This morning the Barcelona City Council, through the Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation, signed the deed of constitution of the surface right on two properties in the via Augusta in favor of the project of Can 70.

This is how it finally materializes, after more than 7 years of work by the group, the first step to make the el a reality first senior cooperative housing in Barcelona and the first on public land in Catalonia and the whole State.

The rubric of this agreement is made within the framework of ESAL Agreement, signed in 2020 between the council and the main federations of cooperatives and social housing foundations, such as a pioneering mechanism for cooperation with the third sector, in which public lots are allocated to non-profit entities and the transfer of land.

AN EMOTIONAL SPEECH FROM THE GROUP

The driving group of the project is made up of about 20 people, mostly women, who have between 55 and 70 years, and that since 2015 they have been working and debating on the coexistence model they want. 

Seven years of intense work that have included the dissemination of their project idea, conversations and negotiations with the administrations, and collective debates to think together about how they want to live and age in community. The guide has been created as a result of this work "Care in the coexistence of elderly people", the sixth copy of the collection We build Cooperative Housing driven by Sostre Cívic.

So many efforts and accumulated energies have made the act of signing the surface right a particularly exciting moment, as reflected in the words read by the Maria Marrugat, member of the group of Can 70, in his speech:

Finally!!
Two years and four months after the signing of the ESAL Agreement. I will use an age-old technique that works, it makes everything flow for the better:
1. We're sorry if we've been too heavy-handed insisting and hurrying to move forward with this project, but life goes on and on, just as our beloved colleagues, Dolors and Rosalia, have left, who will always be there, while the rest of us continue getting old
2. Apologize to us, because more than once we have not fully trusted the desires or abilities or your priorities towards an aging group.
3. We love you, because together we have achieved this milestone that allows us to start the physical construction of our aging project, which we would like to be the first of many other projects to age better.
4. Thank you for working with us for a project that we want to enjoy, and that should be replicable in this aging Barcelona without too many options for a desirable ageing.
Finally, thank you, on behalf of Can70.

HOW IS THE PROJECT PROGRESSING SO FAR?

The architectural project is being developed with the team of architects Peris+Toral, who won the first contest of ideas driven by Sostre Cívic. The projected design consists of two buildings connected by the semi-basement, where there will be spaces for community use. The construction will have a ground floor plus four floors where there will be homes with one shared kitchen space of 50 m² among the people who live in the plant.

During the March 2023 the last process of incorporations into the group was opened Can 70. People who signed up and didn't join the group have been put on a waiting list. Whenever there are vacancies, this list will be used to contact people to fill the driving force. No new registrations are planned for now.

For more information, you can consult the information file of the project or you can write to us at info@can70.sostrecivic.cat.