Can Framis & the 22@ District
Why is it significant?
In the middle of glass office blocks, you suddenly find a low, old factory of rough brick and stone, wrapped around a garden, with a modern extension slipped in between its walls. It looks as if the new city has politely stepped aside to let the old one stay.
Key Facts
| Place | Can Framis & the 22@ District |
|---|---|
| Address | Carrer de Roc Boronat 116-126, 08018 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.40280, 2.19440 |
| Part of Walk | From the 1888 Expo to the Catalan Manchester: Ciutadella Park & Poblenou, Barcelona |
| Generated | Generated |
In the middle of glass office blocks, you suddenly find a low, old factory of rough brick and stone, wrapped around a garden, with a modern extension slipped in between its walls. It looks as if the new city has politely stepped aside to let the old one stay.
This is Can Framis, an old textile mill of the Framis family, restored as a museum by the Fundació Vila Casas and opened at the end of the 2000s. Inside hangs contemporary Catalan painting, from the second half of the twentieth century to today. The foundation behind it was created by the pharmaceutical businessman and collector Antoni Vila Casas, who decided that living Catalan artists deserved museums of their own. But the point is not just the art, it is the building: a piece of the Catalan Manchester saved and given a second life, instead of being bulldozed.
Around it lies the district everyone here calls 22@, twenty-two arroba. The name comes from planning code: 22a was the label for industrial land on the city's zoning map. In 2000, Barcelona approved a plan to transform about two hundred hectares of Poblenou's old industrial land into a district for technology, design, research and media, adding the at sign to mark the new digital vocation.
The plan was ambitious and controversial. It brought universities, start-ups, international companies and new housing. It also brought rising rents, and debates about how much of the old neighbourhood and its working memory should survive. Can Framis is one answer to that question: a factory kept standing, with paintings on the walls where looms once ran.
Look around once more: chimneys beside data centres, cobbled courtyards beside glass façades. In this part of Barcelona, you can see two centuries of work side by side. Now walk up Roc Boronat to Avinguda Diagonal and turn left. You cannot miss the last stop: it is glowing on the horizon.