Reported by Cécile Balavoine / Photos by Ludovic Maisant

Almost 30 years ago. It was in 1992Barcelona was preparing to welcome the Olympic Games and, for the occasion, opened up its seafront and rediscovered its beaches. The event was a resounding success, highlighting the potential of the Poblenou districtnext to the Olympic port. It's a hip and popular spot today, as it's here, on some twenty hectares, that the 22@an urban space dedicated toinnovation.

In the XIX^e century, it is the many textile mills which flourished in what was then known as the "Catalan Manchester. Abandoned in the 1960s, these industrial wastelands gradually became a den of thieves. The year 2000 saw the launch of a public-private initiative aimed at transforming warehouses and wasteland into a new "city of crime". high-tech clusterbased on the media industry, R&D and education. A total success story.

Today, 25,000 students spread across various campuses dedicated to new technologies, navigate through the district, which also boasts 93,000 jobs and is set to grow by 25,000 over the next five years. The district has recently added new housing and several hectares of parkland. However, the success of 22@ is measured above all in terms of the number of new stores opened.spaces coworking with supply increasing by more than 50 % since 2017. That's why major companies are turning to 22@. Amazon, HP, Criteo, Suez, PepsiCo and DHL have all recently set up operations here, and by the end of 2019 there should be a total of 129,000 m² of new office space. The Gloriès Tower, designed by Jean Nouvel in 2005, has been empty for a long time following the relocation of the Agbar group (Barcelona's general water company), and is now attracting an influx of tenants, including software publisher Oracle and Facebook, with its 'anti-fake news' centre. A booming sector.

How to get there

In 2018, theEl Prat airport recorded a turnover of record 50.2 million passengersThis represents growth of 6.1 % compared with 2017. Barcelona is extremely well connected to Europe's major cities, especially France. Vueling offers fifty weekly flights from Paris-Orly and Transaviathe low-cost subsidiary of Air France-KLM, operates seven flights a week. From Paris-CDG, Air France operates thirty-six weekly routes, while easyJet offers twenty and Vueling twenty-four. But other French cities such as Toulouse, Nice, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, NantesBrest, Rennes or Bordeaux are also directly linked to the Catalan metropolis.

Vueling : www.vueling.com
Air France : www.airfrance.fr
Transavia : www.transavia.com
EasyJet : www.easyjet.com