• The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology will host a hub of interdisciplinary research in the new space, focused on Precision Medicine
• BIST intends for the building, located in the vicinity of the “Ciutadella” and with a budget of € 50M, to become an architectural benchmark for design and environmental sustainability
The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) has opened an international competition to select the team of architects to draft the basic project and the construction project of its new building in the Antic Mercat del Peix complex in the Ciutadella area. This new BIST building will help boost multidisciplinary research at its centres and will be the core of a new hub of knowledge focused on Precision Medicine. The project budget is estimated at 50 million euros.
The BIST building, which will be located in the space of the old Fish Market in Barcelona, will form part of a new research and innovation complex created by the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), BIST, and the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones – CSIC), and will form part of the “Ciutadella del Coneixement” initiative. The Antic Mercat del Peix complex will also house buildings for the UPF and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE-CSIC-UPF), thereby promoting synergies in research on biomedicine, biodiversity, and planetary well-being.
When completed, the new BIST building will become the first tangible piece of the ambitious project of the Ciutadella del Coneixement, the result of the institutional pact signed in April 2019 by the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, the Minister for Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Àngels Chacón, the Rector of the Pompeu Fabra University, Jaume Casals, the President of BIST, Andreu Mas-Colell, and the Vice President of Organization and Institutional Relations of the CSIC, Víctor Velasco. The initiative aims to turn the Parc de la Ciutadella area, located in the heart of Barcelona, into a hub of reference for urban knowledge in southern Europe.
The new BIST building, with about 25,000 square metres spread over several stories, will respond to the needs of cutting-edge research, now and in the future. It is intended to be a reference in architecture as well as in sustainability, utilising the latest technologies to minimise pollution, both acoustic and environmental, and include the sustainable management of water, waste, energy, and the mobility of its occupants.
“We want our building, the largest in the Antic Mercat del Peix complex, to become a singular element, an architectural landmark — in the same way as the Francis Crick Institute in London or the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science in Melbourne – so our neighbours recognise it as a symbol of the excellent science done in Barcelona”, pointed out Gabby Silberman, BIST Director General. “Equally important, the building will enable additional synergies among BIST centres, providing their research groups with the adequate space to promote collaboration and multidisciplinary research.”
The first phase of an international call to select the team that will design the new BIST building will be open until August 7, and the winning team will be announced in January 2021.
In addition to the BIST, UPF and IBE buildings, the Antic Mercat del Peix complex, located on a 7,500 m2 piece of land at the corner of Wellington Street and Icària Avenue, will also have an underground car park to be managed by the public company Barcelona Serveis Municipals (B:SM). The research complex to be developed at the Antic Mercat del Peix is part of the Special Urban Development and Urban Improvement Plan (PEUMU) of the area, which is promoted by the UPF.
More information is available at Mercat del Peix Building page.
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