Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

The City Council has acquired the former headquarters of the Gustavo Gili publishing company, in L’Eixample, to create the new Barcelona Culture and Education Centre as a leading public facility for the city. An icon of Catalan rationalism and preserved as an asset of local cultural interest, the building has been acquired for 9.5 million euros and is being funded with the 30-million-euro fund for the acquisition and renovation of singular buildings in the interests of the city, created from a proposal from the ERC group as part of the agreement for the 2021 budget.

The new benchmark cultural and educational city facility will house the offices for the Barcelona Institute for Culture (ICUB) and the Barcelona Municipal Institute for Education (IMEB), the goal being to bring technical, cultural and educational services together in one space and be able to jointly design and implement project and programmes.

The facility will also offer a cultural and educational programme for the new institution to become a space for facilitating and reflecting on culture and education in all related spheres: feminism, sustainability, innovation, tech, economy etc.

The transfer of the headquarters of the ICUB (Palau de la Virreina) and the IMAB (Plaça d’Espanya) to the new centre will free up the two buildings they are currently housed in and enable new facilities to be housed there or existing facilities extended:

• Palau de la Virreina: extension to La Virreina Centre de la Imatge to consolidate it as a leading cultural centre and a central stakeholder to add vitality to the new project for La Rambla.
• Antiga Escola Massana: to turn this space into the new library for the district of Ciutat Vella and free up administrative uses for additional local public facilities in this area.
• Building at Plaça d’Espanya, 5: more space to be added for education services for the Escola Francesc Macià and more space for communal uses by the neighbourhood.