The old El Corte Inglés by Francesc Macià is about to be reborn as an office building. And he is going to do it by applying an innovation never seen before in Barcelona: plant covers formed by biological batteries that generate energy thanks to the action of microorganisms that grow under the plants.
The 2,000 panels that the Bioo company will install in the building in the coming weeks will generate 176 watts per hour and “can reduce the building’s energy bill by up to 19%,” according to its founder, Pablo Vidarte. Batteries with plants that will generate electricity have already been tested in a building in Viladecans. In this case they will be placed in two exterior areas of the complex, in a vertical garden at the confluence of Villarroel with Buenos Aires and on the first floor and the attic of the façade that overlooks the María Luz Morales square.
The renovated building will have another large plant space in the interior patio that has been opened where the El Corte Inglés escalators were. Other species will be planted here, although all of this is now at the expense of restrictions derived from the drought. As long as it rains, Bioo’s biological batteries will save water, since they reuse the fall of water and then water themselves using the steam generated by the built-in technological system.
The installation of this new system will be the culmination of the works on the building finally named Aura by the owner, Mersan Assets Management, a local capital company that acquired the unique building in 2019.
The work is in its final phase and is close to completion, with a slight delay over the initial estimates. While the tenants of the office floors are still unknown, work has already begun on the commercial premises on the ground floor, whose occupants will be El Corte Inglés – which returns to the building – and Sephora. The first, with access from Villarroel and Buenos Aires streets, will open a supermarket this spring following the new concept of a street-level establishment that the firm has developed and that includes a wide gourmet offering and gastronomic experiences. The second, one of its characteristic perfume shops, will open in one of the two stores that will have an entrance on Diagonal.
The building that was originally built in 1967 to house the Sears department store, in 1983 became Galerías Preciados and in 1995 it became El Corte Inglés, had been closed since 2021. Since then it has undergone a comprehensive transformation, in the that its current owners have invested 25 million euros, following the project by Blanch Conca Arquitectura (BCA) that has turned it into a bright property with glass facades.
Although in the previous renovation, in 2004, signed by the architects Oriol Bohigas, David Mackay, Josep Martorell, Oriol Capdevila and Francesc Gual (MBM), windows were already opened to the outside – before it was a completely opaque block – now they have been added new openings so that the complex is open on all four sides. Likewise, greater emphasis has been given to the Diagonal access, which is at double height. In total, it will have 14,000 square meters of state-of-the-art offices and 6,000 commercial spaces, which will include catering in spaces accessible from Buenos Aires Street.