199
199

Barcelona’s Town Hall to Review 22@’s Urban Transformation Plan to Include More Public Housing

25 June 2018 – Eje Prime

The 22@ district is getting ready to make slight modifications to its construction plan. The techie zone of Barcelona may have more public housing than planned if the interests of the current municipal government get the go ahead. It wants to alleviate part of the crisis that there is in the city with respect to accommodation by providing more public housing. In total, seventy hectares are being built in this sought-after hub of the Catalan capital, which has urbanised fifteen kilometres of streets space and has gone from having 33,800 workers to 93,000.

Much of the reconstruction of the former industrial area of El Poblenou has been directed at the office market and public services. Corporate and government towers, modern spaces for startups and the giant Amazon and Catalan Universities all now live alongside each other in harmony in this enclave, whose reconversion plan began 18 years ago.

Now (…), Mayor Colau is planning to build more housing in 22@. Of the 4,000 flats that were projected to be built in this district, not even half have been actually constructed, according to El País.

Promoting more public homes is a point on which both the social and residents associations that are participating in the process, the Repensem el 22@ platform promoted by the Town Hall and the Wider Committee of experts all agree on. From the conclusions drawn from the two documents, the modifications that Colau will undertake in the urban plan just need to be defined.

Currently, the urban development plan for 22@ contemplates that 90% of the land that was being developed in the area would be allocated for economic activity and that the remaining 10% would be used for the construction of Officially Protected Housing (VPO). The parties involved in the process are clear that this percentage must increase.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake