Barcelona power plant to be turned into "land art piece"

[Celerity]

https://www.dezeen.com/2025/04/03/barcelona-power-tres-xemeneies-e-la-nave-va/





Architecture studios Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes and Marvel have released visualisations of the E la nave va project, which will transform the Tres Xemeneies power plant in Spain into a culture and media centre. Named for its three chimneys – tres xemeneies in Catalan – the 1970s power plant, which closed in 2011, will be renovated and expanded by the two studios to become the home of Barcelona's en)|Catalunya Media City.



The existing structure will be kept for the project, named E la nave va after a Fellini film, with a new extension added to connect the inside of the Tres Xemeneies turbine hall with the outdoors. Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes and Marvel will also open up the north facade of the building to create a balcony that overlooks Barcelona's coastline. Visitors will be able to access a rooftop space and multiple spaces for public activities, with E la nave va also connected to the nearby beach and surrounding area.



"We have designed a proposal that plays with connections and knots – temporal, landscape, and territorial," said Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes co-founder Jordi Garcés. "One of the key features will be linking the city with the sea, where users and residents can share a large communal space. For the first time, there will be a balcony facing Badalon," he added. "The architectural elements at different heights will offer new landscape perspectives, as if it were a land art piece."



E la nave va's interior will be divided into four categories: an educational program, spaces for research and business incubators, exhibition spaces and a resource center for Catalan's audiovisual industry. The studios said the building would "be the backbone" of Catalunya Media City. The areas inside will include a 500-square-metre auditorium, a 400-square-metre studio and a 250-square-metre laboratory, as well as UX laboratories and recording studios.

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