The Catalunya Media City, the audiovisual, digital and video game hub that will be located in the Tres Xemeneis of Sant Adrià del Besòs, is one step closer to becoming a reality and, little by little, it is defining itself. The Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, who participated this Wednesday in an event in the auditorium of the Cercle de Economia, organized by the Cercle de Cultura, announced that the Government has approved today a multi-annual allocation worth 5.9 million euros destined for the bidding of the project and management of works that must define the transformation and expansion of the Turbines building, one of the key spaces to be developed. It is a ship that “in December 2023 was acquired by the Generalitat,” Garriga recalled. Work is expected to begin in April 2026.
The department’s plans are that, once said building – measuring 5,676 m2 and located in front of the sea – has been rehabilitated, it will become a center dedicated to training, innovation, research and exhibition and that it will be in “a permanent dialogue with the industry”. “We will train audiovisual talent so that they can work for our industry, since we want it to be muscular, and to attract international filming so that they can find the talent here,” the councilor stated.
The facilities will invite you to develop university studies in the field of audiovisual and digital. To do this, there will be certain spaces and resources, such as computerized classrooms, auditoriums, projection rooms, libraries and sets, among others. There will also be technical laboratories for experimentation in specific projects and spaces and resources for artistic residencies, technological incubators and accelerators for emerging companies.
With the aim of recovering spaces for citizens and disseminating audiovisual culture, Turbines will also have a multifunctional room with capacity for between 1,500 and 4,000 people that can be adapted to different proposals, such as concerts, festivals or fairs. The new spaces will be integrated with the environment and will preserve historical memory.
“When we arrived at the apartment, we had this project in mind, but we didn’t know which place was best to locate it. In the end, an iconic space has been found, known throughout the world, and whose development will allow an incredible social transformation of the area, since it is the last urban area to be developed close to Barcelona and the sea,” explained the councilor. To facilitate this purpose, “a specific program has been created with four people who work exclusively on this and who are in constant contact with the agents who have something to say in the audiovisual sector.”