Spain builds

There’s something fitting about construction workers digging the foundations of a new science hub making an unexpected discovery. Beneath the old fish market in Barcelona, they unearthed the keel of a medieval ship, ten metres long, its curved planks like the ribcage of a fossilised plesiosaurus. Not much is known about the boat, except that it dates from the 15th or 16th century. The Age of Discovery. An auspicious beginning then for a centre of inquiry.

With the sea-faring relic taken away to be preserved, the work proceeds, laying the foundations for the next chapter in Barcelona’s rich history of scientific endeavour.

The Antic Mercat del Peix (Old Fish Market) is poised to become one of the cornerstones of Barcelona’s Ciutadella del Coneixement (Ciutadella knowledge hub), an eye-catching initiative to turn the area around Parc de la Ciutadella into a pioneering centre of science, research, and innovation.

Construction is already underway on three buildings that will make up the 45,000 square metre complex. The largest, 25,000 square metres, will host researchers from the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, creating a hub for biomedical, nanoscience, and photonics research. Architecturally, the building is a lab-cold monument to precise science, machine-cut edges barely softened by the narrow green verges hugging its interior perimeter, its spiral staircase coiled like a shaving of drilled steel.

The second building will house the Research and Innovation Centre for Planetary Wellbeing, a collaborative space for social scientists, humanists, experimental researchers, and innovators tackling the challenges posed by the climate and biodiversity crisis. The third, 6,000-square-metre building will consolidate the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, bringing together research on evolution and biodiversity in one modern facility. Designed in tandem, the two buildings are connected subterraneously, with their ground floors separated by a courtyard or agora. Inside, the timber structure and abundant greenery create an atmosphere reminiscent of a giant treehouse, a space that encourages child-like curiosity and playful collaboration. Fin-like wooden sunshades filter the light, evoking the sails of the vessels — like the one dug up during the site’s excavation — that have long defined Barcelona’s maritime tradition.

Just as the architecture fosters movement and exchange between the research institutes themselves, it also opens pathways between the buildings and the public, blurring the boundary with the surrounding Parc de la Ciutadella and inviting passersby to wander through. The redevelopment will replace asphalt and parking with green spaces, trees, flowerbeds, and seating areas, making it a permeable public space.

The location of the Antic Mercat del Peix is steeped in history, its story entwined with the transformation of the Parc de la Ciutadella for the 1888 Universal Exposition — Barcelona’s first major international event, which, like the fairs held earlier in London and Chicago, sought to showcase the city to the world. While London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 gave rise to the Crystal Palace and Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair introduced the Ferris wheel, Barcelona presented the Gallery of Machines, a display of the most advanced machinery of the late nineteenth century, from steam engines to railway locomotives, housed in a bare-brick building with three naves and an iron roof, embodying the era’s faith in industrial progress and technological innovation.

The exposition also left a legacy of permanent structures that continue to define the park’s character. The Centre Martorell d’Exposicions, inaugurated in 1882, was Barcelona’s first public museum, displaying collections in natural history and archaeology, while the Hivernacle and Umbracle, glass and iron greenhouses built between 1883 and 1887 by Josep Amargós, continue to function as conservatories, showcasing a variety of exotic plants. Finally, the Castell dels Tres Dragons, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and constructed using exposed brick and iron, one of the first buildings in Barcelona to employ this technique, exemplifies the Catalan modernist style. After the exposition, it housed various institutions, including a museum of natural sciences.

When it’s finished in 2028, the Ciutadella del Coneixement will stand as the latest testament to Barcelona’s long history of endeavour: from the Age of Discovery, through the Age of Industry, to the frontiers of modern science.