Barcelona’s Three Chimneys Power Plant Set to Become Catalunya Media City

Architecture Bulletin | Going beyond the headlines | 5-min Read

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The Story in a Minute: Well, well, well… At first, the Catalunya Media City project might just sound like another adaptive reuse project for you. But spend a minute looking beyond the headline, and you’ll eventually realize that it’s much MUCH MUCH bigger than that! 

So, Barcelona has just selected Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes and MARVEL to transform the iconic Tres Xemeneies (Three Chimneys) power plant into Catalunya Media City. It’s basically this new destination for media, technology, education and public life. Their proposal emerged as the winner from 26 competition entries, and honestly, that’s only because the architects chose to retain the original aesthetic and simply build around it.

In fact, the proposal preserves the traditional landmark chimneys and the monumental turbine hall while still introducing vibrant public spaces, reconnecting the once-restricted waterfront with the city and giving the industrial site an entirely new purpose.

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Wait… What Are the Three Chimneys?

So, the three chimneys (aka Tres Xemeneies) are basically the three towering reinforced concrete chimneys of a former thermal power station in Sant Adrià de Besòs, just north of Barcelona. The city government originally built them in the 1970s, to supply electricity across Catalonia. But then, people didn’t love its construction that much, workers went on strike and the plant was closed in 2011. But then, the 200m (656 feet) tall chimneys were left as it is, and people eventually called them the “La Sagrada Família dels Obrera,” i.e the Sagrada Família of the workers. 

What’s Actually Happening at Catalunya Media City?

Basically, Barcelona invited architects to reimagine the future of the Tres Xemeneies, and the competition received 26 proposals in total. But the Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes and MARVEL eventually claimed the winning spot. And, their proposal was called the É la nave va, which was eventually inspired by Dererico Fellini and the way he explored memory, industry & the future. 

Plus, the architects didn’t even think of clearing the site. Instead, they kept the monumental turbine intact, added a contemporary extension to host people and worked on a new, technological facade that displays dynamic digital content. So, this new project is known as the  Catalunya Media City, which is basically a campus for digital arts, media production, research, education and public life. 

Wait… What Exactly Is Catalunya Media City?

Catalunya Media City is Barcelona’s upcoming audiovisual, digital and creative innovation hub, planned inside the former Tres Xemeneies thermal power station in Sant Adrià de Besòs. The project basically aims to reuse one of the city’s iconic but abandoned industrial landmarks into a campus for media production, digital arts, higher education, research, technology and public life.

And it’s not even a closed institutional campus as you might think. In fact, the Catalunya Media city is an open site for students, researchers, creative professionals, residents and visitors to produce and brainstorm content. Hence, the project also has production studios, research facilities, exhibition spaces, immersive experience rooms, public plazas and improved pedestrian connections to the waterfront & the nearby beach as part of its main area program.

Then, sustainability plays an equally important role. The architects, for example, integrated passive design strategies, bioclimatic principles and 4,500 square metres of rooftop photovoltaic panels to reduce energy demand and generate renewable energy on-site. So together, these reduce the building’s energy consumption & environmental footprint drastically! 

So, What Will Actually Change?

Personally, I think that one of the main reasons why É la nave va won the competition is because it just layers new architecture over the past with these details: 

• A Transparent Extension: The new proposal introduces a transparent rectangular volume from the turbine hall towards the Mediterranean. It’ll also have some strategic cuts & voids for circulation 
• Facade as an Experience: The architects plan to wrap some parts of the glass extension with a technological media skin that’ll display moving digital content at different scales. Hence, it’s a great platform for exhibitions, events and creative expression as a whole! 
• The Working Roof: The proposal aims to install 4,500 square metres of photovoltaic panels across the rooftop to generate energy. This’ll also create a new public vantage point overlooking Barcelona, Sant Adrià de Besòs and Badalona.
• New Views: The north got a series of terraces & balconies overlooking the River Besos & Badalona. While, the south got views of the terraced boardwalk instead of blunt concrete roads. 
• Ecosystem Architecture: The Catalunya Media City, as you know, works by building a self-sustaining 30-hectare neighbourhood. So, it has space for over 1700 new homes (with 40% reserved for public housing), plazas, work stations etc. It has also got its own, expanded tram lines that link the area to the Port of Badalona. Plus, there’s a 183,000-square-meter coastal park that invites nature and allows residents to travel through native forests & sand-dunes. 
• Landscape became Part of the Project: So, the architects have planned to plant over 200 native species, almost like the Besòs Delta on a concrete wasteland. There will be deep-rooted Mediterranean pine forests, dune grasses, wetland reeds and scrubs. And you know what? These grow straight through the boardwalks and literally merge the proposal into the coastal forest. 

Quick Note: Architect Jordi Garcés calls Catalunya Media City as an interplay of “connections and knots” of different landscapes, time-periods and communities altogether.

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Inside Catalunya Media City 

The Catalunya Media City, at its core, is a campus where education, tech, creativity & public life come together. In fact, here’s what the future campus will include: 

• A 250-seat auditorium for talks, screenings and public events.
• An immersive experience room for interactive exhibitions and digital storytelling.
• Production studios and filming sets for audiovisual content creation.
• Recording studios, a mixing room and a colour grading suite for post-production.
• UX laboratories dedicated to user experience research and digital innovation.
• A fabrication lab and workshop for prototyping and experimentation.
• A large public library, meeting rooms and flexible collaborative workspaces.
• Open creative spaces for students, researchers, artists and industry professionals.

Why Didn’t They Just Demolish It?

Well, that was the original plan honestly. But in 2011, the power company faced a massive wave of local activism & neighbourhood pride that stopped the demolition. In fact, residents grew fiercely attached to the towers as a monument. They even started calling it as the “Sagrada Família of the workers.” And thus, the municipality had to step in and give it official heritage protection. Then, even the architects & urban planners pushed for adaptive reuse to cut down construction waste & carbon emissions instead of a full demolition. 

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Project Snapshot | By the Numbers of the Catalunya Media City

Why Will I Be Following This Project? 

You know personally I think that the Catalunya Media City isn’t just another basic adaptive reuse project. It has got so many ideas & concepts that I genuinely care for as an architect. It celebrated the rebirth of industrial and brutalist architecture, for example. Then, it cares for the environment and thinks of how adaptive reuse can reduce demolition waste, carbon emissions and footprint. Plus, it doesn’t stop at preserving a building; it restores ecosystems, climate resilience and waterfront activities too!

I honestly hope more cities start asking “How can we reinvent what we already have?” instead of “What should we demolish next?” Because sometimes, the boldest architecture isn’t about designing something new. It’s about seeing the potential in something everyone else has stopped looking at.

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“The future of architecture isn’t always about building more. Sometimes, it’s about having the imagination to see a future inside what’s already standing.”

 Ar. Ruchika Deshpande

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Editorial Note: Architecture Bulletin goes beyond the headline. Every story is independently researched using official project information and credible architectural sources. And then, we have expanded it with additional context, architectural analysis and editorial insights to help readers understand not just what happened, but why it matters. 

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Citations

• Official Catalunya Media City project
• METALOCUS – Garcés de Seta Bonet and MARVEL win the competition for Catalunya Media City
• ArchDaily – Garcés de Seta Bonet and MARVEL Architects Win Competition to Transform Three Chimneys Into Catalunya Media City
• Wallpaper* – Three Chimneys, Barcelona, Spain
• Dezeen – Barcelona power station “É la nave va” proposal
• Historic photograph of the Tres Xemeneies power station (Wikimedia Commons): Les trois cheminées de Badalona-Sant Adria – The Three Chimneys of Badalona-Sant Adria |Source=travail personnel |Date=2006 |Author= DESSAN