The 9 hectare Can Batlló industrial complex is located in the heart of the Sants-Montjuic district, occupying one-third of the area of La Bordeta. The textile industry which at first was the economic engine of the area ended up being its main problem due to the decline of its activity and the great barrier that supposes in the connectivity of the neighborhood.

In 2008 the planning and urbanization project was approved, which should allow the new development of the sector (housing, equipment, park, etc.). The on-going real estate crisis slows down, indefinitely, the project. Finally, 3 years later, on June 11, 2011 at 11:00 a local platform accessed the venue and organized a ludic-reclamation conference with the aim of initiating, even by its own means, the process of recovery of the sector towards the neighborhood.

This is the context in which the assignment is addressed which is defining a first action of provisional urbanization that allows opening the sector to the neighborhood.

The opening and provisional urbanization of the sector has fostered a process of recovery of the area as a public space in the neighborhood and reuse of much of its infrastructure for recreational and cultural uses. What became a great barrier returns to be one of the main assets of the neighborhood, as a civic engine.

Recovery of the industrial enclosure in Sants-Montjuïc neighborhood, Barcelona / CATEGORY B

Provisional urbanization of Can Batlló

BIMSA

Batlle i Roig Arquitectura. Enric Batlle, Joan Roig, Iván Sánchez

Mario Súñer – Architect / Dolors Feu – Agricultural engineer & Landscape architect

Colaboraciones y servicios FAUS S.A.

18.700 m2

2012 — 2015

Antonio Navarro Wijkmark

Client

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Builder

Surface area

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Photography

Reprogrammming obsolete infraestructures Re-naturalization of the industrial complex New outdoor sport facilities Neigborhood’s connectivity improvement through pedestrian routes