The Barcelona City Council will buy the former headquarters of the Gustavo Gili publishing house for 9.5 million euros, to convert it into the Barcelona Culture and Education Center. The project will involve the relocation of the current dependencies of the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (Icub) and the Institut Municipal d'Educació de Barcelona (Imeb) which are now in the Palau de la Virreina and Plaça Espanya, respectively.
However, this is a broader plan that foresees projecting a larger cultural facility as a space available for cultural programmers. Citizen service facilities will be projected for cultural and educational agents that will act as a space for revitalization and reflection on culture, education and all related fields: feminism, sustainability, innovation, technology and economy, among others.
In fact, the municipal team does not believe that the transfer of the cultural headquarters can be carried out until the new legislative mandate because a comprehensive renovation of the building must be carried out to allow the transfer of personnel from both public bodies.
Specifically, the Deputy Mayor for Culture, Education, Science and Community, Jordi Martí, has indicated that by the end of this legislature, within a year and a half, the executive project for the renovation of the space could be completed.
The acquisition of the building owned by the Gili family ---who used it as the publishing house's headquarters until 2015--- is expected to close at the end of the year, at the proposal of ERC as a result of the agreement for the 2021 municipal budget, which foresaw a fund of 30 million euros for the acquisition or rehabilitation of unique buildings through which, for now, the City Council has also acquired El Molino and the Sant Pau Gymnasium.
The building, located at number 87 Rosselló Street, is one of the best examples of rationalist architecture of the fifties in Barcelona. It has an area of 6,800 square meters, is listed as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest and is in the process of being listed as a Cultural Asset of National Interest, because it is an architectural work of the so-called Group R, to which its creators Francesc Bassó and Joaquim Gili i Morós ---member of the Gili family--- belonged. The Grup R movement was inspired by works by Bauhaus, Le Corbusier or Mies Van der Rohe in the 50s of the last century, promoted by a group of Catalan architects who wanted to break with the aesthetics of monumental post-war projects in Spain and opted for modernity. The property, built in 1960, was recognized with a FAD award in 1961.
In parallel, with this relocation of the Icub and the Imeb, the city council will gain space in La Virreina Centre de la Imatge and will make it possible to free up space in the old premises of La Massana and convert them into the new library of the Ciutat Vella district, as well as expand the Francesc Macià School, in Plaça Espanya.