Ponder Trade, the family office The Grífols Gras family, one of the branches of Grifols shareholders, has invested approximately €5 million in the renovation of the COR Innovation Factory building in Barcelona's 22@ district. The facilities, a former industrial building of 3,844 square meters, can accommodate more than 550 professionals. The building has six floors with flexible spaces designed to adapt to different work models. It has been conceived to encourage interaction and flexibility of use. The renovation, carried out by Jordi París (París Camps Arquitectura) and Josep Jorge (Fomenti), preserves the industrial character of the building, constructed in the late 19th century to house a cardboard factory, maintaining its original structure, steel pillars, and volume. The office building is located in the heart of the 22@ district, at the intersection of Ávila and Llull streets, a short distance from the Rambla del Poblenou.

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) will open its first campus in Europe in the city of Barcelona. Specifically, it will do so in a newly constructed building in the 22@ district, on Llacuna Street. HKU, which is ranked thirteenth in the global ranking of business schools compiled by the Financial Times, has purchased a building in the Catalan capital in a transaction involving a real estate consultancy firm and Barcelona City Council.

As a member of the Barcelona Society of Friends of the Country, a few days ago I attended a talk to which we invited Pere Navarro, current delegate of the Barcelona Free Trade Zone, who explained the important process of modernization and attraction of technology companies that is underway in this area, which is known as one of the centers related to artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, robotics, and cybersecurity, as well as its use in health, mobility, and other areas. It's good to be aware of what's happening. I think it could be very important for the future of the country, especially now that we are experiencing a time of great change and strong uncertainty in the economy and global politics. That's why I'm writing this article, eager to make it known.

Black and white photographs of cities are always well received, while future plans tend to generate rejection. We urban planners have to live with this, but I don't give up believing in the transformative potential of cities, and to do so, I'll use the example of the Poblenou neighborhood. When I was studying architecture (in the 2000s), most of the urban ideas that have governed this neighborhood were being conceived. Now I walk around quite often and admire the architectural quality of what has been restored on a heritage scale and also what has been newly built. Recently, I discovered a building under construction by Jordi Badia on the corner of Llull and Badajoz that has me amazed. It looks like a volume sculpted by the 1916 regulation of New York, a close cousin of the renders by Hugh Ferris on pyramidal skyscrapers, with terraces facing the midday sun that make you stop and contemplate it.

A neighbourhood market, sports courts or schools. These are just a few examples of the facilities that the Barcelona City Council plans to locate in a 35,000 square meter reserve (15 plots) in its technology district: 22@. The urban planning changes that are being prepared in this area of the city, which was born twenty-two years ago, are focused above all on correcting the lack of neighbours to make it not only a good place to work, but also a neighbourhood of Barcelona. The municipal government has been working for years on a modification of the general metropolitan plan (MPGM) to change the rules of the game in 22@ in order to finish developing the spaces that remain unused - 40% of the area has yet to be developed - and to add housing, and today it presented the final document that is expected to be approved next week at the Urban Planning Commission. The final proposal adds a thousand more apartments to the one that was initially processed in 2020 and leaves the final figure at 8,000 apartments to be added to the 9,000 that were foreseen in 2000.