The Port Olímpic takes a new direction

A new window to the sea and boating sports. Barcelona's Port Olímpic was built in 1990 to host the 1992 Olympic Games' sailing competitions. The architects Oriol Bohigas, Josep Martorell, David Mackay and Albert Puigdomènech envisaged a facility worthy of the city's high ambitions.

The Port Olímpic was designed to be integrated into Barcelona's new maritime profile. Surrounded by two of the city's most important urban beaches, Somorrostro and Nova Icària, it faces the Olympic Village, today a dynamic residential neighbourhood, and is delimited by some of 1990s Barcelona's architectural icons: the Torre Mapfre, the Hotel Arts and the sinuous profile of Frank Gehry's statue.

Since April 2020, Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) has been tacling the exciting challenge commissioned to it by Barcelona City Council: to transform the Port Olímpic into a space dedicated to city residents. A revamped area where the blue economy, boating, food and the sea will become the heart of economic and social activity.

 

Mapa transformació del Port Olímpic

The Port Olímpic is going in this direction, and with a clear horizon: the America's Cup. In anticipation of this important event to be held in Barcelona in 2024, work is gathering momentum to turn the Port into a new link between the daily life of the city and the sea.

The generation of quality public space with wide promenades and rest areas right next to the Mediterranean Sea, the reconnection of the Port Olímpic with the environment and sea-linked economic revitalisation are the main features shaping this new path.

Four strategic areas for a new Port Olímpic

During this new stage, the aim is to make the Port Olímpic an open space for Barcelona residents, the activity of which can be categorised into four broad areas:

Els 5 eixos estratègics de la transformació del Port Olímpic

CITY SPACE

An open port in Barcelona for enjoying, working in, doing sport in and experiencing the sea; a space connected to the city's everyday life and dynamism.

BLUE ECONOMY

A new innovation hub generating economic activity and quality jobs that is linked to the sea and environmental sustainability.

BOATING

A port for popularising boating and promoting sport and for everyone to enjoy.

FOOD

The launch of a new area for restaurants and bars, with a quality and varied culinary range that is a representative sample of the city's best food.

Cross-cutting these four strategic areas for reclaiming the Port Olímpic are sustainability cristeria. To this effect, the Port is being transformed under an integrated management model geared to improving the quality of life of city residents, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and with a firm determination to become a benchmark in environmental management.

A port open to city residents

Nou accés que connectarà el Port Olímpic amb el barri de la Vila Olímpica

The Port Olímpic aspires to become a new social and family meeting point by the sea, connected to the city's dynamic nature. One of the initiatives being implemented to this end is the new access point being built to link Av. Litoral to Moll de Mestral wharf. This new entrance point, designed for both pedestrians and vehicles, will guarantee the open access of the space, removing barriers and levelling out uneven ground to generate continuity with the Olympic Village neighbourhood and make the Port friendlier for local residents.

The new avenue will end at Moll de Mestral wharf where, thanks to the removal of the terraces of the former nightspots, a large, 10,000m2 square will be created with promenades and shade.

Dic de Recer, centre d'economia blava de Barcelona

Meanwhile, Moll de Gregal wharf, the area where the new restaurants and bars are to be concentrated, will also be opened up to Nova Icària Beach. This will be achieved via a new entrance, which will further strengthen the dialogue between port activity, the coast and the city, and enable city residents to comfortably access the future Gastronomic Balcony, which is planned as a promenade with viewpoints and resting areas inviting visitors to sit there and relax.

At the same time, the Dic de Recer breakwater is to be turned into a large viewpoint looking out to sea, which is fully accessible from Passeig Marítim and integrated into the urban fabric. The upper part is in store for a complete revamp, hich will invite a re-association with the Mediterranean. In keeping with the aim of facilitating the city's relationship with the Port, it will incorporate two sets of steps to communicate the promenade area.

The city's first blue economy centre

Nou pol d'economia blava al Port Olímpic

The Port Olímpic will pay a determining role in the city's economic revival. Hence, its conversion into a new hub for blue economy businesses, a sector that harmonises economic and social development and marine-ecosystem conservation.

This new model will lead to a daily, sustainable and innovative productive activity 365 days a year and make the Port Olímpic the city's first economic-activity centre connected to the sea, specialising in four major sectoral areas: recreational, training and promotional boating activities; boating services; innovation and technology; and the circular economy.

The focal point of the project is the Mestral Wharf. The former nightspots are being turnet into a business and entrepreneurship hub, with a surface area of 2,600 m2.

Besides accommodating the headquarters of as many as twenty businesses, it will also have common-use spaces at its disposal, including a functions room with seating for 150 people that will be available to any port facility user, city residents and the business network for carrying out activities.

The Port Olímpic's new spaces intended for the blue economy will be completed with 2,638 m2 located below the Breakwater Wharf. A further 31 premises for business activity and 70 public granaries, which will also be renovated, will be located here.

The Port Olímpic's blue economy centre will also include the Marina Wharf. The latter area, which is already up and running, accommodates a total of 17 boating activity and service premises.

 

Economia blava al Moll de Mestral

Breathing new life into boating activities

One of the strategic areas of this transformation project is to breathe new life into boating and make this activity accessible to city residents. In a preliminary phase, the Port Olímpic has carried out several tasks geared towards updating the maritime infrastructures and thereby helping improve services.

Nou botaones Port Olímpic

The most significant project has been the reinforcement of the breakwater, which has helped to make the Port Olímpic safer vis-à-vis the phenomenon of extreme weather conditions during storms.

At the same time, several tasks have been planned and implemented, which will have a direct impact on users' experiences.

One such example is the redevelopment of the pontoons and the improvements made to the anchoring train.

The moorings have also been re-arranged and extended, and the fleet reorganised to make more space for each vessel.

The updating of the facilities is being combined with a strategy for boosting boating activity to make it more accessible to all city residents.

Among other measures, the Port Olímpic is offering a competitive-pricing policy to encourage the ownershop of environmentally friendly vessels and shared tenders.

The latter is in line with the strategy for reducing vehicle ownership and pollution, while promoting equal opportunities.

alquiler-amarre
El nou Centre Municipal de Vela de Barcelona

Simultaneously, a comprehensive redevelopment of the Municipal Sailing Centre is being carried under efficiency, sustainability and accessibility criteria.

The goal is to have a cutting-edge space available from which to increase the range of services on offer and encourage people, and especially young people, to train in and take part in boating sports.

What is more, the new building will also have a multi-purpose room, designed to host promotional activities of all kinds.

The Port Olímpic aims to act as a catalyst for the activities and proposals of stakeholders present at the facilities, generating synergies and fostering shared initiatives that will help promote the space as a setting for regattas and other marine-promotion activities.

Furthermore, the Port Olímpic will play a key role in the 2024 America's Cup. It will host the Youth and Women's regattas, where the Women's Regatta is taking place for the first time in this significant nautical event.

 

Regata 4 clubs Barcelona

The Port Olímpic's Gastronomic Balcony, the city's new culinary benchmark

El Balcó Gastronòmic del Port Olímpic

Quality, diverse cuisine with the Barcelona touch in an unbeatable setting. These are the main features that will define the Gastronomic Balcony, a restaurant space that will be premiered by the Port Olímpic at the Gregal Wharf during the America's Cup in the summer of 2024.

Eleven restaurants and three gourmet spaces will make the Port Olímpic a new benchmark for gastronomy in the city, creating a unique restaurant hub open to the people of Barcelona and designed as a way of reconnecting with the sea.

 

A port committed to sustainability and marine ecosystems

Sustainability is the cross-cutting principle that directs the various areas of transformation of the Port Olímpic, which aspires to be a benchmark in environmental management.

One of the most exemplary projects is the one that has used the reinforcement of the Breakwater to create a bio-regeneration reef.

The project, which is being carried out in several stages in collaboration with Barcelona Zoo, is a pioneering initiative: for the first time, a maritime feat of engineering will enable the surrounding sea floors to be reclaimed.

The aim is to foster increased biological diversity in the area, boost the most productive natural systems, improve the quality of water and raise awareness among city residents of the need to preserve marine ecosystems.

Esculls de bioregeneració

Work is also being carried out to reduce the ecological footprint of the Port Olímpic's daily activity, via measures such as waste and grey water management.

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