Farewell to the MACBA… as we know it. Thirty years after the construction of MACBA and its surroundings meant a turnaround for the Raval, now the City Council has already begun work on the renovation of MACBA and the Plaça dels Àngels to definitively change the face to which we are accustomed.
The photo that brings together the museum and skaters will disappear to turn the square into a space with more living areas and green spaces, while adding a facility long claimed by the neighborhood: the Primary Care Center Raval Nord, which will open in the Chapel of Mercy. In addition, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) will be expanded.
With the beginning of the year, the most important part of the works is expected to start this January. We tell you the details of a reform that, once again, will give an important change of face to the city.
Schedule of the works
The works will be carried out in two linked phases. The first will involve work on the underground level of the square and the subway parking lot , including new public toilets, a new transformer station, the removal of the skylight in the center of the square and the current parking lot exits, as well as foundation work for the new building.
The relocation of the public toilets to the Convent dels Àngels is expected to be completed in April 2026, so, to ensure uninterrupted use of this service, the old ones will remain in operation until the new ones are operational. Once this first part has been completed, the second part of the project will start the new building that will house the new MACBA rooms and spaces.
During the works, the construction area that will occupy part of the square will be delimited with a fence and the movement of trucks and machinery will be unified by a single access through Montalegre street.
Although pedestrian access to the square will be guaranteed at all times, as well as access for service and emergency vehicles, it is recommended that alternative routes be used.
Farewell to skateboarders: the Plaça dels Àngels expels its most regular residents.
Plaça dels Àngels is one of the greatest exponents of an era in Barcelona where the hard square, that asphalt and treeless square that sought to make people pass through and not linger, was the law. It is also an example of the spirit of the rebellious cat with a thousand lives of the Raval, which turned a gritty square into a meeting point for skaters that has made the city one of the great spots of the city.
The remodeling of the square will focus on the reformulation of the plinth of the current building that houses the MACBA, designed by architect Richard Meier. Rethinking this 1,105 m² space will allow the incorporation of green areas in the square and lounge areas with benches or sun loungers. In addition to the sitting area, there will be a viewing terrace in the new MACBA space, which will be open to public use.
All these elements will allow new flows and itineraries to be and cross the square, expanding the public space of the area and will imply the disappearance of the ramps and asphalt spaces where skaters usually train.
The arrival of the new CAP Raval Nord
The first of the actions that will shape the new Angels’ Square will be the construction of the new Primary Care Center Raval Nord – Doctor Lluis Sayé in the former Chapel of Mercy after years of discord with the issue.
The new CAP will have 2,500 square meters and an investment of 13 million euros. The works are about to be tendered by the Generalitat de Catalunya and are expected to start in the month of June, thus maintaining the schedule for it to become operational in the first quarter of 2026.
The new building at the CAP’s new location will replace the current facilities on Torres i Amat street and Terenci Moix square, expanding its healthcare capacity while maintaining the extensive portfolio of services currently offered by the Raval Nord Primary Care Center, which includes primary care services (family medicine, nursing, pediatrics, dentistry and social work), as well as the expansion of the service portfolio with sexual and reproductive health care services (ASSIR), specialized care services (specialists who travel from the Hospital del Mar) and mental health services.
This center is expected to serve a reference population of 22,500 inhabitants, taking into account both the current and future population, as well as demographic and socioeconomic factors, according to the application of the relative growth of the Idescat population projections, appropriate to the territorial health division, in a time horizon up to 2030.
Expansion of the MACBA and reforms in the streets around the square.
The project for the new MACBA building has been carried out by the Harquitectes and Christ & Gantenbein studio, whose “Galeria” proposal was the winner of the public competition for the extension of the Convent dels Àngels. With this intervention, the museum will gain about 2,500 m2, in an extension that has as its challenges and objectives the rearrangement and improvement of the spaces and services of the museum to show a more accessible collection to the public.
The expansion seeks to reinforce the public service vocation of MACBA, which wants to generate interest in art and contemporary culture, especially Catalan, from a will to transform people and society, and deepens the desire to have a museum that is related to the maximum with its environment: the Raval, Barcelona, Catalonia and the world.
In addition, the municipal action in the Plaça dels Àngels will also include interventions in the surrounding squares and streets, such as Plaça Terenci Moix and the commercial area of carrer Joaquín Costa. The aim is to recover public spaces through urban planning interventions, mobility, specific actions for cleaning, maintenance and a commercial revitalization plan in a broad sense.
This is a medium-term urban planning action, which follows the objective included in the Action Plan of the District 23-27 to recover public space, and responds to the request of the Xarxa Veïnal del Raval, which was left out of the participatory budgets in the last term, to have a less hard square and new spaces for citizen use.