Liceu Mar already has the five finalist architectural studies

BarcelonaThe Gran Teatre del Liceu already knows which are the five finalist architecture studios for the competition to build the Liceu Mar, the facility that will contribute to the urban transformation of Barcelona's Port Vell. They are as follows: Sanaa, the studio founded by Japanese Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, Pritzker Prize 2010, with CFA; Batlle i Roig associated with Norwegian Snøhetta, designer of the Oslo Opera House; Barozzi Veiga with Maio and Burgos Garrido; Japanese Sou Fujimoto with Gras and Aldayjover; and b720 with Decas, the studio of British David Chipperfield, Pritzker Prize 2023 and responsible for Barcelona's Justice City.

In other words, five candidacies with Catalan presence: the Girona-based studio CFA, by Olga Felip and Josep Camps; Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, who are currently renovating the Teatre Principal, on Barcelona's La Rambla; the Barcelona-based studios of Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga, Mies van der Rohe Prize for the Szczecin Philharmonic (Poland), and Maio Arquitectes; another Barcelona-based studio, Aldayjover (which has carried out the river restoration of the Manzanares River and won the competition for the Three Chimneys), formed by Iñaki Alday, Margarita Jover, Jesús Arcos and Francisco Mesoner, and associated with the Majorcan Gras; and b720, Fermín Vázquez's studio responsible for the new Encants Market.

These five finalists come from the 55 candidacies submitted. The selection, made by a jury presided over by urban planner Martha Thorne, chose the finalists by evaluating the files provided by the candidates, information that did not propose a concrete proposal but rather a team with at least five heads in architecture, urban planning, acoustics, audiovisual communication, and new technologies. From now on, each finalist can present the project with models and renders; in other words, with the final design. In this phase, which will be decided from the 2026-2027 season, the four studios that do not win will receive a remuneration of 25,000 euros.

Liceu Mar will not be just a facility to expand Liceu's artistic offering. Its location in Port Vell involves the urbanization of 46,000 m², of which the building itself represents only between 10% and 15%. Therefore, an integral transformation of Moll d'Espanya will be necessary, with indispensable collaboration from the Barcelona City Council and the Port of Barcelona. The urbanization will entail the disappearance of the Imax building and the undergrounding of the road, vehicle access, which will allow the building to approach the water facing Barceloneta. For now, work is proceeding with the forecast that all of this will cost 70 million euros.

Liceu's objective is for Liceu Mar to be a 9,000 m² building, with a hall seating 900, three rehearsal rooms, 900 m² of lobby space, and two restaurants. The artistic programming of this second Liceu venue will have its own personality, complementary to that of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The inauguration date has not yet been determined, which could be from 2030 onwards.