Can Comas dwellings in Granollers
193 dwellings buildings in the former textile factory Isidre Comas.
This urban development in the center of Granollers is paradigmatic of a specific type of urban reform that has been frequent in recent years in Barcelona and its metropolitan region: the recycling of an old industrial site, which had been swallowed up by the growth of the city, for new uses, creating the opportunity to reconstruct urban fabrics that were interrupted, and strengthen the urban and social dynamics of their surroundings.
The rapid growth of the urban nucleus of Granollers incorporated into its fabric the Can Comas textile factory, located in its beginnings on the margins of the town, although just less than 30 meters from the Plaza de la Iglesia and with access from Calle Sant Jaume, one of the main streets of Granollers. The enclosure occupied an area of approximately 16.320 m² and, although architecturally, with the exception of the chimney, the ensemble lacked value, the office building and entrance door are undoubtedly part of the industrial memory of the city and skillfully built the chamfered corner of Sant Jaume and Aníbal streets. However, the presence of the factory premises prevented the continuity between Príncep de Viana and Molí streets, blocking the commercial growth of Sant Jaume street and creating a desertifying effect in the entire environment.
The urban project proposes the organization with five independent buildings that, at the same time, give continuity to the alignments of the surrounding blocks and generate openings towards the interior of the block, connecting the streets Molí and Príncep de Viana and giving rise to free spaces public, in which the chimney of the old factory is preserved, and private gardens that complete the interior of the resulting larger block. The old entrance building to the factory is reused as small equipment and entrance door to the sector, and the rest of the buildings host the predominant use of housing, both free and protected, which is combined with commercial basements in the locations closest to Sant Jaume street.