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The Poblenou district, essentially industrial in its beginnings and that still conserves strong traces of this era, prepares itself to become the technological centre of the city.
The suburb gathers, well, its industrial past and technological future. Here and there one can observe the façades and high chimneys of the old factories sharing space with innovative architecture of the new buildings. One of the clear examples of this awesome landscape is the
Plaça de les Glòries (Glorias Square) that holds a few metres away, the spectacular
Torre Agbar, the symbol of the transformation of the district, and the old Farinera (Cultural Factory).
Born in the mid XIX Century, as part of the municipal of Sant Martí de Provençals (currently one of the ten districts of Barcelona) and occupies most of its part in the south and nearest to the sea. It started construction round the Plaza Prim.
In the XVII Century, due to the great abundance of water and the large land area and inexpensive in an area that, during centuries, it was no other thing than humidity and reservoirs, and it favoured proliferation for fields of cultivation. Still yet, very soon, these same characteristics attracted a thriving industry of all types that displaced the rural people. At the end of XIX Century, the suburb was converted in to an area with major industrial concentration in all of Catalonia.
Next to each of the industries, they constructed buildings to accommodate its workers in hygienic conditions that left little to be favoured. Thus, during the XX Century, the Poblenou was consolidated as a residential blue collared area and the demographic concentration provoked the apparition in the district of various shacks, like the Somorrostro, which is gone today.
These characteristics favor the disappearance of the first associations of workers and cooperatives, such as the first entities of the recreational and cultural character. It related to the prelude of the local active movement that always has characterised this suburb.
The ´60´s, saw the commencement of a process of deindustrialisation with the closing of multiple factories. Slowly, its space has been occupied by new companies and warehouses.
The celebration of the Olympic Games of 1992 presumed a great urban and social transformation for the district. Currently, the project called 22@, fueled by the Ayuntamiento (Autonomous Government), expects to convert the Poble Nou as the technological centre of Barcelona.