22@ Barcelona – Industrial Heritage
Where impressive innovation company headquarters coexist with factory tradition
The Poblenou neighborhood is the nerve center for knowledge-based companies. These buildings, reflecting the latest architectural trends, coexist with representative remnants of the industrial past, creating a unique environment of tradition and innovation.
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The most modern district, where the future is already present and the past still lingers
The 22@ District is a city council initiative launched in 2000 to transform 200 hectares of industrial land in Poblenou into an innovative production district. However, the plan also includes the protection of the area’s rich industrial heritage. To support the recovery of symbols of Poblenou’s industrial memory, in 2006 the City Council added 114 industrial elements and complexes to Barcelona’s Heritage Catalogue. These have clearly helped define the urban landscape of Poblenou and will have their structures, passageways, residential buildings, and plot layouts preserved through specific regulations.
One of the complexes granted the highest level of protection—Cultural Asset of National Interest—is Can Ricart, a unified neoclassical industrial site that has not undergone structural changes since its construction between 1852 and 1854. Another protected building is Can Felipa, on Carrer Pallars, which resembles a Parisian apartment block with mansard roofs and large façade windows more than a former textile factory from 1855. It now houses the neighborhood’s Civic Center, offering a wide range of multidisciplinary activities, the Poblenou Historical Archive, and even a theater in the attic. La Escocesa is another example of space reuse and preservation. Built in the mid-19th century when Jaume Arbós established a chemical factory for textiles there, it was cataloged in 2007 as an Industrial Heritage Asset. Two of its buildings—totaling 2,400 m²—were designated for public use. Today, La Escocesa is one of the “Factories for Artistic Creation,” encompassing multiple visual arts disciplines.
How to get to 22@
From the Glòries stop on the Red Route of the Barcelona Bus Turístic, walk north until you reach Avinguda Diagonal.
For the curious
- In 1846–1847, a group of followers of the utopian socialist philosopher Étienne Cabet, author of Voyage to Icaria, founded a community called Icària in Poblenou. That’s why the avenue built for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games is named Avinguda Icària.
