Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Barcelona City Council launches a challenge through BIT Habitat for companies and professionals to design a ‘panot’ paving stone for the 21st century, an evolution of the characteristic stones found in the streets of Barcelona, which must be more sustainable for the future.

This call seeks to encourage professionals to create a panot (Barcelona’s iconic paving stone design) which meets current needs, within the context of the climate emergency. The challenge is on for anybody interested to create a panot that keeps the traditional design and at the same time builds in innovative tech and solutions that make it more sustainable, in terms of both its composition and its production process, as well as its reuse and potential for being recycled.

The panot is a classic element of Barcelona’s urban landscape: the floral design is actually a symbol which represents Barcelona around the world..

Information session on 8 March

Barcelona City Council will be organising a technical information session for businesses and professionals to explain the details of the call on 8 March, at 4 pm. Anybody wishing to attend should send an email to inn_urb@bithabitat.barcelona.

The terms and conditions of the call will be published in the next few weeks on the websiteBIT Habitat.

Towards the Barcelona Superblock

The urban challenge to come up with the new paving stone forms part of the Barcelona Superblock plan, which seeks to recover public space for citizens, achieve a greener and more sustainable city and back sustainable mobility. New work is set to start on this project in the summer, such as a transformation to turn sections of the streets of Consell de Cent, Rocafort, Comte Borrell and Girona into green streets. In addition, new squares will be created at the points where the street of Consell de Cent converges with Rocafort, Comte Borrell, Enric Granados and Girona, occupying the space currently used by traffic.

The goal is for the revamp to these streets to partly use the new panot paving stone, helping to drive sustainability in these green streets.