The Generalitat promotes the redevelopment of the Sant Crist neighborhood in Badalona (Barcelonès Nord) with the forthcoming construction of a block of 24 subsidized homes that will be used to relocate those affected, a development already awarded. Once the flats are built, the buildings where those affected lived will be demolished, thus freeing up the necessary space to build the future side of the C-31 and the Sant Crist Strategic Residential Area (ARE). This ARE will have a total of 215 homes, all subsidized, to be built by the Consortium made up of the Badalona City Council and INCASÒL.
The Councilor of Territory, Juli Fernàndez and the mayor of Badalona, Rubén Guijarro, accompanied by the director of the Catalan Soil Institute (INCASÒL), Maria Sisternas and the president of the Urban Consortium for the development of the strategic residential areas of the Estrella and San Cristo de Badalona, Teresa González have visited the grounds.
The construction of this new block of flats, in the opinion of the minister, "is an essential piece so that all the rest of the remodeling of the neighborhood can be produced and this will mean that we have housing, that we have a decent public space." For Fernàndez, “housing is one of the Government's priorities, especially in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. And here in Badalona "we have three spaces, Sant Crist, la Estrella and Sant Roc, where we will have the capacity to generate 400 affordable rental apartments".
For his part, the mayor, Ruben Guijarro, stressed that getting this project off the ground after years of waiting and seeing the area deteriorate is a great step forward for the neighborhood. The side will allow the city's neighborhoods to communicate from north to south and "comply with one of our priorities, alleviate mobility problems." Guijarro had time to demand from the minister his involvement in "healing the wound of the C-31, which cuts through the city" and to start installing the sound-reducing asphalt committed by the Catalan administration. As well as reduce speed from 120 to 80 km/h. from Montgat to the Cal Manresà neighborhood
The Urban Consortium for the development of the strategic residential areas of La Estrella and Sant Crist de Badalona, made up of Badalona City Council and INCASÒL, is the acting administration in charge of the expropriation of the properties included in Sant Crist, which has already commissioned the promotion of 24 homes in the Fortuny 5-7 passage to rehouse the people affected by the expropriation of the land destined for the construction of the side of the C-31 motorway.
Work on the houses is expected to begin next May, at a cost of 4.4 million euros and a duration of two years. The project has been drawn up by Seguí arquitectura and Musquera arquitectura in collaboration with Joan Zapata Lluch and Israel de las Heras Bengoa and Sarpat project engineering. PACI Enginyers will also collaborate in the urbanization of the surroundings, and Israel de las Heras Bengoa and Zarpado in projects in the construction of the flats.
The 24 houses will have between 45 and 75 m2, all of them open to two facades, which will favor their natural ventilation. The building will have an interior patio for community use and photovoltaic panels on the roof to generate energy. It will also include 24 parking spaces for cars, 13 for motorcycles, a bicycle parking area and 24 storage rooms.
The execution of the project will entail the urbanization of the surroundings, ensuring accessibility and incorporating green spaces in the connections of the streets. This urbanization will use part of the connection between Casas y Amigó and Montserrat streets, located behind the new building, as a children's play area.
This new housing development will be located on a plot that the Badalona City Council contributed to the Urban Development Consortium. Currently, the site is the end of Casas i Amigó street, a dead end, and is used as a parking area. In order to overcome the unevenness of a story in height, the street connects with the Fortuny passage through a staircase embedded in the retaining wall. Addressing this unevenness is, therefore, one of the main challenges of building and urbanization projects. It is not only necessary to bridge the difference between the Fortuny passage and the beginning of Casas i Amigó street, but it must also be taken into account that between the northern and southern ends of the site there is a difference in level of about three floors.
To bridge the gap, the building will have two lobbies, one at the highest level and the other at the lowest. In addition, stairs, ramps and an elevator will be included to improve the accessibility of the area and to be able to connect the Fortuny passage, Casas i Amigó street and Montserrat street.
Once the residents of Sant Crist with the right to rehouse have been transferred to the new building, the Consortium will demolish the unoccupied homes to free up space and begin urbanization of the neighborhood. This will generate the plots on which the subsidized housing will be built, and will facilitate the construction of the side of the C-31. So far, the Consorci has already demolished two single-family buildings and is currently demolishing another three homes that it has acquired.
Currently, the Consortium, by order of INCASÒL, is drafting the joint appraisal project for the properties included in the ARE of Sant Crist, which is expected to be completed within this semester.
The ARE were conceived as new extensions in the main Catalan cities, equipped with housing, both free and with different protection regimes, facilities, green areas and quality public spaces. Two AREs were planned in Badalona, the one in La Estrella and the one in Sant Crist, located to the northwest of the city. In the latter case, it provided for 176 homes, all of them with some kind of protection regime, which meant a density of 122 homes per hectare.
Subsequently, this density was raised to increase the number of protected flats to 215, thus responding to the needs for access to affordable housing, without increasing the total ceiling of the ARE. In addition to contributing to social rebalancing, they also want to consolidate the Sant Crist neighborhood on its façade to the C-31, generating quality public space and sponging up the entire area.
Thus, the ARE will have a front of open blocks that will alternate buildings aligned on the C-31 and on the streets perpendicular to it with newly created green spaces. The arrangement of the blocks of flats will improve the typologies of the dwellings, which will enjoy a greater exterior façade surface and different orientations. Therefore, buildings with 3 and 7 floors will alternate along the front of the C-31.
Two new poles of activity will also be generated in the Sant Crist neighborhood, placing some blocks at the ends of the ARE where green areas, facilities and residential roof are combined. On the one hand, a large green area is drawn at the southwestern end of the sector, bordering the Rambla de Sant Joan, which will be the gateway to the Sant Crist neighborhood from the center of Badalona. On the other hand, the existing green area at the northeast end of the sector, at the corner between Calle de la Selva and Calle de Àgueda Mompel, will be redeveloped and will be linked to the equipment located on the ground floor of the apartment building on the same block. In this way, another pole of activity will be generated within the neighborhood that will be reinforced with the commercial roof of the adjoining building.
Four small green areas are arranged along the area, between Góngora street and Àgueda Mompel street. These green areas are the ones located on the façade of the C-31, alternating with future residential buildings, providing the neighborhood with new open spaces for residents and making it more permeable. Finally, two public facilities are planned instead of one, the use of which will be determined based on municipal needs.
The ARE Sant Crist rests mainly on Carrer del Abad Escarré, which will modify its section with the project for the new side of the C-31. The northwesterly slope of the neighborhood causes the roads that come together on that side of the highway to have large unevenness. The modification of the ARE solves this fact by restricting vehicles and adapting street to street to the unevenness, with stairs where the slope is steeper and with ramps where it is softer.
