The Poblenou of Change

This photographic project is an urban photographic reflection on Poblenou’s radical urban transformation over the past thirty years. The photographic work will be undertaken in 2025. The idea is to showcase this project as a photo exhibition to local and international audiences during the Year of Architecture 2026

Why Poblenou?

Poblenou is Barcelona’s neighborhood of most dramatic urban change. Rugged and often shockingly contradictory, it is a unique location for urban photography in Barcelona. Over the past thirty years, Poblenou evolved from a ‚Catalan Manchester‘ with its many small factories into a huge international technological and design hub. The area now hosts the most ecological and sustainable architecture projects in Spain as part of the plan 22@Barceona – one of the most ambitious projects in Europe. The old architecture of Poblenou encapsulates an important part of Barcelona’s industrial past. Its new and refurbished architecture shows us the direction Barcelona wants to be in the future.

Geography: Where Is the Actual Poblenou?

The actual “el Poblenou” is a small neighborhood that covers the area from Àvila to the southwest to Bac de Roda to the northeast, with the ocean to the southeast, and Pere IV and Diagonal to the northwest. Its initial nucleus corresponds to the old Taulat neighborhood, which occupies the lowest part next to the sea of the old municipality of Sant Martí de Provençals. But because the city’s investment has often spilled over from one barri to another and several adjacent neighborhoods contain the word “Poblenou”— important aspects of the future urban development overlap. So most people and media refer to five adjacent neighborhoods as to “Poblenou”: El Poblenou, La Vila Olímpica del Poblenou, Diagonal Mar i El Front Marítim del Poblenou, Provençals del Poblenou and El Parc i La Llacuna del Poblenou. The past, present and future of the historic El Poblenou is intrinsically tied to the surrounding areas.

Exhibition Structure

The exhibition will be comprised of the next three sections (preliminary):

I. Old Architecture: Pre-industrial and Industrial

I will photograph Poblenou’s most impressive buildings of the late 19th century – early 20th century (mostly in El Poblenou). The first urban nucleus of El Poblenou was built around the Plaza Prim with its humble white houses with ground floor and first floor that were homes of fishermen in a fishing village. Especially between Plaza Prim and its surroundings, as well as on Fernando Poo, time seems to have stopped in the past. The second urban nucleus, known as the Barrio de la Plata, is the neighborhood of Valencian emigrants in Barcelona: an island in the middle of factories and workshops where a small town of working people was built. It was located in the area of the current Ramón Turró between La Rambla del Poblenou, the cemetery and the train tracks (now the Olympic Village and the Olympic port).

I will also search for still abandoned buildings from the industrial era. They have become the perfect canvas for street artists.

II. Old New Architecture: Rebuilt Industrial Heritage

The future often has its roots in the past. Poblenou is reinventing some of its old industrial buildings through innovative and sustainable solutions. The rehabilitation illustrates the adaptability of these typologies to new uses. I will photograph old industrial complexes with their iconic chimneys that have been reinvented through innovative and sustainable solutions, often reusing materials recovered from construction waste on site.

Just one example: the sustainable reconstruction of Ca l’Alier (2018) transformed a former textile factory into a center for urban innovation related to “Smart Cities”. It became one of Barcelona’s most sustainable and intelligent architecture projects: while maintaining the architectural and compositional essence of the building (the roof with Catalan tiles, the wooden structure and the restored brick walls) this building has achieved the LEED classification at the highest PLATINUM level, and the A++ Energy rating and NET ZERO building.

III. New Architecture of the 22@

From the 1960s onward, a process of deindustrialization took place in Poblenou, freeing up large plots of land. During the 2000s the City Council started a 22@Barcelona plan to convert Poblenou into the city’s technological and creative hub as well as to increase leisure and residential spaces.

I will photograph Barcelona’s most iconic buildings of the 22@ district. I will look at how its environmentally committed biodynamic architecture has been integrated into the landscape (green garden roofs, etc.) of Poblenou and how it coexists with local inhabitants (public squares in the center of the buildings, etc.).

A recent example here is Smart 22@ Building (2022) – Spain’s first smart building celebrating the inherited social responsibility of architecture with a deep respect for the adjacent buildings, such as the old ‘La Escocesa’ factory. The work of Julián García Hernández at the entrance portrays the people who worked in the area. It is LEED Platinum V4 certified, WELL Gold certified, which focuses on the well-being of users, and AAA energy certification, besides being Wiredscore certified.

IV. Social Responsibility of New Urbanism

According to a recent study by the Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia (2024), the urban transformation of the Poblenou neighborhood has reached a critical juncture, where the local and global spheres coexist in a contested struggle over territory. The advance of modern architecture has, in many cases, eroded the neighborhood’s traditional identity.

Some long-term residents, mostly descendants of working class families who settled in Poblenou during the 20^th century, confront the ongoing transformation of Poblenou. First of all, because of skyrocketing rents. Secondly, because the 22@ has led to a productive process of displacement and closure of some traditional activities not classified as knowledge-intensive located in Poblenou. New urban planning guidelines promote knowledge-intensive tertiary activity. At the same time, the resident population in 22@Barcelona has grown 22.8% since 2001: many expats are mostly digital nomads, young entrepreneurs from various parts of the world and the ones working in 22@. Scholars call what’s happening in Poblenou “productive gentrification”, which means that Poblenou and the city as a whole will certainly continue to benefit, but this doesn’t ensure that everyone will reap the reward of these benefits. (M. Pallares-Barbera, Visiting Scholar at Center for Geographical Analysis, Harvard University).

According to a study by El Observatori de Barris del Poblenou, almost half of the offices that have been built are long-term empty, and at the same time Poblenou lacks more affordable housing. The problem is that construction companies prefer to invest in offices, since if they built apartments they would be obliged to allocate 30% to official protection. According to the same report, it is more profitable for investment funds to buy buildings, even if they are empty, than to have their money in the bank.

I will photograph those signs of “productive gentrification” to promote a broader discussion on the urban model of Poblenou that favors the development of tech and creative industries. It should be deeper explored how this model is fostering a social fabric capable of sustaining the local community of Poblenou. I will photograph both empty office buildings with offices to rent and new housing projects, including social ones by the City Council and the Government of Catalonia that should give more social responsibility to new urbanism of Poblenou.