Poblenou

From mills to lofts

Poblenou was Barcelona’s industrial quarter for most of the nineteenth century. Textile mills, foundries and distilleries filled the flat land between the old city and the river Besòs, and their brick chimneys still mark the skyline. When the factories moved out, the buildings stayed. Many are now lofts with cast-iron columns, brick walls and windows taller than a person.

Since 2000 the 22@ plan has brought offices, design studios and university buildings into the old blocks. New flats stand beside two-storey workers’ houses, and the mix is still uneven, which is much of the appeal. Our own Barcelona office is here, in a former workshop on Carrer de Pujades.

The light

The streets follow the same Cerdà grid as the Eixample, but the buildings are lower and many blocks are still half open. Sun reaches ground floors that would be in shade a few kilometres inland. Former factories have deep floor plans, so we always measure how far the light gets into a loft, not only whether it arrives. Where the old saw-tooth roofs survive, they give an even north light that painters and photographers still look for.

Near the sea a breeze comes in after midday from May to September. West-facing terraces here are easier to use on a summer evening than the same terraces in the centre.

Streets to know

Rambla del Poblenou runs from the sea up to Diagonal and is the neighbourhood’s main street, shaded by plane trees and lined with bakeries, bars and old family shops. Carrer de Pujades and Carrer de Pallars are quieter and hold the best converted buildings. Parc del Centre del Poblenou, by Jean Nouvel, is a walled park of shade trees and bougainvillea a few blocks inland.

Prices vary more here than anywhere else we work. A loft in a converted factory and a flat in a 1970s block on the same street can differ by a third per square metre, so we price each home on what has sold within two streets of it, not on the neighbourhood average.