The City of Barcelona is focusing on urban projects and public spaces. Its streets, squares, parks and museums keep it full of life and people. Let´s analyze some of the most outstanding projects in Eixample Neighbourhood.
The City of Barcelona has some of the largest international urban projects.
Neighbourhoods such as 22@Barcelona, Gracia or Marina del Prat Vermell are witnessing sustainable building projects. Thus, the city is receiving proposals aimed at becoming a smart city model.
But, is it possible to find neighbourhoods able to change deeply? The answer is yes.
The projects are aimed at recovering the historical heritage and enlightening dark areas. This type of urbanism is mirrored in Eixample neighboourhood.
Some projects are about to be discovered and some others are about to come true.
The new Mercat del Ninot
After five and a half years facing reforms, the new Mercat del Ninot opens its doors for spring.
On May, 19, the fondest building of Antiga Esquerra del Eixample reopens its doors with a totally renewed image.
The market has kept its escence, with the image of a child (origin of Ninot) that still remains on the traditional facade on Mallorca Street. However, this new space offers a modern restaurant, a supermarket and different tasting areas.
The new market has an area of 2,800 m2 and two new accesses from Casanovas St and Villarroel St.
At the same time, the area where Mercat del Ninot is located, in front of Hospital Clínic and Facultad de Medicina, is intended to be redeveloped. Duran i Reynals Square will once again be a place to go for a walk and spend a nice time.
Espacio Germanetes
The so-called Espacio Germanetes is, in fact, the place where an old church named Antiguo Convento de las ‘Germanetes dels Pobres’ is. It is a piece of land that will be reopened to the public, situated in the convergence of the streets Comte Borrell and Condell, between Diputació St and Voladomat St.
This event envolves the urban development and opening of the gardens called Jardines de Emma, that have been surrounded by walls until now.
In this way, such gardens will be part of the future Bosque del Eixample, a real green lung for this traditional neighbourhood of Barcelona.
Not so far away, there are some facilities, such as a nursery, an adult residency and an institute, in order to make the new neighbours lives easier.
An Efficient Island
Barcelona is dealing with an ambicious project, intending to thoroughly change a space with 27 buildings located in a block of Eizample Neighbourhood.
Efficient Island is a large-scale project involving 784 neighbours, whose homes are located inside the limits of Gran Via, Voladomat St, Diputació St and Calàbria St.
In order to imagine the future Barcelona, we have to visualize a total area of 75,258 m2, where different types of buildings are located (residential buildings, offices, health centres and even hotels). Moreover, it is necessary to imagine a city able to: increase its energy savings by a 25%, with isolation and replacement of energy equipments; reduce its emissions by a 50% to a 70%, with internal and external renewal of the buildings; and lower its pollutant impact, decreasing its carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles.
This project will make hundreds of people from Barcelona participants of a necessary change in our cities, a change towards a sustainable city.
Future urban development of La Modelo
Modelo, a traditional modernist building situated in Eixample neighbourhood in Barcelona is also changing towards a new path.
The outdated prision Modelo will host its prisioners in a new building in Zona Franca, process that will take several phases and will also imply the closure of two more buildings, Trinitat Vella and Wad Ras.
For now, a green area will be opened in the 1,215 m2 between Rosselló St and Entença St, a little public park that will be inaugurated in autumn.
The future project for the rest of the building will probably include the construction of a Memorial, encompassing files of Barcelona History Museum, in Spanish Museo de Historia de Barcelona (MUHBA), and of the prision itself.
It is a long-term process that will bring light and culture to one of the traditional neighborhoods of the City of Barcelona, Eixample Neighborhood!
