The expansion of the Clínic on Diagonal is one of the city's and its metropolitan area's major future projects. With an area of 290,000 square meters and a daily influx of 40,000 people, the campus will transform the upper part of the avenue, enhancing it as a biomedical epicenter and a major knowledge hub, in addition to connecting and amplifying existing institutions such as the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital.
To tackle a project of these characteristics, the healthcare center has partnered with the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) to launch a master's degree that will serve to architecturally define the new campus. This completely innovative tool is aimed at professionals in this discipline specialized in the hospital field.
The Master's in Hospital Architecture-New Clínic Campus will have a single edition, that of 2024-2025, and will offer about ten places. It will be coordinated by architect Ramon Sanàbria and will have the collaboration of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). The price of the master's degree will be 10,000 euros per student, but the total cost of the course will be paid by various sponsors such as companies in the construction, infrastructure, or architecture sectors.
Admitted professionals will have to lay the architectural foundations of the new campus by drafting preliminary studies that will have the character of a preliminary project. The proposals are expected to take into account architectural and urban planning aspects, but also the healthcare, teaching, and research aspects required by the project. "It is a great opportunity to create a world-class reference campus. The hospital-university symbiosis is what makes it competitive. Now the challenge is to think about a hospital for the next 100 years; we have to anticipate how we will work in the next century," summarizes the director of CatSalut, Ramon Canal.
The proposals that best fit the needs of the different institutions that will be part of the space will be taken into account in the call for the international competition that is planned to be launched throughout 2026. This will coincide with the world capital of architecture that will be celebrated that year in Barcelona.