Baronda Space Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona)

Full steam ahead

La Baronda complex is a project located in Parc dels Torrents, one of the most important urban development projects in the city of Esplugues, where ABAA has been a driver for change alongside the company TAU-ICESA and the local city council.

La Baronda brings together and combines the concept of a public space for exhibitions and meetings and aims to become a new standard as an integral design centre. According to Luis Alonso and Francesc Sibina, directors of ABAA and TAU-ICESA respectively, it in some way wants to manage to “set in the retina of the citizens of Esplugues that image of yesteryear of the factory at full steam”.

La Baronda aims to become a container for activities and multipurpose space that will house everything from the work of the ceramist Angelina Aló to pieces displayed at the Ceramics Biennial, as well as all manner of classrooms, spaces for design and engineering firms, a bar-restaurant and changing rooms for its outdoor swimming pool and sports centre tracks.

A pedestrian walkway with a lift will be built to overcome the unevenness of the site and thereby connect the complex with the city centre in order to complete this overhaul of the Parc dels Torrents area and ensure the viability of the proposed facilities. A solution that focuses on people to make all the elements of the project easily accessible, as well as taking into account users with reduced mobility.

When all is said and done, a full steam ahead city is shaped by those who live there and a full steam ahead centre is shaped by those who visit it.