Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Planning permission was granted today for the National Public Library in Barcelona, a facility of almost 18,000 square metres to be built next to Estació de França, with a capacity to house more than 600,000 books. This project has been made possible thanks to the efforts of a joint committee made up of representatives from Barcelona City Council, the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the Government of Catalonia.

The new library is scheduled to open between 2027 and 2031. It will be the largest in the country, fulfilling all the functions of a national public library as well as those set by the Catalan Library System. It will be owned by the State, but its management will be entrusted to the Government of Catalonia.

Designed by Josep Maria Miró (of Nitidus Arquitectes) and representing an investment of almost €80 million, the new library will be built on municipal land ceded as part of the Ciutadella Master Plan. It will house all the usual services and facilities, including reading rooms, information rooms, an area for accessing the general and specialised collections, a collection for children and young adults, a daily press room, a conference hall, multipurpose rooms, internet access points, self-loan stations, a rest area, an exhibition hall, a café-bookshop, an auditorium and a car park.

This library will be an important addition to Barcelona’s library network. It also reaffirms the importance of the city’s publishing sector and its status as a City of Literature, a designation that Barcelona received from UNESCO in 2015.