We are all Barcelona: Building communities through the museum (Spain) Joan Roca i Albert, Director of the MUHBA (Barcelona History Museum, Spain) at the 5th edition of the OECD Summer Academy on Cultural and Creayive Industries and Local Development, 2022. More info https://oe.cd/sacci

1. We are all Barcelona:
building communities through the
city museum
OECD Summer School
September 2022
Joan Roca i Albert &
The MUHBA Team

2. Presentation
• The Eix Patrimonial i Museístic del Besòs (Besòs
River Heritage and Museum Trail) is both a proximity
and a city project promoted by MUHBA (Barcelona
History Museum, a public municipal museum).
• It is being developed in a deprived area, in
agreement with communities, associations of
workers, researchers and municipal authorities.
• Its aim is to create a shared historical vision of the
contemporary city from the outskirts of Barcelona
with old and recent migration.

3. 21st CENTURY MUHBA COMPASS
• N Knowledge, transdisciplinary urban history
• S Polycentrism, a territorialized network
• E Education, a museum school
• W Management, co-managed heritage spaces
3
We are all Barcelona...
•The right to the city for residents, migrants, refugees
and visitors requires city knowledge –history,
explanation– and city rooting –heritage, representation.
• City museums, mostly municipal, are specially suited to
bridge cultural and urban policies.

4. Muhba Padellàs, The Barcelona House of History that hosts...

5. ... Barcelona flashback, a synthetical exhibition,
and the MUHBA Centre for Research and Debate

6. The MUHBA Strategic Urban Planning

7. Oliva Artés
MUHBA OLIVA ARTÉS
Urbanising Barcelona
A laboratory museum with
schools, neighbor-hood
associations and institu-
tions from all over the city

10. 10
MUHBA BON PASTOR
Housing Barcelona
Co-managed with the
community : Centre
d’Estudis Vilabesòs

11. 11

13. Works in Bon Pastor began after a 12 years long research project on
the history and heritage of housing in Barcelona and Europe
shared with the communities.

14. MUHBA FABRA I
COATS
Working in Barcelona
With the association
Amics Fabra i Coats
14

16. MUHBA CASA DE
L’AIGUA
Sustaining Barcelona,
watering the city
With the association Arxiu
Històric de Roquetes and
Associació Memòria
Històrica de Trinitat Vella.

17. MUHBA CASA DE L’AIGUA: research on sustainabiliity,
watering and providing the city since 2010
17

18. Other associations have adhered to the MUHBA Besòs trail:
Fundació Maquinista i Macosa. Mobility and sustainability in
modern times. A locomotive is coming…

19. Conclusion 1
The Besòs River Heritage and Museum Trail is a multiple scale
explanation and representation, a city project rooted in communities
and fully integrated in the urban frame of the city museum.

20. Conclusion 2
The capacity to negotiate “bottom-
up” many municipal investments
prooved decisive.
The Neighborood Plan for urban areas
in decay, and the Besòs trail in blue >>
INVESTMENT EXPENDITURE EIX BESÓS. Includes expenses for civil works and museography
INSTITUTE OF
CULTURE OF
BARCELONA
(ICUB)
SANT MARTÍ
DISTRICT
SANT ANDREU
DISTRICT
NEIGHBORHOOD
PLAN (PLA DE
BARRIS)
TOTAL
CASES BON PASTOR 2.500.000,00 2.500.000,00
FABRA I COATS. NAU F 1.961.831,00 645.480,00 0,00 2.607.311,00 2.100.000,00
Nau F 1.900.000,00 267.120,00 2.167.120,00 2.100.000,00
Sala de Calderes 61.831,00 378.360,00 440.191,00
CASA DE L'AIGUA 25.000,00 192.000,00 217.000,00 500.000,00
MUHBA-OLIVA ARTÈS 381.557,00 1.778.144,00 ---- 2.159.701,00
TOTAL 2.343.388,00 1.778.144,00 670.480,00 2.692.000,00 7.484.012,00 2.600.000,00
ACTIONS IN EXECUTION 2018-2024 APPROVED
NEXT
GENERATION
PROJECTS.
ACTIONS 2023-
2025

21. Beyond the trail:
(1) The metropolis
The Besòs Heritage
and Museum Trail is
now being enlarged
as a plurimunicipal
natural and cultural
heritage trail along
the river with the
support of the
Consorci del Besòs
(Besòs Consortium.)

22. Beyond the trail:
(2) The 4 Meridians
Project
A project by MUHBA and
the Directorate for Global
Justice and International
Cooperation of Barcelona
for city to city cooperation.
The minimal city museum
(P. Tamayo & Muhba Team)

23. Bogotá: Museo de la
Ciudad Autoconstruida
(A new branch of
Museo de Bogotá in
Ciudad Bolívar created
by Transmicable, the
cable car)
Maputo, Mozambique:
Museu Mafalala,
a small city and
community museum
with a special project
to accomodate visitors

24. Returning to Europe:
AMuLoP: La vie HLM at
Aubervilliers, Paris, and
MUHBA Bon Pastor, in
the Besòs trail: we
work together.
Housing
estates in
Aubervilliers,
Paris
Housing estates in the
Besòs, Barcelona,
Photo: Colita

25. THE BESÒS RIVER HERITAGE AND MUSEUM TRAIL
IN SUMMARY:
* Municipal city museums can induce, “bottom-up”, innovative cultural
and urban policies if they “convince” multiple sectors of city government.
* It is being financed through different municipal sources: The UE will
help in the future. The Besòs trail would have been hard to implement
within the Cultural sector alone. Strategic museum planning helped.
* The Besòs trail is now both a proximity and city proposal. It’s a
multiscale project: it aims at creating a historical vision of the
contemporary city from the outskirts for residents, schools and tourists.
* It is being executed with the communities inside the project from the
beginning. Some spaces will be co-managed in the future between
museum (ICUB), Districts (local) and Communities (proximity).
* It is being extended locally as a plurimunicipal heritage trail and
internationally with The 4 Meridians Project for city to city cooperation.

26. Collecting for MUHBA fabra i Coats