La Mercedes, the project of the first large eco-district in Spain, has been considered by the jury of the World Architecture Festival (WAF) winner in the category of reuse of spaces within the WAFX awards, thanks to the “excellent example” that it offers to solve some of the “key challenges facing society and the planet”.
The WAF jury, the world’s largest architecture event, has also selected Mercedes as a finalist in the category of Best Future Project – Masterplanning, the winner of which will be announced during the festival. The WAF will be held between November 29 and December 1, 2023 in Singapore and will bring together more than 2,000 architects from 60 countries.
The WAF grants prestigious awards that recognize the excellence of both already completed architectural works and those that are planned to be built in the short term. In addition, it assigns 34 future projects specific awards, called WAFX, which recognize their contribution to key challenges that architects will have to address in the coming years, from promoting the use of smart technologies and the reuse of buildings, to tackling the problem of aging population and coping with the climate emergency.
In the space reuse category (Re-use), Mercedes has won the prize for its proposal to convert a 9-hectare industrial space in Barcelona, ??the first major ecodistrict in Spain, which combines innovative economic activity with residential spaces. and unique public areas.
In this category, the Sinterbeck project, a square in an industrial space in Belval (Luxembourg), the Kinmen County Central Library and Art Museum, in Kinmen (Taiwan), and a project to reuse oil platforms as data centers in United Kingdom.
Developed by Conren Tramway (CT) and designed by Batlleiroig (BiR), La Mercedes is a new neighborhood designed from scratch to take care of people and the environment, which will combine economic activity with high added value with spaces to live, learn and enjoy.
This mixed-use project within the city of Barcelona will be a new design and innovation hub that will have companies, educational centers, homes, local shops and spaces dedicated to leisure, culture and sports.
In addition, they will be complemented by the public facilities provided by the Barcelona City Council so that all needs are covered within a 5-minute walk.
The new neighborhood has been designed to combat the climate emergency with sustainability on a large scale and to respond to the New European Bauhaus, the initiative of the European Commission to create new inclusive, enriching and sustainable cities. With its almost 9 hectares and 185,000 square metres, it will become the first large ecodistrict in Spain and one of the main ones in Europe.
La Mercedes is the largest project in Barcelona by CT, an investment, promotion and real estate project management firm, with office, residential and logistics uses, which acquired the complex at the beginning of 2018 to turn it into an eco-district.
Originally designed by architect Robert Terradas in the 1950s, the complex initially housed the facilities of the National Aviation Engine Company (ENMASA), began manufacturing engines for Mercedes-Benz in 1959, and from 1981 housed offices of the famous car manufacturer. It is one of the few spaces in Barcelona with a Nordic-inspired rationalist architecture.
The project presented by CT and Batlleiroig will allow the neighborhood’s industrial past to be protected and projected into the future through an area that had been abandoned since 2007. It will also contribute to the Barcelona City Council project to regenerate the Bon Pastor and Besòs industrial estates.
The central nave will be recycled as a large public square and the rest of the buildings will be rehabilitated to house innovative companies. In addition, 1,300 homes will be built, of which 40% will be social housing.
