This is the new grand model of Barcelona

BarcelonaThe first major milestone of Barcelona's designation as World Capital of Architecture is here. Mayor Jaume Collboni and lead architect Maria Buhigas have unveiled the scale model. Barcelona Plan 2026–2035, A cutting-edge miniature model of the city will be on permanent display at the former headquarters of Editorial Gustavo Gili, which serves as the headquarters for the European Capital of Culture initiative. "We want to pay tribute to architecture and urban planning as powerful tools for improving people's lives and expressing values, a vision of the city," says Jaume Collboni, who was also accompanied by Pere Navarro, delegate of the Zona Franca Consortium. The model, built to a scale of 1:1,500, covers the central part of the Barcelona metropolitan area, known as the Pla de Barcelona, ​​bordered by the Collserola mountain range to the north, the lower course of the Besòs River to the east, the Llobregat River and its delta to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

The model depicts fifteen municipalities covering an area of ​​177.5 km², home to more than 2.4 million people: Barcelona, ​​L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Esplugues de Llobregat, and Sant Adrià de Besòs, as well as parts of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Badalona, ​​Badalona Vallès, Molins de Rei, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Sant Just Desvern, Sant Joan Despí, Cornellà de Llobregat, and El Prat de Llobregat. The aim is for the model to be a "living instrument" for graphically reflecting on future urban planning, while for Maria Buhigas it is a physical element that "allows us to understand" how to modify space in a digital age. The former headquarters of Editorial Gustavo Gili will be open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The model Barcelona Plan 2026-2035 It's a work of art: entirely 3D printed with polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable polymer derived from lactic acid, which is manufactured from renewable resources including wheat and other starch-rich products. It has a total surface area of ​​84 m², divided into 1,024 tiles that fit together like puzzle pieces. This required 950 kilos of material and 10 printers working simultaneously for over 21,000 hours. Assembly took 80 hours. "Digital printing is significantly changing the way models are made, because before they were handcrafted pieces, and they will continue to be made that way, but the moment you have a three-dimensional model, digital printing is unbeatable," Miquel Pybus, head of the Urban Strategy department at Barcelona Regional and coordinator of the different teams, explained to ARA. The project was spearheaded by Barcelona City Council, with funding from the Zona Franca Consortium, coordination from the Model Workshop of the Vallès School of Architecture (ETSAV) at the UPC, and participation from Windforce, DFactory, and Barcelona Regional, the Urban Development Agency. "The model isn't exactly like Barcelona, ​​because that's very difficult, but it does have a very high level of detail," says Pybus.

One of the most distinctive features of this reproduction of Barcelona is that it is a living work: there are fifteen areas undergoing transformation, including La Sagrera, the Biopol-Gran Via in L'Hospitalet, and the Tres Xemeneies (Three Chimneys), which can be easily updated to reflect ongoing changes. Another distinctive feature is the inclusion of 60 iconic buildings, printed separately to ensure the most accurate reproduction of their details. These include buildings by architects such as Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner; Walden 7 by Ricardo Bofill; the Torre Madre Nostrum by Enric Miralles, formerly known as the Gas Natural Tower; and the Diagonal Island by Rafael Moneo. Also included are the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, the CCCB (Centro Cultural de Barcelona), the MACBA (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona), the Born Centre for Culture and Memory, the França, Nord, and Sants train stations, and various historic markets. "The model is such that in many cases they are practically invisible, but I think it is important to highlight that these 60 buildings have been specifically treated," Pybus points out.

A multi-layered digital model of Barcelona

The model is the result of a very ambitious three-dimensional digital model of Barcelona, ​​on which a team of architects, geographers, and engineers worked for eight months, supported by artificial intelligence tools. This model is the product of combining many datasets, many of them publicly available: those for pavement, nature, and green spaces (Barcelona City Council); those for buildings, based on cadastral records; a digital terrain model and a topographic model at a scale of 1:5,000, both developed by the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia; and public mapping of the area from the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB). All this information was subjected to criteria of "abstraction or simplification of information," as Pybus explains, to make the whole intelligible. "We eliminated all volumes smaller than 30 m²."² "Because the model couldn't have that much detail, it would have become overwhelming," the manager concludes.

On the other hand, the model is surrounded by a series of augmented reality viewports, created by Layers of Reality, which will allow for the addition of new layers of content, the first of which is dedicated to UNESCO's Universal Exposition. In addition to this model, there is another tactile one with contrasting reliefs and textures designed for blind people.