Culture as an engine in Palo Alto's urban regeneration process

Abstract

Changes in the economic base of old industrial cities have been characterised by urban regeneration processes, transforming their industrial districts into new innovative, technological and creative territories. While maintaining the industrial vocation, this shift promotes the reinterpretation of industrial production and of the territory’s historical past into new symbolic meanings and values, constituting assets in the global city competition scenario. From these new forms of industrial production territorial changes result, with culture and innovation being a leading engine in such transformations. This article discusses the results of these economic based policies in Palo Alto’s urban regeneration process. This complex is one of Barcelona’s leading examples of industrial reconversion into a creative hub, through the uses of entrepreneurial initiative, cultural production, heritage valorisation, and the creation of new public spaces.

Full text

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CULTURE AS AN ENGINE IN PALO ALTO’S URBAN REGENERATION
PROCESS
Lígia Isabel Paz Mendes Oliveira, Ph.D.
e-mail: ligiapm.oliveira@gmail.com
Recibido: 22/10/ 2014 Revisado: 12/01/2015 Publicado: 10/06/2015
ABSTRACT
Changes in the economic base of old industrial cities have been characterised by
urban regeneration processes, transforming their industrial districts into new
innovative, technological and creative territories. While maintaining the industrial
vocation, this shift promotes the reinterpretation of industrial production and of the
territory’s historical past into new symbolic meanings and values, constituting assets
in the global city competition scenario. From these new forms of industrial
production territorial changes result, with culture and innovation being a leading
engine in such transformations. This article discusses the results of these economic
based policies in Palo Alto’s urban regeneration process. This complex is one of
Barcelona’s leading examples of industrial reconversion into a creative hub, through
the uses of entrepreneurial initiative, cultural production, heritage valorisation, and
the creation of new public spaces.
Keywords: Barcelona, Palo Alto, urban economics, urban regeneration, industrial
heritage, culture, public space
RESUMEN
Los cambios en la base económica de las antiguas ciudades industriales se han
caracterizado por procesos de regeneración urbana, que transforman sus distritos
industriales en nuevos territorios innovadores, tecnológicos y creativos. Mientras se
mantiene la vocación industrial, este cambio promueve la reinterpretación de la
producción industrial y del pasado histórico del territorio en nuevos significados y
valores simbólicos, constituyendo activos en el escenario de la competitividad global
entre ciudades. A partir de estas nuevas formas de producción industrial resultan
cambios territoriales, con la cultura y la innovación como motores de estas

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transformaciones. Este artículo discute los resultados de estas políticas económicas
basadas en los procesos de regeneración urbana, en Palo Alto. Este complejo es uno
de los principales ejemplos en Barcelona de reconversión industrial en un hub
creativo, a través de la iniciativa empresarial, la producción cultural, la valorización
del patrimonio, y la creación de nuevos espacios públicos.
Palabras clave: Barcelona, Palo Alto, economía urbana, regeneración urbana,
patrimonio industrial, cultura, espacio público
RESUMO
As mudanças na base económica das antigas cidades industriais têm sido
caracterizadas por processos de regeneração urbana, que transformam os seus
distritos industriais em novos territórios inovadores, tecnológicos e criativos.
Embora mantendo a vocação industrial, essa mudança promove a reinterpretação
da produção industrial e do passado histórico do território em novos significados e
valores simbólicos, constituindo ativos no cenário da competição global entre
cidades. Destas novas formas de produção industrial resultam mudanças no
território, com a cultura e inovação a serem um motor de tais transformações. Este
artigo discute os resultados dessas políticas económicas baseadas nos processos de
regeneração urbana, em Palo Alto. Este complexo é um dos principais exemplos de
reconversão industrial num hub criativo de Barcelona, através da iniciativa
empresarial, produção cultural, valorização patrimonial, e da criação de novos
espaços públicos.
Palavras-chave: Barcelona, Palo Alto, economia urbana, regeneração urbana,
património industrial, cultura, espaço público

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INTRODUCTION
In the last decades, the economic base of many old industrial cities shifted to
new modes of industrial production, based on the knowledge economy. Such
changes brought the cities’ re-industrialization, based in new creative,
technological and innovation industries. These policies have been supported
by the European Council (2000, 2010), with the clear intention of forging the
global scale competitiveness and economical growth of our common territory
by this knowledge-based production. Implemented on both national and local
scales, these structural changes are supported by major strategic projects
developed by large-scale policies, regarded as profitable in terms of
investment, qualified labour, and linked to growing sectors such as tourism
and culture.
Several European cities have redoubled their efforts for the promotion and
attraction of investment for their culture and creative industries. The
implementation of specific policies for the exploration of their symbolic
capital follows the lines of action promoted by the European Union. It
emphasizes the economic importance of the cultural sector, and presents it
as a strategic engine for the cities and regions’ growth and development, with
high profit rates.
At the same time, there is an increased need for an economical legitimacy to
justify the different forms of cultural production, the transformation of public
into consumers and of the cultural content into merchandise. Industries
related to the production of culture, knowledge and innovation, requiring
high levels of qualification and specialization, tend to concentrate in urban
conglomerates, with specific infrastructures, connections and services,
including those related to the financial sector. The formation of these
networks, determining the success of cities and their rise in the global
economy, has been less and less a public determination of national, regional
or local governments: the private sector has markedly gained power over
decisions relating to the urban territory, with local partnerships between the
public and private sector becoming increasingly common. This re-
industrialization process is linked to the trend of municipal management
models based on business tools (Harvey, 1990).
Such processes are patent in Barcelona. In this city, the “post-industrial” link
between culture and urban regeneration is a continuous process, developing
for some decades. Specifically, the reconversion of former industrial sites into
new productive agglomerations – as part of the city’s creative enterprises and
its new public spaces -, has been a very significant process occurring in the
old industrial Sant Martí district. One example is the Gal i Puigsech factory,
converted into the Palo Alto creative hub. Due to its characteristics, it

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represents a rich field of discussion on the negative and positive impacts of
culture-led urban regeneration processes: namely, on real state speculation,
private sector impulse upon the territory, industrial heritage protection, and
the privatization of public space.
Public spaces are considered a basic element for the urban structure, for the
constitution of social relationships and activities on territories. Recent
projects in Poblenou regard and integrate its historical past – agrarian,
industrial, and corresponding to Cerdà’s plan – in its urban design. Rural
paths and industrial activity determined Gal i Puigsech’s development into
the contemporary Palo Alto. This paper states the link between the
productive base transformations with public space changes of Palo Alto. This
approach to the territory allows a fresh perspective in the observation of the
relationship between industrial transformation, supported by Barcelona’s
cultural policies and the entrepreneurial environment – in this case, specially
related to the creative sector – with the configuration of the city’s physical
structure.
In the eighties and nineties, Palo Alto was representative of the creation of a
dynamic of "artistic neighbourhoods" in Barcelona. Lorente (2009) uses this
term to describe areas of the cities where there are located a large
concentration of activities related to arts, such as: the existence of art in
public space; artistic activities (such as museums, foundations, schools); or
the influx of artists (measured by studios and artist residencies, and leisure
sites linked to them). The author considers that the existence of one these
aspects are sufficient to be considered an artistic neighbourhood. This
process of the conversion of old industrial buildings by artistic activities
occurring in Poblenou is similar to occurrences in other cities. Examples are
the SoHo in New York, in the sixties (Zukin, 1982). Also Marseille and
Liverpool in the seventies (Lorente, 1996), from where policies of urban
renewal subsequently resulted, with the conversion of old industrial and/or
heritage buildings in cultural complexes (Hospice de la Vieille Charité in the Le
Panier district, in Marseille; and the Albert Dock in Liverpool, in the eighties).
This paper states these various stages of the urban regeneration process
through culture in Palo Alto’s history. The analysis relates the development of
two parallel processes: the land uses, especially characterized by the recent
changes into new cultural and creative industrial ones; and how the shift of
uses defined processes at the urban level. This observation begins with Gal i
Puigsech wool factory onset, in the nineteenth century, located in a
previously agricultural area. And its posterior hosted productive activities: the
"classic" industrial sector, the rental to the tertiary sector throughout the
twentieth century, and their subsequent abandonment; and, ultimately its
conversion into new creative uses. This process is included in the general
dynamics of Poblenou’s de-industrialization and reindustrialization, marked
by the transformation of its old factories into new innovative industries, their

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heritage valorisation, and the new symbolic features gained in the
neighbourhood’s urban landscape.
Different authors have studied these urban regeneration processes in
Barcelona and in Poblenou. The interest in this territory multiple dimensions -
social, morphological, economic, political - was in some cases accompanied
by an interdisciplinary perspective1. Several publications highlight the historic
and heritage character of Poblenou’s industrial landscape (Tatjer and
Vilanova; 2002; Tatjer, Urbiola and Grup de Patrimoni Industrial del Fòrum
Ribera del Besòs, 2005, 2006; Checa Artasu, 2007); its social changes
(Marrero, 2003; Dot, Pallares-Barbera, Casellas, 2012; Clarós, 2007). Martí-
Costa and Pradel (2011) relate Poblenou’s recent cultural past through the
artists workshops installation from the nineties, with the economic model
implemented later through the 22@ project. The authors do not mention the
case of Palo Alto, whose typology of cultural activities is similar to the ones
they studied, and, historically, previous. The present paper works with
different assumptions from Martí-Costa and Pradel, considering there is a link
- and not a contradiction, as they view - in the evolution of this cultural
facility with the changes of Poblenou’s productive base. In Palo Alto, this is
symptomatic of the cultural sector professionalization, occurring while the
link of municipal cultural policies to the economy develop.
Diversity and flexibility in the transformation of the productive uses of
Poblenou’s territory have been observed (Brandão and Brandão, 2012). The
cultural role of such transformation has also been studied, as in the
reinterpretation of Poblenou’s industrial chimneys as public art (Gárate,
2011); and the growth of Barcelona’s cultural industries, by the municipal
plan of cultural facilities Fàbriques de Creació (Aparício, 2011).
The contemporary scenario of Barcelona’s urban transformation processes
related to cultural activities is a rich field of discussion. The economic and
political premises, and their results on the territory, need to be analysed and
reflected upon. These processes raise major questions about the welfare of
society as a whole, and on the inhabitants of Poblenou in particular. In Palo
Alto’s particular case, such questions are intertwined with the
acknowledgement of relevant elements of local identity – the consideration
of factory buildings and chimneys into symbolic cultural marks. This
recognition brings an impact on its urban landscape, aesthetically and by the
effects of real state valorisation2. In Palo Alto, it also conveys the raising of
1 Studies upon interdisciplinary in urban design have been observed by several authors, with
highlights to Brandão (2006, 2011); Brandão and Remesar (2010); Cunha Leal and Remesar
(2012); Brandão, Castillo, Esparza, Oliveira, Padilla, Pinto, Ríos, Salas, and Sasa (2014); and
Costa, Ochoa and Silva (2015).
2 Such as in the perspective defended by Cunha Leal (2008), the construction of this
territory has an ideological dimension. This paper underlies the idea that the analysed
territorial changes are clearly anchored in political views linked to the primacy of capital,

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questions related to its public space and to its subtle privatization, which
unfortunately, is currently observed.
The task taken by this paper is to contribute to this discussion on Barcelona’s
economical base shift, exemplified by Palo Alto’s complex. By analysing this
factory’s historical and physical transformations, the author firmed the basis
for the observation and critique of its contemporary creative productive uses
and its public space, allowed by its industrial heritage category. The
combination of these elements - the building’s heritage and the facility’s
innovation-oriented uses – has defined Palo Alto’s, along with other
Poblenou’s industrial heritage, into new urban landscapes, essential for the
city’s marketing and to the definition of its brand and city image.
Palo Alto’s singularity within Barcelona’s cultural-industrial equipment
resides in two linked aspects: in the time period it develops, and on its
particular entrepreneurial evolution, from a cultural hub of artists and
designers into an innovative global enterprise cluster. Both developments
uniquely represents a three scopes’ transformational process: 1), Of the
productive model, from Fordism to post-Fordism; 2), Of its physical
environment, from an Industrial Revolution factory into an artistic and
innovation cluster - integrated into Poblenou’s urban regeneration public
policies by its heritage and public space; 3), Of its cultural model, with the
progressive adoption of business tools to the complex management and
consolidation.
For this purpose, the paper disclosures Palo Alto’s historical and urban
context: the industrial past of Poblenou’s neighbourhood, until the recent
post-industrial urban regeneration process led by the 22@ project. It details
the historical development of the factory itself, concerning its uses and its
relation to the surrounding urban transformations. From this analysis, it
progresses to the direct observation and critique of Palo Alto’s contemporary
public space, highlighting questions of public and private areas, of industrial
heritage conservation, and of the cultural and creative uses determining
constitution. Finally, it derives conclusions from the role of culture and
creativity in urban regeneration processes.
For elaborating this paper, the author used a methodology based in direct
observation, with several Palo Alto visits, between 2012 and 2015. The
investigation also included researching a vast array of resources: government
plans and projects; scientific documents, such as the ones produced by Grup
de Patrimoni Industrial del Fòrum Ribera del Besòs, which have influenced
changes in the heritage plan of the district and the preservation of its
and to the transformative power of technology and business innovation on the entire
city. So far, such happened with detriment of social values, which were consecutively
contested by society, through neighbourhood associations and specialized professional
organizations - in particular, regarding heritage protection.

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industrial buildings. The author also consulted architectonic building plans,
local newspapers and certified websites.
PALO ALTO CASE STUDY
This section first summarizes the historical development of Poblenou’s
neighbourhood urban regeneration operations, where Palo Alto is integrated.
Then, it presents the development of the Palo Alto complex, both as an
enterprise and as a catalyst of urban transformation, by which it represents
the reconversion of old industrial buildings into significant industrial heritage,
as well as in an innovation and creativity productive facility. Finally, it
analyses its public space, which due to the precincts’ configuration and to the
lack of proper design, presents mostly a private use.
The old 1875 Gal i Puigsech factory is composed by five building blocks, one
chimney, several open spaces, and a wall that surrounds the entire complex.
Since 1987, it has been progressively recovered and transformed into the
creative hub called Palo Alto, which is highly representative of the
neighbourhood ‘s economic and urban transformations. Being actively used
ever since, it encompasses physical, productive and cultural changes, by a
process of generation of real estate profits, linked to the production of
culture, to the building reconversion into new uses, and to the consideration
of this industrial building as industrial heritage. It is a relevant example of
Poblenou’s recent valorisation and reconversion of its industrial buildings,
emblematic of culture’s power in this territory: 1), By its heritage valorisation;
2), By the new cultural and creative productive activities; 3), By the way these
industrial heritage elements determined the new public spaces created in
their surroundings.
The emphasis on how the industrial heritage determined the configuration of
Palo Alto’s public space is also due to the fact that, in other Poblenou’s
industrial reconversions for economic transformation – such as Can Framis
and Ca l’Aranyó factories -, we can also observe the attribution of new
symbolic meanings by the process of conceding an heritage value to these
factories, and, specially, to their chimneys. Such examples highlight the role
of culture in the constitution of Poblenou’s configuration as a new industrial
district, where a model of economies of agglomeration prevails.
Poblenou’s context: culture and urban regeneration processes
In recent decades, Barcelona’s municipal management model directs the
city’s new strategic objectives into their economic profitability, inserted in a
context of global competition between cities. A key aspect of this model is
the understanding of the city as a brand. In this sense, distinction is aimed:

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through its beautification, urban landscape improvement is a path to gain
international attractiveness, both to specialized companies and workers.
In several cities, culture has been a widely used tool in this urban
regeneration policies and processes. Cultural and creative industries are
recognized as having a high potential of jobs and economic growth,
contributing to the cities’ territorial competitiveness, aligned with
consumption, heritage, and tourism (European Commission, 2010). Different
branding has been used to promote these ideas. Romeiro and Méndez (2008)
demonstrated the different branding used over the last twenty years to
explain the cities’ transformation. Nevertheless, along this time such diverse
criteria have been firmed in the same structural concepts.
The success of Barcelona’s economic base shift is, according Trullén (2001)
partly supported on the relations between economy and territory. The author
considers the city’s transformation as representing an urban model, but also
a specific economic model, combining general aspects of the new knowledge
economy and singularities that add value to it. Muñoz (2008) noted, “(…)
during the last decades, few cities have been able of projecting an urban
image in the global arena as Barcelona does”. In this process, the design of its
public spaces played a main role, responding to new society needs and to the
economic base shift (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1999). Such goes in line with
the perspective of urban design as fundamental to city competitiveness
(Harvey, 1990; Remesar, 2005), involving process of differentiation and
branding (Brandão, 2011; Muñoz, 2008) – concepts the present paper
includes in the orientation of urban space into consumption, as previously
conceptualized by Lefebvre (1974).
Among these criteria, there is the “creative cities”. Widely used to promote
and justify the transformations and policies occurring in cities such as
Barcelona, it is firmly based in the global cities’ competition scenario, with
the investment in culture, innovation and knowledge leading the city’s urban
development. Exemplifying Landry’s definition (1991), the creative cities label
was used in Barcelona in three areas: 1), as city branding; 2), potentializing
the city’s cultural industries, and opening its scope into creativity – thus,
including innovative production forms, linked to the knowledge economy; 3),
being operationalized through urban regeneration projects, related to the
educational, entrepreneurial and public sectors. Poblenou’s transformation
was highly based in such phenomena, whereby its public space was produced
by the means of a new kind of urban design, which defines the territory, its
urban landscape and actively participates in the construction of the city’s
global image. From these three dynamics, processes of real state profits
production were achieved.
Such is the case of the main urban regeneration project of new millennium
Barcelona: the 22@Barcelona, from the year 2000. Implemented in Sant
Martí district, at the Poblenou neighbourhood, previously called the “Catalan

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Manchester” due to its relevance during the Industrial Revolution. The 22@
project promotes the regeneration of significant areas of this territory, by
reconverting its productive base into the knowledge economy new industries.
It is part of an urban development axis in the eastern part of the city,
including the high-speed railway infrastructure and urban transformation in
La Sagrera-Sant Andreu; and the renewal of the end of Diagonal, with major
changes in the Diagonal Mar i el Front Marítim del Poblenou neighbourhood.
Fig.1. 22@ and the three surrounding projects – Glòries, La Sagrera and Fòrum/Besòs, which
emphasizes this territory’s centrality within its urban context.
Palo Alto factory is located in one of the oldest referenced buildings in
Poblenou’s near waterfront. According to Barcelona’s city hall (1995), in 1891
plans - both in the topographic by Garcia Faria as well as in the plan drawing
by J.M. Serra -, a group of buildings can be observed in this area. It belonged
to either the original Palo Alto factory – by then, the Gal i Puigsech textile
factory, built in 1875; or to a sector of a nearby great industrial complex,
named Macosa. These factories were erected in a territorial changing
context: the construction of the railroad, the consolidation of Taulat street
axis, and the buildings in the nearby Jonquera street. Both were part of
Poblenou’s industry-driven neighbourhood.
In the next decades, the industrial uses of this territory developed. Together
with the factory constructions, the infrastructural plans supported this area’s

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industrial activity. The Plan de Enlaces, from 1903, proposes a train station in
this territory; and Jaussely’s proposal (1905), maintains the main industrial
uses.
Posteriorly, the 1953 Pla Comarcal defined one of the dominant elements of
the neighbourhood’s morphology for the next decades: the railroad, which
separated Poblenou from its waterfront. This 1953 plan also acknowledges
the residential uses in Poblenou’s old area (located between its Rambla and
Bac de Roda street), and determines the industrial uses in this street course.
By the next decade, land use reconversion projects affected Poblenou, as the
neighbourhood faced a progressive deindustrialisation. Since then, this area
had several urban renewal projects. Its privileged geographic location,
aligned with the obsolescence of its industrial uses, made it appealing for
launching these projects, highly profitable to their landowners. Of these, the
Avance del Plan de la Ribera must be highlighted. It was approved by the City
Hall in 1968, promoted by society Ribera, SA, and followed by the Plan del
Sector Marítimo Ocidental, approved in 1971. This plan allowed the
conversion of land (especially those belonging to the companies Ribera SA
and to RENFE), modifying its urban qualification and allowing intensive
residential use (Solà-Morales et al, 1974). The capital gains production was
guaranteed by the reconversion of the industrial parcels, introducing
commercial and residential uses3. These projects were highly contested by
the population, who achieved its blocking. Nonetheless, the same projects
would later be highly influential in the development of Barcelona’s
waterfront (Caballé, 2010).
The 1976 Pla General Metropolità (PGM) introduced the 14b urban
qualification, allowing the change of uses to residential and tertiary in this
sector. This plan maintains the railway line parallel to the coastline, while
adding a green zone (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1995). It also limited
Poblenou’s historical centre, while restricting the residential use as the main
one in this area. The PGM integrated the area in an ordination located to the
north, following the ideas defined by Cerdà’s plan. Between this area and the
railroad, it allowed the possibility of a specific reforming plan (PERI), which
would substitute the industrial uses.
In the eighties, Poblenou’s landscape was affected by an array of urban
projects. There was a progressive change of uses, with residential and leisure
being introduced to specific areas. Significant infrastructural transformations
took form, such as the connection with the seaside and the regeneration of
its waterfront. In Palo Alto’s nearby environment, the scenario was still slowly
3 The “old” industries were, by then, already losing its power in this neighbourhood.
Between 1963 and 1990, Poblenou lost 1326 industrial companies, both by the
economical crises and by the industrial translocation to Barcelona’s metropolitan area
(Barceló i Roca, 1999).

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evolving: the area wasn’t affected by new projects, and its main uses were
residential, small and medium scale workshops, warehouses and carriers
offices
The substantial territorial changes brought by the 1992 Olympic Games
affected both the uses and the morphology of a significant part of Poblenou.
Regarding its infrastructure, three elements allowed its urban reorganization:
the consolidation and sanitation of its waterfront; the redrawing and
undergrounding of the railroads, located in the waterfront and in the final
area of Meridiana Avenue; and the construction of the Ronda and of Parc
Litoral (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1999). Regarding its uses, this project
substitutes the industrial by residential and leisure uses in the Olympic Village
sector.
Although it was a significant part of the 1992 Olympic Games urban project,
Poblenou’s opening to the seaside resulted from a process of coastal
organization, elaborated by several entities: the city hall, the railway, and
institutions related to the coastal ordination. The result was influenced by
previous projects, such as the Pla de la Ribera. Caballé (2010) identifies this
plan’s influence in the following economical, political and social aspects:
1), The role of the major landowners, who were very interested on the
profits, brought to them by these urban transformations;
2), The association between the first democratic city hall president (and
leverage of Barcelona’s Olympic campaign) with the office where the Pla
de la Ribera was developed;
3), The abandonment of this territory for years - as a result of Pla de la
Ribera’s refusal -, would later become beneficial for gaining the much
needed social approval for the implementation of the Olympic project. The
Olympic Village project calls on the morphological structure of Cerdà’s
plan, destroying the prevailing physical structure. With the exception of
Can Folch chimney, Icària’s historical industrial landscape was destroyed.
The 1993 modification to the 1976 PGM continued Barcelona and Poblenou’s
waterfront transformation. The 1995 Pla de Reforma Especial del Front
Maritim del Poblenou (PERI), intervenes on the Macosa and Catalana de Gas
old factories, allocating 75% of its land to residential use, and the remaining
to industrial uses compatible with housing, tertiary and/or commerce
(Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1995). It also allowed the preservation of two
elements of the city’s industrial heritage - Macosa chimney and Les Aigües
Tower. Regarding the waterfront and PGM regulation transformations, there
was also the 1993 Pla Partial Diagonal Mar, which introduced mixed uses
(offices, shopping centre, housing, cultural facilities and a large urban park),
comparable in relevance to the Olympic Village and to the set of changes
implemented in Glòries (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1994); and the Pla

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Especial de Reforma Interior de La Catalana. Later, in 2004, this sector of the
city was consolidated through the Universal Forum of Cultures project.
By 2000, the 22@ project introduces new land uses in Poblenou, changing
the previously restrictions of the 1976 Metropolitan General Plan. It updates
the neighbourhood’s productive use, from the classification of “classic”
industrial use (22a) into intensive sectors of knowledge concentration, linked
to business innovation, creativity, information and communication
technologies (22@). This new regulation also includes the 7@ key,
designating activities of "(...) information and communications technologies,
with investigation, design, culture and knowledge” (Ajuntament of Barcelona,
2000a). Included in this urban policy, and in order to amplify the
competitiveness of the territory, mixed uses - housing and leisure - are
introduced in this territory along with the @ activities. The 22@ implements
a compact city model, where the introduction of these clean new industries
allows its coexistence with other uses.
Fig.2. Most relevant urban projects in Poblenou since the nineties.
As Fig.2 shows, the 22@ project does not affect the entire Poblenou, but
some specific areas of this neighbourhood. Since its approval in 2000, and
through the progressive heritage valuation of several neighbourhood
elements, another district area receives a Metropolitan General Plan
Modification (MPGM): Poblenou’s historical centre. This 2010 amendment is

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included in the recent and remarkable transformations of this territory, and
integrates the Palo Alto complex.
Palo Alto’s historical perspective: from textile to cultural industry
In 1875, a first industrial warehouse was built in this area, by the hand of the
foreman Antoni Vila. Promoted by Ramon Gal and Joan Puigsech, it was a
factory dedicated to wool. By 1877, the factory was expanded by another
textile businessman, Agustí Coll. The factory was integrated into one of
Poblenou’s small industrial and residential core, along with Can Girona
factory and the França Xica neighbourhood, where specialized French
workers lived (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2006; 2010a).
In 1927, Augusto Ramoneda Society bought the factory. They changed the
productive activity from textile into an important groats and grains factory.
After the war, this industrial complex loses its productive exclusivity, being
divided and rented to small companies. (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2006).
Between the seventies and the eighties, it was partially abandoned. Finally, in
1987, it was rented to Pierre Roca & Associats, a cultural enterprise dedicated
to production performances, which named it as it identifies the complex ever
since: Palo Alto.
Most of the prevailing industrial buildings of this complex are of one ground
floor, with only one building with three floors existing, on the left of the
entrance. The buildings with façade to Ferrers street also accommodate a
first floor. The building structure is mainly unchanged, with its large chimney
dominating the space. These elements allow imagining how was Poblenou’s
industrial landscape by the end of the XIX century (Ajuntament de Barcelona,
2006). It was precisely this industrial past that determined the new complex
designation: the high chimney. Given Roca’s interest in American cinema,
Palo Alto (“high stick”) was chosen as the complex name (La Vanguardia,
September 12th, 1989).
The large space of the industrial area allowed Pierre Roca & Associats to
create three shooting scenarios, with a total of 1900m2. This space
availability was highly attractive to Roca in determining moving his company
from another studio, also located in Poblenou’s neighbourhood. Besides this
large production areas, the availability of space offered by Gal i Puigsech –
with a useful area of 11,000m2 -, allowed the creation of another project,
which he highly desired: a cultural activities’ production centre (La
Vanguardia, January 13th, 1988). By then, there were other cultural facilities
in Poblenou; Roca himself stated, to this same newspaper, the belief that the
cultural sector could be a possibility for Poblenou’s future development, as a
replacement to its past industrial activities.

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Fig.3. Palo Alto in 1988, with Pierre Roca in the forefront. Fig.4. Palo Alto, 2012
The other spaces of Palo Alto were rented to six artist and designer studios,
as well as to studios from the Winchester School of Arts. Two of the artists
who rented spaces were returning from New York; one of them, sculptor
Xavier Medina Campeny, stated in 2011 that Palo Alto and its cultural
reconversion recalled him of this American city (El País, August 8th, 2011).
One of the main actors in Palo Alto development was Valencian designer
Javier Mariscal. Among the first to rent a studio in this complex, his role was
determining: Roca himself affirmed Mariscal was Palo Alto’s “engine”, with
his name attracting other creators to the complex. Mariscal was, by then, a
rising star. In the beginning of 1988, his Cobi became the emblematic mascot
for Barcelona’s 1992 Olympics – allowing him a great national and
international acknowledgment. This factor conducted him to need a larger
working space from where he had it before, in Born neighbourhood (El País,
February 4th, 2012). In declarations to La Vanguardia (September 12th, 1989),
Mariscal describes as highly positive the transformation of the old Poblenou’s
industrial district into a creative area, and the Palo Alto complex as
contributing to it. He also parallels the neighbourhood’s development with
New York’s, while highly romanticizing Poblenou’s working class environment
and activities.4
4 Mariscal later opposed this vision. In statements from 2012, he then recalls the eighties
Poblenou’s environment as: “Plants would cover your head and some buildings were about to
fall down. In the surrounding spaces there were junkies, rats, stolen motorbikes hidden… that
was the surroundings, but the space was spectacular” (El País, February 4th, 2012).

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In the beginning of the nineties, the importance of Palo Alto’s cultural hub
enterprise already reflected the cultural sector’s characteristics and
dilemmas, such as: the enlargement of the sector, encompassing more areas;
its entrepreneurial tendency; its relationship to the heritage buildings’
reconversion, with the resulting land valorisation by-product. In Palo Alto,
artistic cultural activities coexisted with business-oriented companies in an
entrepreneurial initiative, which recovered the old buildings complex and
kept its productive activity, actualizing it.
The economic and symbolic success of the complex was eminent. As early as
1990, in an article about the difficulties of the Catalan industry in adapting to
the new globalized economy competitive context, a local newspaper
highlights it with a Palo Alto picture, under the subtitle “Palo Alto, an old
Poblenou’s industrial complex, remodelled to modern companies” (La
Vanguardia, February 12th, 1990). Between 1988 and 1991, Palo Alto’s real
state value raised substantially. The initial renting contract, of one million
pesetas, tripled. The contract also changed to Mariscal’s company, who
proposed to buy the complex, with a calculated value of 500 million pesetas,
according to Roca’s declarations to La Vanguardia (July 27th, 1991).
By then, Roca accuses Mariscal of speculating and misrepresenting Palo Alto
original intentions: “Palo Alto’s philosophy was to offer the artists a quiet and
accessible place to joyfully work, and nothing will remain of it”. In the same
newspaper, Mariscal’s studio manager, Eusebio Nomen, defends of the
accusations. He affirms that during Roca’s management, he didn’t pay the
rent – although the tenants had paid him their share. Nomen states that the
building owners proposed Roca several possibilities to arrange the debt, to
which Roca had not replied; therefore, Palo Alto’s tenants had an eviction
sentence court pending. Such eviction did not happen: the landlords were
sensitive to the artist’s circumstances, and offered them a global contract.
Mariscal SA signed it, in representation of the artists. Besides this renting
changes, this newspaper testifies Mariscal’s intention in improving the
renting conditions: one of the main goals of Palo Alto’s tenants was to form
themselves as a property community, with the aim of buying and restoring
the property.
Palo Alto growth was also evident in the number of creative tenants, reaching
around twenty studios. The complex acknowledgement had risen beyond the
city limits, thanks to the prestige of some of its elements, whose work was
internationally known. Among the relationships established between Palo
Alto creators and other innovators, there is to highlight the stay of the
internationally known chef Ferran Adrià, between 1991 and 1992. On that
winter, his friend Campeny invited him for a creative period in his Palo Alto
workshop. Such time allowed him to observe Campeny’s creative working
process, which the chef decided to apply to his gastronomic sphere. This stay
also gave Adrià the chance of experimenting cooking without the commercial

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pressure, which the chef considered to allow him a very profitable, innovative
management model in his restaurant elBulli (Adrià, 2014).
Palo Alto’s acknowledgement and preservation in the nineties
In 1992, a new plan for Poblenou’s waterfront was approved by the City Hall.
This plan affected the area compromised between the Olympic Village and
Sant Adrià del Besòs. It initially proposed the construction of a new district,
dedicated to housing and tertiary, in the land occupied by Catalana de Gas
and Macosa factories, destroying part of Taulat neighbourhood, and allowing
an increase in the neighbourhood’s edificability. This possibility of land use
change was already prospective in 1976 General Metropolitan Plan, which
qualified these coastal fringe soils with the 14b key. Such meant the
replacement of its industrial uses - average and large industries -, by
industries with another implementation, or even changing to residential and
tertiary uses (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1995). The 1992 amendment
organized this sector’s urbanization, mainly promoting residential use. Thanks
to the railway line underground and to the coastline consolidation, this plan
provided the territorial integration into Barcelona’s urban environment.
However, this project faced a strong popular opposition. Leaded by various
entities and Poblenou’s neighbourhood’s associations, they eventually
achieved a partial modification of it. Mariscal was part of the initial citizen
petitions. He managed to have his claim accepted: the safeguard of Palo Alto,
which was under the threat of destruction. The complex was acknowledged
by its building’s heritage value, allowing it preservation. Moreover, the
redrawing of the prior bases of the coastline plan approved the maintenance
of Palo Alto cultural uses, referring the passage of this cultural facility to the
public domain. The equipment urban qualification (7b)5 limited its uses – by
example, by forbidding housing. The modification also planned the crossing
of the property, in line with Fluvià Street. It is as such that it remained in
Poblenou’s waterfront MPGM (Modificació del Pla General Metropolità al
Front Marítim del Poble Nou, des del Cementiri fins la Rambla d'el Prim),
approved on July 13th, 1993 (Fig.5). Anticipating the new creative and
innovative uses of the 22@ project, and thanks to its new valuable heritage
acknowledgment, Palo Alto skirted the territory’s industrial uses, which still
obeyed to the 1976 Metropolitan General Plan rules. This marked another
step in its heritage acknowledgement, following the agreement signed
between the Barcelona City Hall and the Fundació Palo Alto in 1997, with the
latter being responsible of the buildings rehabilitation.
5 According to the Metropolitan Urban Normative, defined by Barcelona’s 1996
Metropolitan Plan (Article 211).

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In October 1993, the City Hall was formalized as the owner of this industrial
complex, expropriating it to Walter, SA Company. According to El Periódico
from October 17th, 1993, this acquisition didn’t imply any change in the
tenants. That is, the City Hall protects Palo Alto’s cultural facility use, leaving
the possibility of the Municipal Heritage Service to change the business
model – something that would not happen.
Fig.5. Modificació del Pla general metropolità al Front Marítim del Poble Nou, des del Cementiri
fins la Rambla d'en Prim (1993). Palo Alto exclusion is clearly observable.
The good relations between Mariscal and Maragall might have contributed to
Palo Alto’s maintenance. The press from those times shows that, although
Mariscal often maintained a difficult relationship with other government
relevant personalities (such as Generalitat de Catalunya’s President, Jordi
Pujol), the public statements of the designer about the City Hall president
transmit a relationship of closeness and empathy. In particular, Maragall
chose Palo Alto for the public presentation of his Culture Program, in the
1995 local elections.
For the opposition party, CiU, Palo Alto deserved a prominent place in the
city’s future: their candidate Miquel Roca expressed their willingness to
change the Diagonal Mar project, in order to concentrate designers and
creative agencies in Palo Alto’s area, converting it into a design district (La
Vanguardia, November 28th, 1995). This indicates that in the mid-nineties,
the main local political forces recognized Palo Alto’s relevance, with its power
reaching the surrounding projects of its territory.

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On July 21st, 1995, the Special Interior Reform Plan of Poblenou’s Waterfront
(Pla especial de reforma interior del front maritim de Poblenou - PERI) is
approved. This PERI is part of 1993 MPGM waterfront urbanization plan,
which organizes the territory on a local level (Fig.6). In infrastructural terms,
it retrieves and updates Cerdà’s road network proposal. It also protects
industrial elements in Can Girona complex: the chimney and the water tower,
proposing their inclusion in the Municipal Catalogue Protection (p.31). It
organizes the public space with a central promenade, Passeig de Taulat; the
interiors of the projected five blocks; and designs two squares, one of which
houses the old tower of les Aigües. This PERI keeps Palo Alto grounds
untouched, except for the 1993 crossing, designed to connect Fluvià Street
with Passeig de Taulat.
Fig.6. Pla Especial de Concreció dels tipus d’equipament i ordenació als Carrers Provençals,
Pellaires, Taulat i Ferrers. Unitat d’actuació 1 – PERI Front Marítim, from 1995. Palo Alto is
excluded from this urban intervention.
In 1996, the Detailed Study of Palo Alto’s Urbanization (Estudi de Detall
d’Ordenació del Centre de “Palo Alto”), defined by the City Hall, was
approved. It determined the facility’s uses as supporting the cultural context.
In 1997, Mariscal creates the Palo Alto Private Foundation Centre for Artistic

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and Cultural Production, which manages the complex since then. Their
objectives are: to promote and manage artistic and cultural activities, among
which is the complex’s promotion; the creation of a cultural found; the
rehabilitation of its buildings, and the renting of exhibition spaces (Fundació
Palo Alto, 2013).
That same year, the City Hall approves a convention, providing the renting of
these factory buildings for a period of twenty years. The factory rehabilitation
is of the Foundation’s responsibility, which becomes responsible to devote
416 pesetas per m2 monthly for this purpose, and 250 pesetas for
conservation (La Vanguardia, December 13th, 1997).
By the end of the nineties, along with the studies on Barcelona’s economic
reorientation of its industrial model into the knowledge economy, another
phenomenon happened in Poblenou: the revitalization of the city’s old
industrial buildings, through its reuse for new cultural uses and housing. The
local newspapers note the resemblance with other cities in the world, such as
New York. Pointing to the renewal of industrial buildings located in Poblenou,
in 1998, La Vanguardia (June, 21st) analyses the occurring transformations of
old industrial buildings converted into residential lofts. Although illegal, such
real state operations were highly profitable: in Poblenou, the housing soil
price was 213,000 pesetas/m2, while to the industrial soil corresponded
160,000 pesetas/m2. One of these reconversions was specially controversial:
the illegal transformation into housing of the Vapor Llull factory was
awarded, in February 1998, the City of Barcelona Award, evaluated by an
external jury but granted by the City Hall. The newspaper states that such
operations were a symptom, felt among promoters and architects, of a real
state and city need: the requalification of Poblenou’s obsolete industrial soil
into housing.
By then, the City Hall was indeed heading towards this territory’s
requalification, allowing the introduction of new uses besides the set defined
since 1976. The Poblenou renewal criteria – allowing the transformation into
a mixed use zone (housing, leisure, commercial, industry) -, was two days
earlier announced for public discussion in the same Catalan daily newspaper;
and published in the Butlletí Oficial de la Província de Barcelona (BOP) nº152,
June 26th, 1998. By then, 63% of this territory was still dedicated to industrial
uses. Nonetheless, the document Criteris, objectius i solucions generals de
planejament de la renovació de les àrees industrials del Poble Nou opened
then the door for the 22@ urban regeneration.
Palo Alto’s creative cluster and its inclusion in Poblenou’s creative territory
In addition to the real estate pressures, to the municipal plans for Poblenou’s
physical and economic regeneration, and to the cultural activities settled in
this territory – such as Palo Alto -, by the end of the nineties Poblenou was

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part of industrial building’s reconversion into cultural equipment Barcelona’s
dynamics. These were strengthened by the city’s policies orientation of
inserting culture within the economic strategy of the city. In this context, the
author highlights the inclusion of culture in the 1990’s Plan Estratégico
Económico y Social Barcelona 2000; and in the consideration of the heritage
buildings, at the 1999 Pla Estratègic del Sector Cultural de Barcelona.
The approval of the Modificació del PGM per a la renovació les zones
industrials del Poblenou - Districte d'Activitats 22@BCN, the 2000 plan which
dictated the major economic shift and urban regeneration processes in
Poblenou, did not include Palo Alto’s territory. It is in its fringes that Palo Alto
remains. Although the 22@ project defines the design sector as one of the
productive activities to be undertaken in Poblenou; and that there are
references including Palo Alto as part of this cluster (Ajuntament de
Barcelona, 2012), the author is unable to determine with precision when was
Palo Alto’s business activity included in the design cluster of 22@ new
industrial district. Thus, in the early twenty-first century, Palo Alto is
characterized as cultural facility, located in a valuable real state property,
rented by the City Hall. Its new use, as a creative facility; the business
management model; and the building regeneration were the result of Palo
Alto Foundation’s work.
On July 17th, 2003, the approval of the Pla de Millora Urbana per l’ordenació
de l'àmbit de la unitat d'actuació n.4 del PERI del Front Marítim del Poblenou,
keeps the Fluvià Street crossing through the Palo Alto complex, with the key 5
of the Metropolitan Urban Normative. The 1993 MPGM paradox remained:
the building’s heritage level did not include the protection of the entire
complex, which would be threatened by the street crossing. The land located
on both sides of the extension of this route had the facility qualification (7b),
with one of the buildings being particularly affected.
This problem was overcome by including the complex on the Modificació del
Pla del Special Patrimoni Arquitectònic Historicoartístic de la Ciutat de
Barcelona. Districte de Sant Martí. Patrimoni Industrial del Poblenou, 2006,
marked as element 113. The High Protection Level (B) awarded to most of the
buildings of the old Gal i Puigsech factory, as well as its chimney, elevated
Palo Alto to become one of the eight elements with the highest level of
protection in this district, considered as Local Interest Cultural Heritage6.
These heritage elements, together with Palo Alto’s creative business, are
decisive to its public space configuration: both rendering forms of cultural
relevance to this industrial complex.
Such heritage value categorization limited the interventions on these
catalogued elements. It determined the original volume and chimney to be
6 The other seven factories are: Productos Frigo, S.A.; La Escocesa; Can Gili Nou;
Industrias Waldes; Vicent Illa, S.A., Ca l’Illa; and Can Ricart.

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kept; it also specified the façades restoration, by eliminating elements later
added (as air conditioners). It also promotes the recovery of the original
architectural elements, textures and colours; highlights the respect for the
spatial structure defined by the enclosure, to facilitate the reading of the
original spaces; and points to the restoration and valorisation of the most
relevant original structures, visible from the inside. This protection level
defines that any intervention on the complex must value all its historical
processes (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2006). To the D protection level
element, the plan accepts its destruction – as long as it is preceded by an
historical memory survey, with a comprehensive photographic and
planimetric collection.
In 2010, the Modificació del Pla Especial de protecció del Patrimoni
Arquitectònic Històricartístic de la Ciutat de Barcelona. Districte de Sant
Martí, introduced new elements on Sant Martí’s heritage catalogue. A
housing front, located in Pellaires Street, on the opposite side of Palo Alto,
(Fig.7) must be highlighted. In 2010, it acquired the C Protection Level, after
previously being merely mentioned in the 2006 edition. This level of
protection resulted on the rehabilitation of its buildings, and positively
contributed to the valorisation of Palo Alto’s surroundings.
Fig.7. Listed residential front in Pellaires Street. Fig.8. Palo Alto outside view.
The 2010 Modificació del Pla Special protecció del Patrimoni Arquitectònic
Històricartístic de la Ciutat de Barcelona. Districte de Sant Martí was
accompanied by another plan: the Modificació puntual del PGM en l'Ambit
del Casc Antic del Poblenou (MPPGM), adopted on November 3rd, 2010,
concerning the protection and urban regeneration of the old Poblenou
centre. This plan emphasised the importance of the area where Palo Alto is
located, and regards its buildings with special interest, by considering their
contribution to Poblenou’s urban landscape with identity and value,
conveying essential features of its historical development process.

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This MPPGM resulted from a popular petition, asking for a protection plan for
this Poblenou’s historical area. Until 2010, this area’s regulation was the 1976
PGM; it remained excluded from the 22@ project. However, the strong real
estate pressure driven by the 22@ impacted this territory, especially in the
axis of Maria Aguiló and Taulat Streets. In 2004, the neighbour’s association
achieved that the district’s Councilman, Francesc Narváez, organized a
studying committee for this issue. This committee was composed by the
neighbour’s associations, by the Grup Patrimoni del Fòrum Ribera del Besòs
and by 22@ representatives. As a starting point, they based themselves on a
previously study done in this area by architect Sebastià Jornet, from the
architecture faculty ETSAB (AA.VV., 2004).
Fig.9. Palo Alto heritage protection levels,
according to the Modificació del Pla
Especial del Patrimoni Arquitectònic
Historicoartístic de la Ciutat de Barcelona.
Districte de Sant Martí, 2010..
Fig.10.
Modificació puntual del PGM en l'Ambit del
Casc Antic del Poblenou
, with highlights to Palo
Alto and to the buildings front from Pellaires
Street, connecting the area
to Poblenou’s historical
centre
Palo Alto’s aggregation resulted from the valorisation of different heritage
elements: the factory building and the facades located in front of its
entrance; the morphology of Pellaires Street and its continuity, the Carrer de
Tortellà, which maintains an old agricultural route. The relevance of these
elements, key testimony moments in Poblenou’s history, were considered as
contributing to the richness and diversity of the urban landscape of this
neighbourhood, marking their identity. Despite this integration of Palo Alto in
the 22@, in normative terms, the productive activities of this enclosure
remained classified with the 7(b) key. Thus, corresponding to the Article 211
of the 1976 PGM rules, of new creation and equipment of municipal interest,
and not the 7@ key, which corresponds to innovative productive activities,
under the rules of the 22@ MPGM, approved in 2000.

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Currently, Palo Alto hosts the following activities:
Seventeen companies,
studios and creative
scope enclosures
Architecture and Interiors: Fernando Salas Studio, Alex Gasca,
ADD + Architecture
Audiovisual, communication design and events: Moreradesign,
Sans Visual Studio, Puresang, Playoffvision, Pasarela, Estudio
Mariscal
Jewelry Design: Duch Claramunt
Photography: Jordi Bernadó
Artists: Víctor Pérez-Porro, Medina Campeny
Education and Training Brother Escuela Creativos
Two multipurpose
spaces
Room XYZ, Escoleta
A restaurant La Cantina
Fig.11. 22@ ordination, July 2012. Palo Alto enclosure is noted in the plan, connected by the 2010
Modificació puntual del PGM en l'Ambit del Casc Antic del Poblenou.
Maintaining the business typology of small and medium enterprises, as well
as the cultural activity sector, Palo Alto adapted itself to the global
competitive market, by becoming a centre of innovation and creativity. For
these reasons, it has become a reference in the city, especially for:
- The quality of its business environment, directed to the creative sector,

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integrating relevant companies in the arts and design;
- Being considered a success for the conversion of an old factory in an
area of new productive uses, linked to innovation and culture (Tatjer
et al, 2005; Ajuntament of Barcelona, 2010a).
Therefore, the approval of the plan Modificació puntual del PGM en l'Ambit
del Casc Antic del Poblenou meant the inclusion of Palo Alto within the recent
changes of Poblenou’s territory alongside the 22@ project, through its
heritage perceived value. Palo Alto becomes integrated in a wider territorial
and economic transformation: in terms of the inclusion of their productive
activity in the new Barcelona‘s strategic, economic and industrial orientation
- in the context of a globalized economy and of competitiveness between
cities.
Palo Alto’s heritage and public space
Palo Alto’s integration in Poblenou’s territorial scope through the 2010
MPPGM also acknowledges part of the complex as a public space,
acknowledging its use for the enjoyment of the neighbours. This category
enhances Palo Alto’s inclusion in the new urban design processes
implemented in Poblenou’s territory, such as the 22@ project: articulating
mixed uses in this industrial enclosure, and giving coherence to its physical
territory through the use of flexible typologies, harmonizing its background -
agricultural, manufacturing, and the Cerdà plot - with the current needs.
This old factory complex is currently regulated on two levels: the Modificació
del Pla Special Protecció del Patrimoni Arquitectònic Historic artístic de la
Ciutat de Barcelona. Districte de Sant Martí (2010), which limits the
intervention of its heritage; and the Pla de Millora Urbana dels sols
d’equipament i zona verda del recinte industrial de “Palo Alto” i entorn, i
definició dels parametres edificatoris de l’equipament d’escola bressol
municipal situat al carrer Pellaires nº28, from 2010. This Pla de Millora
Urbana (PMU) does not define any kind of intervention on the buildings. Its
scope in Palo Alto is restricted to the reorganization of its open space, making
a clear separation between areas of public use (6b) and private areas (7b).
The intervention on the built heritage focused on the recovery of the two
walls and the chimney; and forecasts the reconfiguration of one of the
enclosed areas, opening the passage that would allow permeability between
Pellaires Street and Passeig Taulat, as promoting the morphological
continuity of Carrer Fluvià.
This territorial intervention of the urban improvement plan approved in
September 2010, had a scope limited by the heritage protection level of Palo
Alto: the regeneration project had to be assessed by the Comissió de

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Patrimoni Industrial. After its approval, the project established two main
objectives:
- Specify the location of the uses in Palo Alto venue: facility 7b (p) and
the green zone 6b (p). It extends the public use to the complex
interior area (which hitherto enjoyed an exclusive private use), while
maintaining its unique character bestowed by the complex heritage
scope and its cultural and creative uses. It solves the prolongation of
Fluvià Street, projecting a new pedestrian passage between Pellaires
and Passeig Taulat. Other relevant items of this plan are the structure
of the public areas, by arranging and organizing them (green areas
and accesses).
- Set the parameters for the creation of a neighbourhood nursery school,
located on Pellaires Street, 28.
The land areas affected by the plan – located between Pellaires, Ferrers,
Taulat and Bac de Roda Streets were public property and available for
intervention.
Fig.12 and 13. Palo Alto before and after the 2010 Pla de Millora Urbana
Of the previous Palo Alto’s 1.600.000m2 open access 6b/7b areas, this plan
increases it to 2.887.30m2 (p.10). This green area gain results from the
adjustment of its limitation, due to the incorporation of areas previously
classified as vials (the continuity of Fluvià Street). Since dealing with a
protected building, the proposed urbanization of this public space was
detailed and focused on the following aspects:
- Retrieve the area located inside the complex walls to public use. This
transformation would be performed with the vegetation and trees
maintenance, and the significant reduction of parking space;
- Rehabilitation of the surrounding wall and of the chimney;

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- Restoration of the wall area, near the new built school, allowing the
visual permeability with the interior of Palo Alto enclosure. It also
aimed to aesthetically improve the ground floor of the buildings,
increasing the vegetation.
In defining the facilities areas, this plan includes the buildings of Palo Alto’s
industrial warehouses - 7b (p), as well as the two access zones to some of its
buildings.
Public space is a distinctive characteristic of Palo Alto’s enclosure, albeit its
public access is restricted to the opening hours of its corporations, during the
weekdays, and to private acts. The enclosure’s space consists of four areas,
which are divided into two zones as one enters the complex. On the left,
there is a street layout, visually marked by a set of palm trees and the
chimney, which dominates the space. This street layout belongs to the public
realm. It also allows the direct access to two buildings, and distributes two
"corridors" that allow access to three other blocks.
Fig.14. Building regulation limited by Palo Alto elements, at the 2010 PMU
In Carrer Fluvià continuity area, there is car parking, followed by a green area.
This is characterized by a small vegetable garden; by a living area, home to an
informal terrace; and a green area, where there should be an open access to
the Passeig Taulat, according to the 2010 Pla de Millora Urbana, allowing
enclosure crossing. By not implementing this, this space exists as a kind of

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residual "pocket". In addition to the inconsistency of these different areas of
public space, there is also a spatial disorganization, mixing street furniture
elements (such as the case of banks used by the municipality, the Escofet)
with furniture elements of the private sector (chairs and tables garden, vases,
etc.).
This “pocket” area is regularly used by Palo Alto Market. This weekend event
started in December 2014, proposing with a street market-sophisticated
style, the prolongation of the privatization of its public space, by limiting the
access with an admission price. Other activities led by Palo Alto’s enterprises
also use the outer area of the enclosure.
Palo Alto’s heritage valorisation impacts its surroundings as an aesthetic,
historic and identity mark of Poblenou’s industrial past; and it also
determined the new buildings. The pre-primary school project preserves Palo
Alto’s wall, and limits new constructions to four meters high.
This plan incorporates objectives from Agenda 21, regarding sustainable
development, such as: the reduction of residues, due to reusing the buildings;
the green area increase and the positive impact on the neighbour’s life, due
to the availability of this public space. The plan also states the mobility and
permeability improvement, by the connection between the complex and its
surroundings. These last two points are contradicted by direct observation,
led in this investigation between 2012 and 2015. Palo Alto’s green area is
mostly used by its tenants and workers, restaurant consumers, and
occasional outside visitors (for events and as tourists). The neighbours green
area needs seem to be mostly fulfilled by the Remedios Varo gardens built in
the surrounding area. This lack of usability is aligned with the connection
deficiency between Palo Alto complex and its exterior: there is only one
entrance to the complex. Until today, the pedestrian passage to Passeig
Taulat is yet to be opened.
Regarding the citizen participation in this project, this plan states two
sessions were held with representatives from a neighbour’s association
(Associació de Veïns de Front Marítim). Their participation seems to have
been limited to the City Hall’s adoption of a few of the citizens’ inputs
regarding the proposal

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Fig.15. Urbanization criteria from the 2010 Pla de Millora Urbana, with highlights to the new access and
conceded permeability proposed with Passeig Taulat
In the scope of this paper, of the seven urbanization aspects defined by this
2010 Pla de Millora Urbana for this public space design, the highlights are:
- Maintenance of the two main distinguishing aspects of Palo Alto: its
heritage and its vegetation. On the industrial heritage front, the
factory chimney and the wall recovery are especially relevant.
Regarding the urban green, the initial preservation of the arborisation
developed over the years by José Farriol (Universitat de Barcelona,
2013), and the expansion of the green area, in the continuity of Fluvià
Street. The combination of these two elements seemed essential to
characterize this complex, as a quiet, almost rural environment. The
vegetation is diverse, covering a large part of the facades of buildings
in this old factory. On the other hand, the vegetation is an essential
element for establishing distinguished environments in the precinct:
on the 6b area (Fluvià Street prolongation), the environment, green
and with a fishpond, - is distinguished from the access to the
warehouses area, which culminates in the chimney dominant
element;
-Creation of two pedestrian private circulation spaces, on the
warehouses access (Fig.13). These circulation areas are within the zones

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previously designated as public spaces, now qualified as facilities;
-Opening of a new Palo Alto access, on the wall located on Passeig
Taulat. Functionally, this would permit a new pedestrian access and
route through the enclosure, in the public use area designated as 6b(p).
Morphologically, this crossing allowed a subtle continuity of Fluvià
Street.
Figs.16, 17. Palo Alto’s wall to Passeig Taulat view, from the street and from the enclosure.
However, the observation on the territory performed between 2012 and
2015, reveals another reality:
- The walls recovery was accompanied by the preservation of some of
the vegetation. Some carelessness should be highlighted in handling
the green area located at the zone 6b (p) centre. Following the main
access to Palo Alto, and after the car parking area, some confusion is
observed in the elements that make up this public use space. There is
a lack of ordination and coherence in the overall design. Vegetation is
disordered, and street furniture coexists with private garden benches.
It goes beyond the "bohemian artist" spirit, being converted into a
spatial disorder lacking qualities of a good public space. It also should
be noted the existence of a private, fenced vegetable garden in this
public space. The vegetable elements that work best were those
relating to the facades overlay, giving a sense of coherence, pleasant,
care, and rural-industrial paradox with positively resulted in a
distinctive image of this laisser-faire area. It is patent a sense of
growing abandonment in the public space.
- The creation of private circulation spaces, for the access to the
warehouses, has not been established by built barriers, as planned.
For the uninformed citizen, this means mingle of private and public
spaces, albeit defined by the plan as 7b.

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- The lack of the opening access to Passeig Taulat on Palo Alto’s
enclosure. On this sector, the wall was intervened, with a metallic
reconstruction (Fig.16); but no gate is to be seen. Not opening this
access means that the space inside the enclosure was not
transformed into crossing and access, as originally planned. The use of
this space seems to be private, with an undefined character.
Morphologically, there isn’t the expected continuity of Fluvià Street.
The quality of this public space states disorganization, making it
uninviting for public use and enjoyment.
Palo Alto’s is a special case within the set of public spaces resulting from
industrial transformation processes of urban regeneration. Despite being
property of Barcelona’s City Hall, the successive postponement of planning
regarding this enclosure, together with the extended rental of the building to
Palo Alto companies led to a gradual appropriation of this public space for
their business environment. Thus, one of the most characteristic elements of
this space - the vegetation - was due to a progressive landscaping, by José
Farriol ("Pepichek Farriol"), possibly dating from the beginning of the
Fundació Palo Alto in 1997. The fact that in 2010 there was a Pla de Millora
Urbana approved did not interfere yet with the configuration and distribution
of this territory; therefore, it sadly keeps most of the above characteristics of
a private enterprise.
Fig.18. One of Palo Alto’s characteristic buildings, covered with vegetation
Fig. 19. Palo Alto’s public space, in the garden area. The distinctive chimneys
of Palo Alto (on the left) and Torre de les Aigues, from Can Girona factory
(on the right).

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CONCLUSIONS
Barcelona’s economic shift into an innovative, global competitive city of the
last decades has a parallel in Palo Alto’s recent transformations. In this
complex, its symbolic features - heritage and creative cluster - are exhaled
and promoted as highly positive. These qualities are linked to Poblenou’s
wider urban regeneration processes, where its industrial past is cleaned up
and turned into a refurbished, smart city image of sustainable economical
production. Creativity and technology are now the liberating, problem-solving
driving force of the city’s economy, and, finally, the re-interpretation and
reconversion of its past into new valuable symbolic attributes, which add
differentiation to the city’s landscape and allow the multiplication of the real
state value.
Nevertheless, along with the economic and strictly physical territorial
transformations, the social impact of these changes is not fully engaged. As
this paper explores, the economic, symbolic and physical transformations led
in Palo Alto’s complex do not conform with the patterns designed by the City
Hall’s plan of making its public space more accessible to the public. Although
the limited access to the enclosure, due to its working hours, seems to be
inevitable (and, due to its characteristics, even positive), the fact is that the
non completion of the 2010 PMU plan design – with the walking passage of
the precinct from Pellaires Street to Passeig Taulat - deeply constricts this
territory, both socially and morphologically.
Other ignored aspects of this plan, such as the parking lot organization, and
even aspects not defined on this plan, such as the design of the public green
area of the enclosure, add to the allowance of privatization of this valuable
public space. The Palo Alto’s enterprises’ desired “oasis in the city” metaphor
remains. It marks a public space of exclusion, allowed for the chosen ones.
Such exclusive tone is underlined by the recent entrance-fee activities related
to art and design related commerce and to the exaltation of a bohemian,
selective lifestyle.
The public life of the historical, symbolic heritage values of Palo Alto’s
enclosure – its buildings, the public art element of its chimney, the enclosure
green area itself – would add a positive and enriching experience to the
citizens. The limiting enjoyment opportunities currently offered do not
conform to the City Hall’s purposes of diversity and social representation -
namely, stated at Agenda 21. The lack of design of this public space, with a
balanced distribution of its elements and their integration in the city and
neighbourhood’s landscape patterns is a much-needed work. Such project
would highly contribute to the attraction and vividly citizen’s life of this public
space.
There is room for a proper civic re-accommodation of Palo Alto’s industrial
past. The buildings reconversion into new creative industries would be

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enriched if the representation of the new global, sustainable, innovative
knowledge economy would integrate positive social values, such as diversity,
inclusion, participation, dialogue, compromise. If it is a public space, there is a
need of neighbourhood and of citizenship in Palo Alto, for its public space to
be truly considered as public. The current state of this closed enclosure is
segregation, upper-hype class exclusiveness and social homogenization.
Social identity processes allowed by its heritage vocation and by its public art
should be further encouraged as part of Barcelona’s public space.
This fragmentation between intentional project and real implementation
leads to the limitation of Palo Alto’s relevance in the city. Its consideration as
a heritage and business-reconversion hallmark could be further extended to
encouraging and including in its public space the citizens. This social input
would align and enrich the city’s landscape most valuable goods: its people.
There are infinite possibilities of encouraging and enlisting the citizens not as
mere spectators or users into the city’s new innovative, cultural-led public
spaces. Stabilized, operative structures, such as Palo Alto, could reframe the
possibilities for this to happen, and be a constructive guide to future projects
of industrial reconversion, related to heritage, new innovative uses, and the
creation of new public spaces, such as the case of Can Ricart.
If public space is seen as a structural element for the city, both as functional,
symbolic and economic terms, then it should encompass the concretization
of the 2010 Pla de Millora Urbana. It should also go further, into a proper
design of the space, with the physical, symbolic and social integration into its
surroundings. This current lack raises relevant questions about social and
cultural policies and how they represent the city’s current purposes.
Independently from which label Barcelona uses to project itself into the
future, a clear definition of its core social values and the method for their
appliance is essential to the city’s successful changes. This constitutes a
constant challenge - permanently negotiated, adapted, and reconsidered.
Thus, invocating the need of the firmly stated, non-negotiated structural
values. That needs to be the basis of city policies and, therefore, of urban
regeneration processes.
The historical, morphological and heritage anchors defining Palo Alto’s
intervention are insufficient to constitute an added value in its full sense:
social, symbolic, economic. The economic priority, together with the
aesthetic quality of its renewal generates a distinguished, incoherent space,
insufficient in its substance. Both in the history of Barcelona’s cultural and
territorial policies more fulfilling examples of articulation possibilities
between culture-territory-economy can be found, which engage deeply in its
social dimensions.
Palo Alto’s contribution to the city has, nonetheless, positive traits. It is a
good example of how a non-organized group of people can rescue, reform
and adapt to new functions old industrial buildings, and transform an old

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factory into a beautiful heritage site. The successful recovery from such a
degraded site also positively impacted its surrounding area, and serves as a
model on how private, corporate initiative can ignite territorial valorisation
(both as real state profit and as physical improvement). Thus, values
developed by Remesar (2005a) in his methodology of public space analysis,
such as:
1, Identity, by the distinction and valorisation of its heritage,
2, Adaptability, by its flexibility in receiving new economic functions,
3, and sustainability, by the public space’s ability to promote new
economic, symbolic and social values,
Are stated as positive.
The cultural value of Palo Alto’s enterprise contributed to the development of
urban regeneration processes, and its adaptation to the cultural field evolving
changes had positive economic results.
Finally, in Barcelona and in the 22@ project itself, there seems to be a shift in
the marketing label. If Barcelona was previously marketed as a “creative city”,
recently it seems to be more related to the “smart city” brand. The evolving
interest in information technologies applied to the urban territory and its
citizens conducted the iCapital, European Capital of Innovation Award, in
2014 (European Commission, 2014). Perhaps such scenario is also possible in
Palo Alto, where some of its companies (such as Mariscal’s studio) faced
financial problems in recent years. No matter the challenges the future holds
nor the re-branding used, the city’s urban policies should be perceived as a
whole: economy and social policies should not be separated, nor disregard
the deeply rooted and acknowledged public space needs.
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Image credits:
Fig.1. Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona (2012). El pla 22@ Barcelona. Un programa
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patrimoni arquitectònic històricartístic de la ciutat de Barcelona, districte de Sant
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entorn, i definició dels paràmetres edificatoris de l’equipament d’escola bressol
municipal situat al carrer Pellaires nº 28. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona
Fig.14. Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona (2010). Pla de Millora Urbana per la
concreció dels sols d’equipament i zona verda del recinte industrial de “Palo Alto” i
entorn, i definició dels paràmetres edificatoris de l’equipament d’escola bressol
municipal situat al carrer Pellaires nº 28. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona
Fig.15. Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona (2010). Pla de Millora Urbana per la
concreció dels sols d’equipament i zona verda del recinte industrial de “Palo Alto” i
entorn, i definició dels paràmetres edificatoris de l’equipament d’escola bressol
municipal situat al carrer Pellaires nº 28. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona
Figs.16, 17. Source: author’s archive, 2012
Fig.18. Source: author’s archive, 2012
Fig. 19. Source: author’s archive, 2012

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper was made possible through the grant SFRH/BD/43225/2008, awarded by
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), with the POPH/FSE support. Such
made possible the conduction of the PhD thesis “Creative Cities”: o papel da cultura nos
processos de transformação urbana (University of Barcelona, 2014), from which this paper
was based. The author extends her gratitude to Dr. Antoni Remesar Betlloch and to Dra.
Joana Cunha Leal, who as PhD directors offered valuable guidance and advice.