International recognition for the urban transformation project of the old Mercedes-Benz factory in Barcelona. Conceived by the developer Conren Tramway and the firm Batlleiroig as a pioneering eco-district in Spain, La Mercedes has been considered by the World Architecture Festival (WAF) winner in the category of space reuse within the WAFX awards, thanks to the "excellent example" it offers for solving some of the "key challenges facing society and the planet."
The WAF jury, the largest architecture event worldwide, has also selected La Mercedes as a finalist in the category of best Future Project - Masterplanning and will announce the winner of this award during the festival, which will be held between November 29 and December 1, 2023, in Singapore. The event will bring together more than 2,000 architects from 60 countries, according to Conren Tramway, the developer owned by brothers Jaime and Paco Hugas.
The WAF awards aim to recognize excellence in both completed architectural works and those planned for construction in the short term. In addition, it assigns specific awards, called WAFX, to 34 future projects, recognizing their contribution to key challenges that architects will have to address in the coming years, from promoting the use of smart technologies and the reuse of buildings, to addressing the problem of population aging and confronting the climate emergency.
Conren Tramway explains that La Mercedes has emerged as the winner, precisely, in the category of space reuse or Re-use, for its proposal to convert a 9-hectare industrial space "into Spain's first large eco-district, combining innovative economic activity with residential spaces and unique public areas."
Located between the neighborhoods of Sant Andreu del Palomar and Bon Pastor, the old Mercedes-Benz factory is one of the vestiges of Barcelona's industrial history. The site housed the headquarters of the Empresa Nacional de Motores de Aviación (ENMASA) starting in the 1950s, a work by the rationalist architect Robert Terradas. Previously, the space had been occupied by the Elizalde car factory, bombed during the Civil War. It was not until 1981 that car production returned to these grounds, this time by Mercedes-Benz.
One of the many crises in the automotive sector put an end to the industrial tradition in this space of more than 90,000 square meters and left it unoccupied and abandoned since 2007. Now, the developer, after obtaining the approval of the Barcelona City Council, wants to continue its history by locating a center that facilitates the implementation of new technology companies linked to industry 4.0 and creative industries. The first tenants will be the new headquarters of the Elisava School of Design and Engineering and the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia.
Housing will be the other protagonist of this industrial complex and will represent almost 60% of the uses —economic activity, the remaining 40%—. In a space of 117,000 square meters, 1,300 new homes will be built, of which 40% will be subsidized housing and the rest, market-rate. The council wants at least half of the protected flats to be for rent and also a part of the market-rate ones. There will also be space for ground-floor shops, offices and industrial activities, in addition to public facilities and green areas.