There is no shortage of nice places to live in Barcelona, but super-prime development Francesc Macià 10 has good arguments to claim one of the best locations in the Catalan capital.
Ever since Barcelona expanded beyond its Gothic city walls, the best addresses have been located on the city’s wide boulevards and avenues like Passe de Gracia and Diagonal, with their easy access and good views. Francesc Macià 10 boasts a location overlooking not just one but three of Barcelona’s most prominent avenues: Diagonal, Pau Casals, and Josep Tarradellas, as well as the eponymous ‘Plaza’ from which the building takes its name.
Francesc Macià 10 lies halfway between the Old Town and the extramural city to the northwest where Barcelona’s wealthiest residents used to have weekend-homes in times gone by. The area around Plaza Francesc Macià and Turó Park became the favourite residential spot to buy property in Barcelona for the city’s upper-crust as the new town of the Eixample and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Close to the best of everything Barcelona has to offer
As the city developed beyond its Gothic walls, Barcelona’s well-to-do families settled in the area because of its central location, good access, and spacious layout, and with them came the best shops, restaurants and public facilities following the money. From Francesc Macià 10 you can walk to prominent landmarks like Paseo de Gracia to the east, and the Nou Camp football stadium to the west, not to mention many of the city’s best shops and restaurants filled with discerning locals rather than tourists. The Barcelona Polo Club is just 10 minutes drive away.
This corner of Barcelona is also home to the city’s best private health facilities like the Dexeus Institute hospital and Teknon medical centre, both of which are just 10 minutes away by car. This is also the area where you will find most of the city’s private clinics offering diagnoses and treatments that have helped put Barcelona on the map as a European destination for private healthcare.
Proximity to some of Barcelona’s best schools is another factor that reinforces the prime-appeal of residential areas around Plaza Francesc Macià and Turó Park. The best private schools like Aula tend to be located in the northwest corner of the city, which is serviced by school bus routes that place them within easy reach of kids living in this area, though parents living in this area can also easily do the school run by car if they prefer (made easier by Francesc Macià 10’s extraordinary parking facilities).
Francesc Macià 10’s location overlooking some of the city’s grand avenues ensures that residents enjoy unbeatable access via car and public transport in all directions, with both the airport and superyacht marina just a 20 minute drive, whilst Sants railway station, with high-speed trains to Madrid and Paris, is less than 10 minutes away.
Views from Francesc Macià 10 Barcelona
The building’s location overlooking grand avenues and Plaza de Francesc Macià also means residents enjoy incredible views of the city, as the building’s Swiss architect Marc-Joseph Saugey no doubt intended with his layout and the eye-motif that runs through his design of the building.
Francesc Macià 10 is an eye-catching building with an eye-shaped form and façade decorated with eyelid-like canopies, which explains why it became known popularly as the ‘eyebrows building’ from the very start. All the apartments have 360º views of the city through floor-to-ceiling windows that take in Pl. Francesc Macià, Pau Casals, Turó Park, and Diagonal, providing possibly the ‘greenest’ views in the city.
Through the west-facing façade looking over Pl. de Francesc Macià residents get to enjoy stunning sunsets that flood the building with extraordinary light as the sun goes down over the western-end of Diagonal Avenue, whilst morning sun illuminates the bedrooms and bathrooms on the eastern façcade.
At night time the long perspective of headlights and taillights moving along the avenues, or the full moon on a clear night, give residents a privileged view of the city both night and day.
Marcio Kogan, the internationally-renowned Brazilian architect who reimagined and renovated the building for residential use in 2013, has compared the building to a lighthouse for Barcelona. “From here you feel like you control the city,” says Kogan.
Find out more about Francesc Macià 10 Barcelona
