CENTRAL PRAT

The project has developed through three phases: an international competition, a process of fine-tuning with the client in order to improve upon the competition’s results and the writing of a synthesized document containing the main planning rules for the future development of the site. Promoted by the Prat Nord Consortium with the direct participation of the Government of Catalunya and El Prat Municipality, there was no precedent in Barcelona or Catalonia for a competition on this scale.

We have called the area Central Prat due to the positioning of a metropolitan park above the underground extension to the Gran Via, the main artery and longest street in Barcelona.

With an existing and a new metro line, the high speed line, connections to arterial roads and advanced industry at the edge of the airport, the urban area is strongly anchored within its surroundings. Other forms of embedding include the framework of building blocks which was grafted onto urban expansion in Barcelona in the nineteenth century and the location of sports’ facilities and housing complexes along the roads of the previously agricultural area.

Alongside offices, businesses and facilities, there will be five thousand homes in Central Prat, primarily made up of spacious apartments in urban blocks with a great deal of green space in the internal areas and on the roofs.

Energy generating solar panels for heating and cooling the area will also be located on the roofs. The seventy ha metropolitan park, located above roads and rail links will be connected to the river park on the Llobregat.

The plan will be implemented in phases in twenty to thirty years’ time.