The future Clínic will become a lever for urban transformation spanning Barcelona, L'Hospitalet, and Esplugues. The project for the future Clínic-University of Barcelona Health Campus took a new step forward this Wednesday with the approval of the advance of the Porta Diagonal-Campus Clínic Urban Master Plan (PDU). The action, orchestrated by the General Council of the Porta Diagonal – Campus Clínic Consortium, the coordinating body that brings together the nine institutions involved in this strategic project, will affect 69.5 hectares across the three municipalities and combines new healthcare and research facilities with housing, economic activity, green areas, and new public spaces.
The future Clínic Campus will occupy 12.7 hectares and concentrate some 380,000 m² of floor area for healthcare, teaching, and research uses. To these will be added up to 120,000 m² for complementary activities, such as laboratories, residences for researchers and resident doctors, or services linked to the campus.
One of the main novelties is the land reservation to build up to 1,125 homes, 325 of which will be in Barcelona and 800 in L'Hospitalet. Half of them will be protected. The plan also foresees 22 hectares of green spaces, with the extension of the Finestrelles promenade, a new park around the Collblanc road, and the expansion of Can Rigal park.
Across the entire area, 63% of the floor area will be allocated to healthcare, teaching, and research uses, while 23% will correspond to economic activity. 10% will be residential and 4% for local facilities. The proposal thus aims to combine the campus with housing, productive activity, and new public spaces, in an area previously marked by large road infrastructures.
Mobility will be another key element of the transformation. The reorganization of access from the B-23 and the Ronda de Dalt seeks to reinforce Diagonal as a metropolitan connection axis, while the project incorporates new pedestrian and bicycle routes and foresees the arrival of metro line L3 in Esplugues.
The Clínic arrives in L'Hospitalet
In L'Hospitalet, the arrival of the Clínic will also have a direct effect on the city's healthcare map. The neighborhoods of Samontà, among which is Pubilla Cases, will have the new hospital as a reference center, while the rest of the city will remain linked to the Bellvitge University Hospital. In this way, all citizens of L'Hospitalet will have their reference hospital within the same municipality.
Quirós: "The Clínic must be a great country project, but above all it must leave a clear and tangible return to L'Hospitalet and our neighborhoods"
The mayor of L'Hospitalet, David Quirós, has stressed that the project must have a direct return to the neighborhoods: "The Clínic must be a great country project, but above all it must leave a clear and tangible return to L'Hospitalet and our neighborhoods." And this return also involves housing. In L'Hospitalet, 800 flats are planned —fewer homes than expected— 400 of which will be subsidized housing. The plan also reserves nearly 122,000 m² of floor space for economic activity, especially linked to health, research, innovation, and advanced services.
The urban transformation will include new public spaces and green areas around the Collblanc road, the extension of the Finestrelles rambla, and the expansion of the Can Rigal park. The implementation of the Clínic will also reinforce, according to the forecasts of the L'Hospitalet City Council, the connection with the Bellvitge BioCluster of Innovation and Health and L'Hospitalet's role as a hub for health and knowledge.
The new Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences in Esplugues
In Esplugues, the project incorporates one of its most outstanding university operations: the new Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona. The building will have 35,000 m² and a planned investment of 152 million euros, with the aim of becoming operational in the 2032-2033 academic year. The new faculty will replace facilities that are more than 70 years old and will have capacity for some 3,000 students. Its location seeks to strengthen connections between the UB, the future Clínic Campus, the Barcelona Science Park, and the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital.
The project also plans to overcome the barrier that currently separates different parts of Esplugues and strengthen Diagonal as a metropolitan urban axis. The extension of the Finestrelles promenade and the extension of L3, with two new stations, will contribute to connecting this new university and health environment with the rest of the city.
A project with a 2035 horizon
The step approved this Wednesday is still the beginning of a process that will have to continue with citizen participation, planned between September and December. The initial approval of the PDU is planned for the first half of 2027 and the definitive one, for early 2028.
"El Clínic will soon launch the international architecture competition to define the future hospital"
In parallel, El Clínic will soon launch the international architecture competition to define the future hospital. Urbanization works would begin during the second half of 2028 and the construction of the campus, in 2030. The goal is to put it into operation in 2035, with an estimated investment of 1,700 million euros.
The project, therefore, goes beyond the relocation of a hospital. The new Clínic is conceived as the center of a transformation that will have to stitch together Barcelona, l'Hospitalet and Esplugues through health, research, housing, green spaces and a new network of metropolitan connections.