Client: Diputació de Barcelona
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Year: 2024-2025
The Barcelona Provincial Council is leading a progressive transformation of the Torribera site in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, with the goal of turning it into a healthier, more inclusive, open, and connected space. As a preliminary step to the drafting of the future Master Plan, a Health-Based Preliminary Study was carried out to ensure that health is placed at the core of the site’s future planning and design.
📍 What is Torribera?
The Torribera site is a 33-hectare property located at the foot of the Serralada de Marina natural park. With significant historical and architectural value, it currently hosts a wide range of public services: healthcare, academic, environmental, sports, religious, and administrative facilities. More than half of the land is green space, and while the site acts as a gateway to the natural park, it is still perceived as closed off and poorly integrated into the surrounding urban fabric.
🎯 Objectives of the Study
The study aims to analyze the site through a health lens, identify the needs of the people who use it, and define urban planning guidelines to ensure the future transformation supports physical, mental, social, and environmental health.
Specific goals of the study include:
- Assessing the urban health determinants of the site and its surrounding area.
- Diagnosing the health status of the local population and its relationship with the environment.
- Defining transformation guidelines that maximize positive health impacts.
- Proposing monitoring indicators to track health-related outcomes over time.
🧪 Methodology
The study combines technical analysis, scientific literature review, and community engagement:
- Assessment of urban health determinants, adapted to the specific characteristics of Torribera—such as walkability, accessibility, green space quality, public transport connectivity, and land-use diversity.
- Qualitative evaluation, including:
- Open surveys of site users, workers, and students.
- Interviews with key local stakeholders.
- Participatory workshops with representatives from organizations based on-site.
- Health diagnostics using data from Catalonia’s public health indicators and comparing health status with the site’s physical environment.
🧭 Guidelines for Transformation
Based on the results, 22 strategic guidelines were proposed across four thematic areas to guide the site’s transformation:
- Mobility and Accessibility: improve entrances, increase walkability and cyclability, and better integrate with public transport networks.
- Green Infrastructure and Environmental Health: protect and enhance green networks, support biodiversity, incorporate blue spaces and sustainable drainage systems.
- Comfort and Spatial Quality: upgrade signage, furniture, shading, and lighting, and ensure an attractive and inclusive design.
- Uses and Social Interaction: diversify on-site uses, promote active and flexible public spaces, and encourage participatory management and community ownership.
🩺 Health and Urban Planning: A Crucial Connection
This study aligns with the concept of healthy urban planning, which recognizes that the design of cities and public spaces directly impacts human health. Including a health perspective from the outset enables cities to anticipate challenges, reduce inequalities, and create environments that foster active, safe, and fulfilling lifestyles.Torribera has the potential to become a model of a healthy, open, multifunctional campus, blending nature, activity, learning, and well-being. The findings from this study offer a solid foundation to ensure that the future Master Plan integrates health as a core criterion—shaping a transformation that benefits both the people who use the site and the broader metropolitan area.
