Eixample accelerates the timetable for the Model’s new facilities

Eixample takes a key step to transform the former Model prison. The district demands that facilities be prioritised and sets 2030 as the deadline. The care home and the institute-school are in the spotlight. The initial budget is already on the table.

The transformation of the former Model prison is once again at the centre of Eixample's urban agenda. The district has unanimously decided to demand that Collboni's government speed up the construction of the facilities planned in the Model Master Plan, bringing the completion date forward to 2030. This decision responds to the urgent need to provide the l’Esquerra neighbourhood with key infrastructure that has been pending for years.

Priorities include the care home for older people, whose construction is being requested from the Generalitat within a maximum period of three years. In addition, the district insists that funding for the institute-school, a project long awaited by families in the area, be guaranteed. The agreement, promoted by Junts per Barcelona, seeks to unblock and speed up a plan approved in 2019 that still shows no visible progress.

From Junts, Biel Figueras has recalled that, although Model ceased to be a prison in 2017 and passed into municipal hands, the projects remain stalled. The district acknowledges that the monitoring committee has not been convened since 2023 and that the planned works have not begun. However, it announces that the committee will meet this quarter to report on the overall state of the facilities, with special attention to the need for housing and green spaces.

With regard to the start of the works, the district plans to begin the first phase at the end of the year, including the institute-school, a sports centre and an energy transformation centre. A budget of 20 million euros has already been set aside for this initial stage, a figure that signals the commitment to make progress in recovering this emblematic space for the neighbourhood.

Model, beyond its prison past, has become a symbol of urban transformation in Barcelona. Its closure in 2017 opened an intense public debate about the future of the site, located in the very heart of Eixample. The Master Plan approved in 2019 envisages the creation of educational, sporting and social facilities, as well as the opening of new green spaces. Neighbourhood involvement and pressure from local groups have been decisive in keeping the demand alive and accelerating the timetable for action.