Demolition work has started on the former cheap-build homes in the Bon Pastor neighbourhood after the process to rehouse people in new blocks concluded in the summer.

The homes will be demolished in stages over the next few months, firstly with a process to select and remove certain waste materials and secondly with the demolition itself. The first stage is under way at the three blocks formed by the streets of Arbeca, Tàrrega and Sant Adrià, with these homes due to be demolished in the coming weeks. Work will then continue with the selection and removal of waste at the remaining eight blocks.

Before the demolition machinery starts being used, specialist teams removed the fibre cement, emptied the buildings and selected materials. For instance, old furniture, junk or wooden elements that remained, the goal being to recycle as much material as possible, in line with regulations on waste. Once the demolition machinery starts work, the process to select waste materials continues as far as possible.

The process to remodel the Bon Pastor neighbourhood began in 2002, the aim being to provide decent new housing for the families living in so-called cases barates, consisting of small and cheaply built homes of 40 square metres, constructed in the 1920s. An amendment to the General Metropolitan Plan was approved in 2002 and the transformation of the neighbourhood was defined in 2003 with the signing of the agreements with local residents’ associations, establishing the conditions for rehousing.

The remodelling project consists of five stages, four of which have now been completed, providing homes for nearly 600 local families who were living in these houses. The process generated a surplus of 163 flats, enabling some family units to be rehoused in more than one home (for instance, families made up of different generations), and then some homes to be awarded to local families in the neighbourhood.

Two groups of sixteen homes have been conserved. One has already opened as the MUHBA Bon Pastor and the other, opposite, has been kept to conserve the physical make-up of the street, with its use still to be defined.