The Barcelona City Council, with the Barcelona Green Deal, has designed a roadmap with a vision for 2030 aiming for a more competitive, sustainable, and inclusive city. This plan is based on three pillars: sustainability, digitalization, and equity. The challenge is to progress towards a green and inclusive city where economic growth benefits everyone.

 

What role do design and the creative industries (CI) play within the framework of the Barcelona Green Deal?

• The BGD recognizes creative industries as a key driver for economic development and the global competitiveness of the city. The project includes promoting creative hubs, such as the 22@ district, and the reconversion of industrial spaces into platforms for innovation and cultural creation. This approach provides a significant opportunity to establish Barcelona as a leader in the creative and design sectors, with an infrastructure adapted to new technologies and the creation of cross-sector synergies.
• The BGD supports a model of sustainability and digitalization, which aligns well with the current needs of the creative industries. The use of innovative technologies and digital tools can accelerate the development of new artistic formats and more sustainable designs.
• The BGD aims to promote a circular economy, with creative industries playing an essential role in this aspect, as they can lead the adoption of more sustainable materials and processes. From product design to architecture, these industries can help establish more environmentally responsible models.

 

Creation of an Inspiring Working Group

From the Barcelona Design Centre, through the PICOBELLO project, we are committed to shaping this new city with a co-creation and collaboration approach. This year, an informal group of local stakeholders was established, including schools in the Design cluster (ELISAVA, IED, and LCI) and other ecosystem agents aligned with the principles of the New European Bauhaus (such as Fab Lab Barcelona/IAAC and BCN+B).

The aim of this group (which is open to new agents aligned with this mission) is to share knowledge and establish working synergies to achieve the project’s goals of promoting design and creative industries within the city’s economic development policy, incorporating the New European Bauhaus values of beauty, inclusion, and sustainability.

This dialogue space is designed to better integrate voices from the sector in planning action plans or improvement initiatives for design and creative industries in urban strategies.

 

About PICOBELLO

PICOBELLO (Piloting Collaborative Ways to Better Living Locally) is a project co-funded by the European Commission under the INTERREG EUROPE program, which seeks to improve regional development policies by facilitating the integration of New European Bauhaus principles through knowledge exchange between cities and regions.

The project’s values of collaboration, sustainability, and co-design strongly resonate with the BGD, presenting an opportunity to consolidate creative industries within the local policy agenda and help Barcelona become an international benchmark for sustainable design and responsible creativity.