![](https://www.mirallestagliabue.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ALEX-GAULTIER-11.jpg)
A competition was opened to restore the Santa Caterina city market located in the old quarter of Barcelona in 1997. EMBT won the bid with a proposal that aimed at incorporating the extreme complexity of the setting itself by creating a commercial market complemented by a residential zone and public spaces that integrated all the activities of the neighborhood.
The project maintains parts of the existing structure and the architects proposed a new and creative render of the area which respected the history and context of the site.
The proposal superimposes new architecture on old, mixes them, and comes up with a conglomerate, a hybrid that accentuates usefulness and is contemporary. The interior distribution of the market was reorganized; there are fewer stands but the access and service systems are rationalized; the surface area of public spaces gains ground and communicates with the Avinguda Francesc Cambó, an important transitional vein in the neighborhood also surrounded by a dense network of narrow streets.
![SANTA-CATERINA-©-ROLAND-HALBE © Roland Halbe](https://www.mirallestagliabue.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SANTA-CATERINA-©-ROLAND-HALBE.jpg)
![catarina-30 © Alex Gaultier](https://www.mirallestagliabue.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/catarina-30.jpg)
![catarina-48 © Alex Gaultier](https://www.mirallestagliabue.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/catarina-48.jpg)
![catarina-49 © Alex Gaultier](https://www.mirallestagliabue.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/catarina-49.jpg)