The factories that once populated Barcelona and that are still standing not only refuse to die but are valued, updated, reconverted to adapt to the new times. They are no longer dedicated to manufacturing things, but they do maintain activity, in many cases economic. This is the case of one of those owned by Gràcia, on calle Milà i Fontanals, from 1848, which in its day produced fishing lines and silk. After the textile crisis, in the middle of the last century, it housed small workshops of all kinds and, finally, from the 1990s to today, offices, which have led to a comprehensive rehabilitation that has lasted ten years and has just been completed. The complex, which includes commercial premises on the ground floor, is called Fabrick and has received an investment of more than three million euros. The facilities host fifty companies.
"The land belongs to our family since 1812, there was a small farmhouse here and then the factory," says Javier Julià, owner of Fabrick along with his brothers Alicia and Mauricio. "For us - he continues - it is important to rescue the heritage, update it and make it possible for the next generations to find buildings that have history and are still active". In this case, the attraction of working in a place that breathes the industrial past has attracted creative professionals for years, from publishers to advertising agencies, architecture studios, graphic design studios and even artists. But also to other sectors such as lawyers, laboratories and various sectoral clusters, among others.
The façade, which has just been renovated, has put the finishing touch on the rehabilitation of the old factory, which began in 2013 with the reform, in phases, of the interior spaces. They maintain elements of the manufacturing past, with large bright spaces without columns, arranged in offices of different sizes, from 35 square meters for the smallest to 600 for the largest, which can be customized and rented, with or without furniture. "There are companies that started in small spaces and have grown with us," says Alicia Julià. The renovated property has about 4,000 square meters.
The change on the outside of the building is notorious. Updating the façade has involved an investment of half a million euros. The air conditioning and wiring boxes that it had have been removed, the windows have been ordered and outlined, which are now made of wood -in the past they were installed in aluminum- and the walls have been painted with a terracotta-colored hand stucco that draws attention. Nothing to do with what was before, with a chaotic and degraded appearance.
Updating the property also means “invigorating this part of Gràcia with commercial premises; we like those that have the shop windows always in sight, that do not lower the blinds at night, that give life to the neighborhood”, adds the co-owner. There are eight in total, on the ground floor of the building and other adjoining streets Monistrol and Santa Eulàlia.
The project will be completed later with the rehabilitation of another building, somewhat smaller, located on the same block, with an entrance on Calle Santa Eulàlia, of about 3,000 square meters, which will follow the same model. It will be Fabrick Gràcia 2. But the idea does not end here. The intention of the owners is to replicate this type of action in old industrial buildings in other neighborhoods (in Sants, in Les Corts, in 22@…) for which they are looking for assets to buy and rehabilitate.
