The Ciutadella del Coneixement adds another piece, this time, linked to democratic representation. The Parliament of Catalonia will be expanded by adding a new building to address its growth needs and adapt to the challenges of current parliamentarism. It will do so 300 meters from the Chamber, in the stables of the Urban Guard on Wellington Street, which will become a space to move towards a Parliament prepared for the future and more open to citizens.
With this objective, the building will host new services and a permanently open and visitable citizen service area, also focused on explaining the history of the institution. Political activity, for its part, will remain in the current parliamentary headquarters. With the new dependencies, it is expected that the Chamber could gain nearly 13,000 square meters, 10,000 of which above ground, and 3,000 more underground. Now, the initial forecast is that it could be operational in a period of between six and eight years.
The proximity of the two buildings is key in this project: they are a three-minute walk away. However, there is a handicap: the Zoo cuts off the path. Nevertheless, this current inconvenience will be resolved when the new building comes into operation: the future walkway that will connect Wellington with the Ciutadella park will already be operational.
To formalize this first step towards the expansion of the Parliament, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa; the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, have signed the collaboration protocol to establish the bases of the project. "Today we add wills and commitment to place the Parliament building at the height of its history, but, above all, of its future," Illa highlighted.
And it is that the expansion aims to ensure that the Parliament is "prepared for the parliamentary needs of 2026, but above all for the next fifty years," according to Rull. All of this, moreover, framed within the Ciutadella del Coneixement project, which is advancing to turn the park into a hub of science and innovation.
"The Ciutadella is experiencing the most important transformation process since 1888, the year of the first Universal Exhibition. The park is evolving today towards the Ciutadella del Coneixement, to make science and dissemination its hallmark, a new centrality that Barcelona is building with the 2035 horizon," the mayor recalled.
The Parliament, at capacity limit
The expansion responds to the Parliament's need for more space due to the increase in parliamentary activity and services and the characteristics of the palace, a building that originated in the old arsenal built in the 16th century. Now, the Parliament, in agreement with the City Council, has to call a public tender for the drafting of the expansion project.
In addition, the protocol includes measures to protect and consolidate the current building of the Parliament Palace, cataloged as a historical-artistic monument of national interest, and now at the limit of its operational capacity. And it is that approximately 450 people work there daily, but this figure increases with about 300 more people during plenary session days or with intense committee activity and, at specific times, the total influx to Parliament can exceed 1,300 people. To these are added public and educational visits, which can translate into up to 1,000 daily visitors.
Thus, with this first step, the Parliament begins the path to grow and redefine itself as a more open institution, in dialogue with citizens and integrated into the new pole that will be deployed in the Ciutadella park, as another piece within an ecosystem of knowledge where democracy is also strengthened.
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