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Born-again Barcelona
Despite wobbling world stock markets, an ambitious new business project in Barcelona is forging ahead, attracting international investment and once again guaranteeing this confident Mediterranean city a place on the world map
Barcelona seems to have a knack at pulling new tricks out of the hat, especially when there’s a danger it may be vanishing from the limelight or being eclipsed by a large-scale event in some other part of Spain. Held back by Franco’s regime for nearly 40 years, it seized the opportunity of the 1992 Olympic Games to get up to speed and launch itself to the world. When the glory of the Olympic success began to fade, it invented Forum Barcelona 2004, a meeting of ‘Universal Cultures’ that entailed building the largest conference centre in southern Europe and a brand-new residential district overlooking the Mediterranean. And at the dawn of the new millennium it came up with a 21st-century brainchild, the 22@Barcelona project, to build a new business district in a central part of the city, primarily targeted at knowledge-based and hi-tech industries. A kind of Mediterranean Silicon Valley – but with aspirations that go much further.
Although its completion date of 2020 has a futuristic ring to it, the 22@Barcelona innovation district is now a reality, and there is plenty of concrete evidence towering high into the blue sky to prove it. So far it has attracted 1,063 new companies, which have given employment to 32,000 people. A recent study conducted by the University of Barcelona confirms the scheme will lead to economic growth, a positive conclusion in these days of financial uncertainty.
Based in the Poble Nou area between Jean Nouvel’s striking gherkin, the Torre Agbar and Diagonal Mar, the new residential and conference centre by the sea, 22@Barcelona is transforming 200 hectares of industrial wasteland into a hi-tech business district. What makes 22@Barcelona unique in Europe is the fact that it will be much more than an innovative business district, integrating existing residents, attracting newcomers and providing subsidised housing, educational and cultural facilities and 114,000m2 of green space. All this in an inner-city location well connected to the centre by Barcelona’s impressive public transport system and only five minutes from the future AVE high-speed train terminal – a far cry from the typical industrial estate parked out in a grey suburb.
It aims to breathe life back into this neglected area, ironically called Poble Nou, ‘new town’, because it grew around the burgeoning industries of the 19th century, when it was known as the Manchester of Catalonia. Smoke from the tall chimneys of its red-brick factories darkened the façades of
Gaudí’s fantastical buildings, but with deindustrialisation in the latter part of the 20th century it rapidly became a wasteland. Part of it was revived by major work in the 1990s to build the Olympic village and reclaim its waterfront, but this new impetus looks set to once again turn it into a new town.
An ingenious deal made between the municipal company 22@ and the landowners, hinging on the change of designation of the land classified as 22a, or industrial, has opened a way for them to build freely. In exchange, they have to surrender 30% of the land for public use, 10% for parks, 10% for facilities and 10% for subsidised housing. Add to this the very specific profile of companies and institutions that are being encouraged to set up in the area and it becomes clear why this far-sighted scheme is subtitled ‘innovative district’.
The strategic sectors are, perhaps unsurprisingly, media, ICT, medical technology and energy. Innovative companies co-exist with research, training and technology transfer centres; the main Catalan universities now have a base here and an enormous audiovisual campus is being built. The focus is on human talent, whether in research, life sciences, design, engineering, culture or multimedia, all of which depend on information and communication technologies.
Multinationals like T-systems, Yahoo, Microsoft, Alstom, Novartis, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems have already been seduced by the area’s up-and-coming charms. The most recent arrival is Elastix Corporation, an electronic design automation company from Silicon Valley which has benefited from the Landing Program, one of the many 22@Barcelona schemes to attract and support companies to get established. Vigyan Singhal, CEO of Elastix, comments: “[I] cannot say enough about the experience and contacts of the management at 22@” who have “a vision of creating a compact city, where one can live, work and play. And that is ideal from the perspective of a foreign company landing in Barcelona.”
At the same time artists, who in the 80s and 90s set up studios in abandoned factories and were generally disenchanted by the arrival of the constructors’ bulldozers, are being encouraged back to form part of this many-layered fabric. At a recent 22@Barcelona monthly ‘Breakfast’ (a typical initiative of the organisation to promote the scheme and foster networking), representatives of two arts centres presented their work and talked of collaboration and interchange between the artists and the new technology businesses in the area.
A cycle ride along the first part of the proposed 29km of cycle lanes in the district reveals a striking panorama of cutting-edge architecture emerging out of the industrial wasteland, such as the Indra building or the RNE (Spanish National Radio) headquarters. An artist’s impression of Enric Ruiz Geli’s stunning Media-Tic building hints at what’s to come. Dotted among them are 114 buildings preserved from the industrial past, born again as artists’ studios, or training centres such as the University of Barcelona’s Life Long Learning centre. The striking, 120m-high Habitat Sky Hotel, designed by Dominique Perrault and opening this month, is an example of the private sector’s confidence in the future of this area.
An atmosphere of optimism and excitement is palpable in these newly paved streets that criss-cross through state-of-the-art buildings and wasteland. A new lifestyle is being born; a new kind of compact city. A recent comment from superstar architect Zaha Hadid, whose Spiralling Tower will be a centrepiece in the new Besós University campus just down the road, sums it up: “Spanish towns [today] show that living and working in metropolitan surroundings which work well is as exciting as it is beneficial.”
FR Business à Barcelone
Le projet ‘22@ Barcelona’ est un nouveau quartier d’affaires dans une partie centrale de la ville, axé principalement sur les industries liées au savoir et aux hautes technologies. Une sorte de Silicon Valley méditerranéenne, mais avec des aspirations qui vont beaucoup plus loin.
Bien que la fin du projet prévu pour 2020 projette une aura futuriste sur son développement, ce quartier de l’innovation ‘22@ Barcelona’ est d’ores et déjà une réalité, et l’on trouve déjà de nombreux signes concrets qui viennent l’attester, s’élevant dans le ciel bleu. Jusqu’à présent, le pôle a attiré 1 063 nouvelles compagnies qui ont fourni de l’emploi à 32 000 personnes et une étude récente menée par l’Université de Barcelone confirme les données selon lesquelles ce plan mènera à une croissance économique, une conclusion positive dans ces périodes d’incertitude financières.
Situé dans la zone de Poble Nou entre l’étonnant gherkin (cornichon) de Jean Nouvel, la Torre Agbar, et Diagonal Mar, le nouveau centre résidentiel et de conférence en bord de mer, ce projet transforme 200 hectares de friches industrielles en centre d’affaires des plus innovateurs. Il contribue à raviver cette zone à l’abandon, ironiquement appelée Poble Nou, Ville Nouvelle, car elle s’est développée autour des industries émergentes du 19e siècle, à l’époque où elle était connue comme la Manchester de la Catalogne.
L’époustouflant hôtel Sky de 120m de haut, conçu par l’architecte Dominique Perrault, et qui ouvre ce mois est un exemple de la confiance du secteur privé dans l’avenir de ce quartier.
Un souffle d’optimisme et d’excitation est palpable dans les rues nouvellement pavées qui relient les immeubles les plus high tech aux bâtiments décrépis. Un nouveau style de vie est né, un nouveau type de ville compacte. L’architecte superstar Zaha Hadid, dont la ‘Spiralling Tower’ sera une pièce maîtresse dans le nouveau campus de l’université de Besós, situé non loin, a dit récemment : “les villes espagnoles [aujourd’hui]…montrent que vivre et travailler dans un environnement urbain qui fonctionne bien est tout à la fois excitant et bénéfique.”
NL Business in Barcelona
Barcelona’s 22@-project voorziet een nieuw zakendistrict in het hartje van de stad. Het mikt vooral op kennisgebaseerde en hoogtechnologische bedrijven en moet het Silicon Valley van de Middellandse Zee worden, zij het met nog grotere ambities.
Ook al is de voltooiing pas voorzien voor 2020, toch is 22@Barcelona nu al realiteit. Dat leert ons het overvloedige bewijsmateriaal dat hoog in de blauwe hemel torent. Tot nu toe hebben 1.063 nieuwe bedrijven zich hier al gevestigd, goed voor in totaal 32.000 werknemers. Uit een studie van de Universiteit van Barcelona blijkt alvast dat het project voor economische welvaart zal zorgen. Een positieve conclusie in dagen van financiële onzekerheid.
Het nieuwe district bevindt zich in de Poble Nou-wijk, tussen Jean Nouvels opvallende augurk, de Torre Agbar en Diagonal Mar, het nieuwe residentiële en conferentiecentrum aan zee. Meer dan 200 hectare industriële woestenij wordt omgebouwd tot een hoogtechnologisch businessdistrict, dat deze verwaarloosde zone nieuw leven moet inblazen. En vanwaar de ironische naam Poble Nou (Nieuwe Stad)? Die kreeg de wijk toen de industrie er in de 19de eeuw nog floreerde. Ze stond toen ook bekend als het Manchester van Catalonië.
Het opvallende 120 m hoge Sky Hotel van architect Dominique Perrault, dat deze maand zijn deuren opent, is een mooi bewijs dat de privésector vertrouwen heeft in de toekomst van het project.
In de pas aangelegde straten tussen de supermoderne gebouwen en de woestenij waait duidelijk een wind van optimisme en opwinding. Een nieuwe levensstijl, een nieuw type compacte stad is geboren. Sterarchitect Zaha Hadid, wiens Spiraaltoren een blikvanger wordt op de nieuwe campus van de Besós-Universiteit, vat het als volgt samen: “Spaanse steden [vandaag]… laten zien dat leven en werken in een efficiënte metropolitische omgeving zowel boeiend als voordelig kan zijn”.
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