22/10/2020 - 15:03
Urban planning. The priority is to open up space for use by local people, preserve historical memory and create public housing, new facilities and a park.
The project ‘Model, batega!’ has won the competition to transform the former Model prison into an open space for local facilities, public housing and a park preserving heritage and historical memory. The project should redress the deficit in community services and spaces in the Esquerra de l’Eixample neighbourhood.
The team for the project ‘Model, batega!’, by Forgas Arquitectes and Planas Esquius Segatti, based its proposal on the Master Plan for 2019, agreed with local people through a participatory process, and on the modification to the urban plan for the area initially approved at commission.
Nearly 20,000 square metres for local people to use
The Model of the future includes a new open-plan green lung of 14,510 square metres, connected with areas around the streets of Roselló and Provença.
The connecting space between the different facilities, with outdoor paths and corridors within the panoptic galleries, means additional space of more than 5,000 square metres.
Public housing and facilities
Housing is a priority for the transformation project, which includes some 140 publicly owned flats with over 14,000 square metres of floor space in all.
Seven facilities will also be created: a memorial space, a primary and secondary school, a nursery school, an elderly people’s home, a multi-purpose sports hall, a space for young people and spaces for the social and solidarity economy. There will also be an environmental classroom and various artistic spaces linked with the other facilities.
Panoptic as the central axis
The centre of the panoptic will act as the main axis for the routes, with the galleries acting as indoor corridors. The current architectural elements will be conserved in the transformation, to keep the historical heritage intact.
The project for the future Model has been created with criteria on the environment, sustainability and energy efficiency, as well as consistency and feasibility in terms of the construction work.
Calendar
The team behind the transformation will draft the projects for the organisation of open spaces next year, with public competitions to be held in 2022 to designate the construction projects and get work under way as soon as possible.