The Barcelona studio Barozzi Veiga will build the BIST building in the Old Fish Market

The future Ciutadella del Coneixement continues to advance, an initiative that aims to transform this area of Barcelona into a scientific research and innovation complex. The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and Pompeu Fabra University will be in charge of kicking off the project, with the construction of a research and innovation complex, comprising three buildings that will occupy the space where the old Fish Market used to be.

After the municipal approval of the urban plan to make this complex possible, one of the institutions that comprise it, the BIST, has just selected the architecture firm that will be responsible for constructing its building, which will occupy the most space and be the tallest, with a built area of 25,000 square meters spread over eight floors. It is expected to host 500 researchers and about sixty research groups from BIST centers such as CRG, IBEC, ICN2, and IRB Barcelona.

The winning firm was Barcelona-based Barozzi Veiga, chosen from the five finalist proposals that reached the final phase of the international competition convened by the institution. The architects will have to draft the basic and executive projects. With a budget of 50 million euros, works are expected to begin in 2022.

This will be the first building that architects Fabrizzio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga will construct in Barcelona. Founded in 2004 in the Catalan capital, this firm has received numerous awards, such as the 2015 Mies van der Rohe European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture for the Szczecin Philharmonic Hall (Poland), and the Best Architects 20 award and the Chicago Atheneum International Award for the Bündner Museum of Fine Arts in Chur (Switzerland). Other buildings they have designed include the Tanzhaus cultural center in Zurich and the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne.