Catalunya Media City: Transformation of the former Sant Adrià thermal power plant
On the metropolitan coastline of Barcelona, where the Besòs river gives its waters to the Mediterranean, a colossus of concrete that has dominated the horizon for half a century rises up. The old thermal power plant of Sant Adrià de Besòs with its three imposing 200-meter-high chimneys, is an icon as loved as it is controversial. A cathedral of industrial brutalism that was the energy engine of an era and that, after its silence in 2011, sank into a lethargy of rust and oblivion.
Today that giant awakens in an ambitious project, baptized with the Fellini-esque phrase “E la nave va, which is preparing to transform this vestige of the industrial past into the Catalunya Media City, a vanguard audiovisual and digital arts hub open to the sea and the citizenry.
The reconversion of obsolete industrial infrastructures is one of the biggest challenges and at the same time, one of the greatest opportunities for contemporary architecture and urbanism. It is not simply about demolishing and rebuilding, but about dialoguing with the memory of the place.
The architecture studios Garcés De Seta Bonet from Barcelona and the New Yorkers MARVEL have understood this premise. Their proposal does not seek to erase the imposing footprint of the plant, but to reinterpret it. The heart of the intervention is focused on the colossal turbine hall, a diaphanous space of overwhelming dimensions that will become the epicenter of digital creation.
The project conceives this space as a neuralgic center for technological development, production, and experimentation. It will be an ecosystem where filming sets with the latest generation of technology, spaces for video game development, research centers in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and training areas will coexist.
The vision is to position Catalonia as an international benchmark in an audiovisual industry that constantly redefines its borders. The choice of the name “And the ship sails on” is not accidental and symbolizes the start of a new journey, a voyage from the age of coal and steam to the age of the bit and the pixel.
Architecturally the challenge is enormous, how to provide warmth and functionality to a structure conceived for the brute force of machines? The proposal by Garcés De Seta Bonet and MARVEL opts for a strategy of acupuncture. Instead of an invasive reform, new volumes will be inserted and the scale and character of the original building will be respected. The naked concrete and the scars of time on the structure will be kept as a testimony, entering into a dialogue with the new, lighter and more technological materials.
One of the most powerful ideas of the project is the creation of a “technological skin” that is to say a media façade that will envelop part of the complex and will be capable of projecting images and light, turning the building itself into a canvas for communication and digital art.
It is at this point, at the confluence of the rehabilitation of a complex structure and the integration of vanguard technological systems, where BIM stops being a tool to become the central nervous system of the project. A project of this magnitude would be practically unfeasible without a precise and dynamic digital twin.
The first inescapable step is the “Scan-to-BIM”. By means of a high-precision laser scan, a point cloud is generated that captures every last corner of the plant’s current state. This digital model is the exact diagnosis of the patient. It’s going to allow to work on a millimeter-perfect virtual replica, analyze the state of the structure, plan reinforcements and fundamentally avoid the surprises that always arise when intervening in old buildings.
Secondly, BIM becomes crucial for multidisciplinary coordination. In the Catalunya Media City, pre-existing structures, new constructions, complex air conditioning systems, high-speed data networks, high-demand electrical installations and an endless number of specialized audiovisual equipment will converge.
Managing this density of systems in traditional 2D plans would be a recipe for disaster. Through a centralized BIM model in a Common Data Environment (CDE), the teams of professionals and future technology providers can superimpose their designs, detect interferences, and resolve conflicts virtually before they materialize in the construction work.
In addition, BIM will be the great ally of sustainability, one of the pillars of the project. The plan includes the installation of more than 4,500 square meters of photovoltaic panels. The digital model allows for performing energy simulations to optimize the orientation and performance of these panels, as well as to analyze the thermal behavior of the building and design passive and low-consumption air conditioning systems.
The very act of rehabilitating, of taking advantage of the amount of carbon embodied in the original concrete, is already the most sustainable decision of all. BIM helps to quantify and certify this commitment, extending its utility beyond construction to the management and maintenance of the building throughout its entire life cycle.
Beyond the technical and architectural feat, the true depth of the project lies in its urban and social impact. The thermal power plant was an insurmountable barrier between the municipality of Sant Adrià and its maritime front. The Catalunya Media City is conceived as a permeable project that seeks to suture that urban fissure by generating new public spaces, promenades and green areas that will connect the city with the beach. It will cease to be an industrial postcard background to become a destination, a meeting place and a place for creation open to all.
The concrete giant of the Besòs that for decades produced kilowatts to light homes and move factories, is now preparing to generate creativity, innovation and culture. Its transformation is a powerful symbol of the reconversion of our time, a built manifesto that demonstrates how respect for industrial heritage, a vision of the future and technological intelligence like that provided by BIM, can converge into a new symphony of progress on the coast of Barcelona. The ship, definitively, sails on.
