A typical morning on La Rambla del Poblenou: the main shopping street in the Barcelona’s newest urban renewal project, three kilometres northeast of the old city, is almost empty. A handful of people loiter on the sidewalk.Two blocks away, the silver and lime green walls of the Media TIC building, an experimental project that uses an inflating porous skin to control light and heat, tower over neglected warehouses and factories, witness to a time when Poblenou was known as the Catalan Manchester. The contrast portrays a neighbourhood in transition, and not everyone is happy. Graffiti covers the closed shop doors and mailboxes: RIOT and NO 22@ . The district of Poblenou used to be known for its textile, metallurgy, food, wine industries and large working-class population. It was a major economic player in the city until the 1950s, when activity shifted to the new port zone in southwest Barcelona and Poblenou was left to decay. Now city planners are trying to revitalise this area.The postindustrial project 22@ Barcelona attempts to move the old district from primary and secondary industry to tertiary, where jobs are based on the knowledge-economy.
22@ is one more effort in a continual struggle to stay relevant.
postindustrial barcelona 22@: urban reinvention, again urbanism | architecture of economic imperative by frédéric brisson
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Frédéric Brisson
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