La Vall d’Hebron Area

The La Vall d’Hebron Area was one of the four Olympic Areas earmarked for urban planning for the XXVth Olympiad of Barcelona’92. The development of those plans was commissioned to the architect Eduard Bru. Situated in the northern part of Barcelona, at the foot of the Serra de Collserola mountain range, it was restructured for the Barcelona’92 Olympic Games to become a large recreational area. Cycling, tennis, archery and volleyball competitions were held there, as were those for the demonstration sport Basque pelota. The Velòdrom d’Horta (Horta Velodrome) located in this area had already been built in 1984, but new facilities for other sports had to be developed, such as the archery field and the la Vall d’Hebron tennis pavilion and courts.

In addition, 500 housing units were built in this area. They were designed by the architect Carles Ferrater and developed by the then recently created Municipal Housing Institute. These housing units were reserved as accommodation for press professionals during the mega event, and they helped to put order into an area that, urbanistically speaking, had lacked definition until that time. This and the La Diagonal Area together formed the so-called ‘mountain’ Olympic Areas, whereas the Parc de Mar and Montjuïc Areas were known as the ‘sea’ Olympic Areas. The investment made in the La Vall d’Hebron Area totalled €130 million (21.78 billion Pesetas).