Power plants make for good art spaces. Herzog & de Meuron, for instance, famously transformed a shuttered factory in London into Tate Modern. Another example of artsy adaptive reuse is St. Anns Warehouse in Brooklyn. Today, Garces de Seta Bonet Arquitectes (GdSB), a Spanish firm, and New Yorkbased Marvel are working together to transform an abandoned Barcelona factory, recognizable for its three chimneys, into an exhibition space.Tres Xemeneies/Three Chimneys will anchor Barcelonas burgeoning Catalunya Media City, astrategic project of the Catalan government that will host audiovisual, digital, and video game projects. The development is taking place in Sant Adri de Bess, a Barcelona suburb.(Courtesy Garcs de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel)The former thermal plant where the culture center will be sited was built in the 1970s, but closed in 2011. Its three chimneys are 650 feet tall, recognizable from far away, marking some of the tallest structures in the region.Since closing, the plant has been managed by Front Martim del Bess, but that entity has since ceded the turbine hall over to the Generalitat de Catalunya for redevelopment.The redesign by GdSB and Marvel breaks up the complex into four zones, architects said. Space for educational programming; research, residency, and business incubators; experience and exhibitions; and a resource center for the Catalan audiovisual industry will all abound.The future centers main space will be its main hall. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)There will be a 5,300-square-foot auditorium that can host up to 250 people. There will also be an immersive, 4,300-square-foot room with ceiling heights almost 90 feet tall. Two recording studios, a mixing room, a color grading room, and an editing suite will also occupy space, as well as two UX labs, a workshop, a fabrication lab, a library, and meeting rooms. The main space at Tres Xemeneies/Three Chimneys will be its central space for concerts and lectures. Anna Bonet, GdSB cofounding partner, compared the future Barcelona institutions main hall with large-scale exhibition spaces reminiscent of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, the Aviva Studios Warehouse in Manchester, or the Park Avenue Armory in New York.A generous promenade will offer outdoor experiences. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)The architects plan to keep the existing structure intact while adding a new addition to complete the building. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)GdSB and Marvel won a Catalan government-backed competition to design the project; that pair beat out 26 preliminary entries. Daria de Seta, GdSB cofounder, called her offices design an ode to Fellini, the lauded Italian filmmaker. The project itself is titled E la nave va, and the ship sails on in English. The Tres Xemeneies represent an icon of Catalonias industrial heritage that we aim to preserve and enhance, said Guido Hartray, a founding partner at Marvel.The architects noted that they intend on keeping the existing structure intact while adding a new addition that extends and completes the building. The new addition will connect the interior of the turbine hall with outdoor space, replete with great views of the sea and mountains.The interiors will be lined in concrete and other materials. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)The only substantial modification to the existing factory building, architects continued, will be transversal cuts that create a harmonious transition between the terrain and the urban pavement, fostering an organic integration with the surroundings. We have designed a proposal that plays with connections and knotstemporal, landscape, and territorial, GdSB cofounder Jordi Garces said. One of the key features will be linking the city with the sea, where users and residents can share a large communal space. For the first time, there will be a balcony facing Badalona. The architectural elements at different heights will offer new landscape perspectives, as if it were a land art piece.The ground level will have ample daylighting. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)Transforming an infrastructure that has had a heavy environmental impact in the past into one that drives the future of media collaboration while utilizing the existing structures weight to lighten the new programs energy footprint, seems to us, like a worthy goal for the future of architecture, Jonathan Marvel of Marvel Architects noted.Construction will begin in summer 2025 and conclude no later than 2028.