The Barcelona City Council, through the Barcelona Municipal Market Institute (IMMB), has awarded the project for the future provisional Horta Market to the team of architects Pere Joan Ravetllat and Carles Enrich with the project “Del Mercado en el Park”. The main innovation of this proposal is that the structure that will house the provisional market will remain permanently in this location to become one more element of the future green area with a diversity of uses that the area will occupy.

Specifically, it is a wooden structure of about 1,400 square meters that will be installed in a green space located at the confluence of Oporto and Lisbon streets. The execution of the project will involve an investment of 2.22 million euros to carry out the preliminary actions, the building, the installation of photovoltaic panels, the equipment of stops and the urbanization. Now it will be necessary to draft the basic and executive projects incorporating the aspects valued in the proposal and the forecast is that the works will be completed in the summer of 2022.

Thus, the provisional market proposal contemplates that it have a sales room of 1,030 square meters for 32 food establishments and 5 non-food establishments. In addition, it also proposes that the non-food stalls be located on the façade with the new square, invigorating the public space of Oporto street.

On the other hand, it is planned that the logistics area will have 374 square meters where the community cold stores, the community warehouse, offices, toilets, the waste chamber, the loading and unloading area and the space for facilities will be included. In addition, the proposal proposes that this is a sustainable facility thanks to the reuse of materials and the use of natural resources such as, for example, the recovery of rainwater for toilets, cleaning and irrigation.

This proposal has been chosen by a jury made up of architects from the COAC, the Barcelona Architecture Office and the IMMB, from among the 4 proposals submitted. What has been valued is how the fit of the structure resolves both in terms of its location and use of space as well as its surface and commercial linear meters. Taking into account the fit of food stops, the space for logistics and the location of special stops.

The will is that the Horta Market is provisionally underway in this location until the summer of 2022.

A second life for the Market structure

Horta’s provisional market will be installed in a currently existing green space that has obsolete playgrounds, little living space and a high cost of green maintenance. The will of the municipal government is that, once the works of the definitive market are completed and the vendors can re-establish themselves there, the structure that has made the provisional market remains in the same location and plays an important role in revitalizing the area.

And it is that by means of the partial reuse of the wooden structure, the urbanization of the surroundings and the photovoltaic panels, a saving of 40% is foreseen in the dismantling of the provisional market and of 90% with respect to the construction of the future production park.

This location enhances the crossing of the green corridor of the streams of Horta and the urban fabric of the old town, generating a new public space for connection between the neighborhoods.

Speaking to the media, Jaume Collboni, First Deputy Mayor of Barcelona City Council, stated that “this is the first time that the City Council has thought and conceived a structure that can then be reused as a public space”. “We are very proud of the work we have carried out during this mandate from the point of view of investments in the Barcelona markets,” adds Collboni.

The remodeling of the Horta Market

The action project in the Horta Market includes the physical intervention of the current building, providing it with all the necessary facilities. The project contemplates the reorganization of the sales room based on the application of a new commercial mix, which adapts to the balance between supply and demand in the market’s area of influence, the expansion of corridors, improvement of accesses and the possible introduction of new activities that are currently not present on the market.

The project will preserve the concrete structure and will have a new exterior glazing that will allow the structure of the building to be seen. The central space will be preserved as it is today, with a large skylight in the central section that will help enhance the characteristics of the historic building.

The idea of the project is to preserve the current impact of the building with a low perimeter crossing and a higher central section. And at the same time, get a new equipment that recalls the tradition of the historic markets of Barcelona but with new materials. The project is designed to facilitate movement between the different areas and provide the market floor and the self-service floor with maximum diffused and filtered natural light.

Thus, at the level of Calle Tajo, the fresh market plant will be located. There will also be a first floor with double access from José de Serradesanferm street and some escalators from Tajo street. A non-fresh product self-service will also be located on the lower floor, complementing the market offer.

In order not to disconnect the space from the fresh market and the self-service market, the central space is planned to be at a triple height with overhead light that allows the two floors to be spatially and visually communicated. Likewise, the offices, multipurpose spaces, and machinery spaces will be located on a higher floor.

Finally, with regard to the underground floors, a parking lot is planned on floor-1 and logistics spaces on floor -2.

During 2020 the bidding of the market bidding project began. Currently, the process for the selection of the drafting team of the project of the new market is being carried out, a selection that will be made among the 17 teams presented. During this year it is planned to start the basic project of the new market. In 2022 the projects will be drawn up and the execution of the works of the new market will begin with an estimated duration of 24 months.

Oriol Pascual, a merchant at the Horta Market, assures that they are “very happy that the Barcelona City Council continues to bet and invest in the markets, thus guaranteeing that the Horta Market continues to be the neuralgic and commercial point of the neighborhood.”

100 million euros of investment in municipal markets until 2023

The City Council will invest 96,020,049 euros in municipal markets between 2020 and 2023. A total of 70,625,100 euros will be dedicated to major reforms and improvements in seven markets, which are the markets of: Abacería, Sant Andreu, Horta, Montserrat , Besòs, Galvany and Sagrada Familia.

In addition, another 22,623,082 euros are earmarked for the General Works, Improvements and Maintenance Plan. In the 2020-2021 period, improvement works are being carried out in Abacería (provisional), Barcelona, ​​Bellcaire-Encants Glòries, Besòs, Buen Pastor, Boqueria, Canyelles, Carmelo, Clot, Concepción, Estrella, Felipe II, Fort Pienc, Guinardó, Guineueta, Huerta, Hostafrancs, Las Cortes, Lesseps, Libertad, Marina, Merced, Montserrat, Muñeco, Provençals, Sagrada Familia, San Andrés (provisional), San Antonio, San Martín, San Gervasi, Santa Caterina, Santos, Sarrià, Three towers, and Vall d’Hebron. In total, there are 58 performances between the two years.

A final item of 2,771,868 euros will also be invested in the Barcelona Markets Digitization Plan, which includes the infrastructure necessary to carry out the plan in the 40 buildings of the municipal market network. It is also worth highlighting the significant increase in resources destined to guarantee the good state of operation and service of the market (23.5% of the total investment) and the sustainability criteria introduced in the actions, from the implementation of LED lighting to the improvements in air conditioning through infrastructures for recycling and reuse.

With the investment planned until 2023, the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Markets continues to maintain the rate of investments that it has maintained in recent years with an eye on them acting as locomotives for the revitalization and reactivation of the different commercial axes of the city . Markets have always acted as such. In the last year, with the pandemic, it has been verified that these commercial facilities have the ability to attract customers even in the most difficult moments and to drag and help boost the local commerce that they have around them. That is why, in this context, investment in municipal markets is, if possible, even more necessary. With the works planned for the next few years, the comprehensive renovation of all the equipment is practically completed.

Investments in rehabilitation and improvement of the markets are financed mainly by the Barcelona City Council. Market operators and the Municipal Market Institute (IMMB) also contribute to a lesser degree with their own resources financed by contributions to the remodeling processes of market traders. The Municipal Institute of Markets plans the actions to be carried out in the markets, prepares and executes transformation and improvement projects as well as those derived from the maintenance and updating needs of spaces and facilities. Progressively, investments in major renovations will give prominence to new projects within the framework of digitization and commercial updating of the Markets, once the renovations of all the buildings in the markets are completed.

Barcelona has 39 food markets and 4 non-food markets in 40 buildings, which house up to 2,143 establishments. During 2020, they received 46,388,777 face-to-face visitors and online and telephone orders were multiplied by 10. 66% of the people of Barcelona buy in the markets and, as a whole, the population gives them an average score of 7.7 out of 10.

(*) Aquest text ha estat traduït automàticament.