The Barcelona City Council has approved a €52 million redevelopment plan for the historic La Escocesa complex in Poblenou, turning the former industrial site into a centre for housing and culture, with a focus on social inclusion. Mayor Jaume Collboni announced that the city will provide half the funding. Public and private entities, including cooperatives and foundations, will cover the rest. The 11,500-square-metre property has stood largely unused since the city acquired it in 2017.
La Escocesa sits on Pere IV Street in the 22@ Nord district and currently houses an artistic creation centre. The new plan will rehabilitate the site for residential units and cultural venues, along with employment and training centres and research facilities focused on food new idea. The city expects the redevelopment to generate up to 500 jobs, directly and indirectly, as activities take root in the area.
Project partners include Mercabarna and the Generalitat, alongside the Ampans Foundation, which supports people with disabilities. Private investors can receive long-term concessions of up to 40 years at rates well below market prices for the district. The Johnston and Foseco buildings will remain spaces for artistic creation and residency, keeping their current community of 30 resident artists and 40 members who use shared facilities. The Steegmann Birkhead and Paul buildings, meanwhile, will become an inclusion centre managed by Ampans. It will offer 72 housing units for people with disabilities, employment programmes, and an inclusive art centre.
The Klein building is slated to house the social and solidarity economy, with a focus on the ecological transition. The Shield building will become home to the Barcelona Foodlab, which will focus on agri-food technology new idea. Deputy Mayor Raquel Gil pointed to the project's mix of public and private investment, saying participating entities must contribute to both the viability and rehabilitation of their respective projects.
La Escocesa's industrial history stretches back decades: it produced textiles and chemicals until the 1980s, then operated as a worker cooperative until the late 1990s. Pressure from the local community helped preserve the site before the city bought it. Like many industrial spaces in Poblenou, it faced illegal occupation in recent decades. The city removed the last squatters in October of the previous year.
The redevelopment is seen as a basic step in revitalising the less-developed northern section of the 22@ technology district, where several new office buildings remain under-occupied. The project is expected to offer a model for socially oriented urban development in Barcelona, as former industrial areas see more mixed-use regeneration. Public records show that the city's approach fits ongoing efforts to pair economic growth with social inclusion and affordable housing in rapidly changing urban districts.
