Barcelona grows eastward

The Besòs river has supplied the water that Barcelona residents drink (and use to water gardens and bathe) since Roman times, from a mine in Montcada that fed an aqueduct more than 11 kilometers long and overcame a 18-meter drop. Along that same route, in medieval times, the Rec Comtal flowed, and later, the Granollers railway. Now the Sagrera station is being built, which high-speed users enjoy from a privileged perspective. Soon trains will stop, and the east of the city will feel the impact generated by a station of these characteristics.

While the works on La Sagrera were being resumed, in the offices of the Urban Planning Sector of Barcelona, two important urban plans have been approved that may have gone somewhat unnoticed (people do not foresee that there will be constructions until they see the cranes) but that will change the density in the eastern end of the city.

On the one hand, in 2023, the Modification of the General Plan and Urban Improvement Plan for the land in front of the La Maquinista shopping center were approved. Where there is now a huge surface parking lot, with a facade facing Ferran Junoy street (metallurgical industrialist and director of Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima and Electrometalúrgica del Ebro), in a few years, high-rise blocks of up to 14 and 16 floors will be seen, that is, buildings 54 and 60 meters high. This is the height of the freestanding towers on Diagonal, such as Mediapro, RBA, the Cuatrecasas building (between 16 and 18 floors) or Sabadell (23 floors).

It will be key to guarantee that the affordable housing to which the plan entitles them is built within the deadlines set by urban planning.

On this plot, a very high buildability has been concentrated (65,000 m2 destined for housing), with capacity for 812 new apartments (518 free and 294 protected). That a commercial operator like Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield becomes a housing developer, also for protected housing, is good news, and it is to be hoped that they select teams of architects capable of converting that unique volumetry that the city has granted them into an excellent work of architecture. They have done it in other cities with excellent results, but it requires participating in the challenge of making a city, as has always been done in Barcelona, with excellent results:hiring different architecture teams for each building, contributing to creating a diverse urban landscape, but cohesive due to planningIt will be key to guarantee that the affordable housing to which the plan entitles them is built within the deadlines determined by urban planning.

The other major urban operation is the Modification of the Prim Sector General Plan, which also has high-rise buildings (10 and 12 floors, with some towers of 16 or 18 floors), with very open ground floors, open to the city, and a lot of land destined for equipment. This operation is even more interesting than the previous one, in the sense that it is closer to the Sagrera station, and has a layout that is the result of a competition won by Forgas Arquitectes, which will create very public interior block spaces, with equipment uses, and will have a very different appearance from the central Eixample blocks to which we are accustomed. The new neighborhood has the shape of a triangle with the perimeter built with tall buildings, but with a very open and diaphanous interior that is called to have many public uses and utility for the residents of La Verneda and La Pau, in addition to the new ones that come.

These operations demonstrate that it is not necessary to consume new land outside cities, nor to transform fields into urbanizations

This, moreover, is an important sector, because part of the land ownership belongs to the Barcelona City Council, and this will allow the city to have a significant municipal ceiling to build protected housing. The urbanization costs in this sector amounted to 26 million euros (according to the approved planning), and being able to execute the works on these streets as soon as possible is critical to obtain the plots where all the free and affordable homes will be builtprovided for in the plan: 1,624 market-rate homes, and 1,725 protected homes.

These operations demonstrate that it is not necessary to consume new land outside of cities, nor to transform fields into urbanizations. What these operations do is redensify existing urban fabrics and concentrate uses to create neighborhoods with greater vitality, close to major connection stations with the territory. The 55,000 flats promised by Salvador Illa require urban planning to advance by regenerating existing cities, with good urban plans, so that cranes begin to raise walls. Approval of the plans is not enough. Now it is necessary to ensure that the city obtains its protected flats, which it counted on when it imagined them.