The Barcelona City Council has made visible the urban transformation underway in the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood, in the Sants-Montjuïc district, with a visit to three of the most outstanding developments currently under construction. The event, held on the morning of Tuesday, February 22, was led by the councilor for housing and renovation of the Barcelona City Council, Lucía Martín.
The developments are distributed between C. Acer, C. Ulldecona, and C. Cal Cisó, and once all the works are completed, by the end of 2025, they will make available to citizens up to 414 affordable public rental housing units.
The first of the developments, located at C. Acer, 10, is the largest and consists of a multi-family building with 234 dwellings distributed over five levels, three of them connected, as well as six commercial premises and parking for 77 cars, 54 motorcycles, and 256 bicycles. It is being promoted by the architects Aybar Mateos, SLP, and Borrell-Jover, SLP UTE.
For its part, the development located at C. Ulldecona, 2-10 will consist of 72 homes spread over six floors, plus a first floor for equipment. Designed by Coll-Leclerc and Mias Architects, the intersection of Ulldecona and Cal Cisó streets produces a triangular island with a very acute angle, where a building with a very significant and recognizable volumetry will be erected.
Finally, the third development will have 108 apartments in a building located between C. Cal Cisó, 49-57, and C. Pontils, 10. It will also have four commercial premises and a parking lot with 90 car spaces, 19 motorcycle spaces, and 28 m2 of space for bicycles. Directed by Vivas arquitectos Barcelona SLP, Pau Vidal Pont, and Arquitectura producciones, it is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of this year.
A strategic point in the urban transformation of the city
As part of the expansion and restructuring of Barcelona’s public housing stock, the City Council has made the Marina del Prat Vermell one of the most important backbones of the project.
The urban transformation project for this neighborhood goes back a long way, to be precise to 2006, when the first modification of the General Metropolitan Plan was carried out. Several causes caused a slowdown in its development, which forced its update and the approval, in 2019, of a new MPGM and a new Special Infrastructure Plan (PEI). A renewed approach that foresees the progressive transformation from an industrial and warehouse fabric to a mixed fabric that fosters neighborhood life, greenery and economic activity.
So much so that the new residential district is to have a surface area of 75 hectares, where almost 12,000 dwellings will be planned, i.e. the largest concentration of dwellings with some types of protection in the whole city (of which 50% will be publicly owned).
In addition, the neighborhood will have 11.15 hectares for equipment and 13.30 hectares for open spaces, including a central park that will act as a green lung. In any case, an urban transformation must also serve to unite the neighborhoods of Marina del Prat Vermell and Marina del Port.
The action plan is part of the expansion of the public housing stock by the City Council throughout the city, which has allowed it to go from 7,500 public housing units in 2015 to more than 11,500 today. Specifically, in Sants-Montjuïc, from June 2015 to January 2023, up to 344 homes have been acquired from the sum of 10 homes acquired individually, 15 in usufruct, and 319 homes from 10 entire estates acquired.