completion of the Tower of Jesus Christ brings the Sagrada Família closer to the vision Antoni Gaudí imagined more than a century ago. Its construction has required combining the architect’s legacy with technologies that were unknown when the project was conceived. Now, new challenges lie ahead: completing the project without losing sight of the city that has grown up around it.