Barcelona revives long-stalled Glòries project with 120 public flats and community facilities
After 25 years, Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni and the Zona Franca consortium sign a protocol to finance the reimagined Torre Ona, swapping a single tower for multiple buildings with 120 rental flats, offices, and neighbourhood facilities.
Financing first, then design
Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni and the president of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), Pere Navarro, have signed a protocol to unblock a stalled plot at Glòries, near the Torre Glòries (formerly Agbar) on Avinguda Diagonal. The original Torre Ona project, conceived around 2000 as a 72-metre tower, never moved past early models. The new approach deliberately locks in funding before any architectural competition is launched, a sequence the city says it failed to follow in past announcements.
We didn’t want to again announce projects that have been under debate in the neighbourhood and the city for years without having their financing secured.
The CZFB will cover the estimated €90 million construction cost, with the city repaying the consortium over time. The arrangement avoids pulling the sum from Barcelona’s annual budget, already above €4,000 million. “The mayor always presses us, and that’s what he must do,” joked Navarro during the presentation.
From single tower to multi-purpose complex
The 5,600 square-metre plot will house a minimum built area of 35,000 square metres. The breakdown allocates 10,000 square metres to protected rental housing (120 flats), 20,000 square metres to public offices, and 5,000 square metres to community facilities. Collboni stressed there will be more than one building, with separate volumes for each use, moving away from the original single-tower design.
It will be useful and architecturally singular.
The detailed form will be decided through an international architecture competition that the CZFB plans to call in autumn 2026.
Timeline after a quarter-century wait
The protocol signed on 12 June 2026 sets out the following sequence: the public tender for architectural design will open this autumn; contract award and drafting of executive projects are scheduled for 2027; construction is expected to begin between the end of 2028 and the start of 2029, with priority given to the social housing component.
- Collboni and Navarro sign protocol; Zona Franca pledges €90 million
- International architecture competition launched
- Executive project documents completed
- Construction scheduled to begin, with priority for the social housing block
Neighbourhood gains
The community facilities will serve the nearby Clot and Camp de l’Arpa districts. The current proposal includes a library, a sports centre, and an auditorium, though the final mix will be defined in consultation with local residents and associations. The mayor framed the project as adding everyday life to an area that already functions as a new urban hub around the Glòries square, echoing planner Ignasi de Solà-Morales’s idea that urban fabric makes a place a centre.
