The Barcelona City Council, through the Institut Municipal d'Habitatge i Rehabilitació (IMHAB), has selected the project presented by Mediaurban (the Urban Content Agency of the MEDIAPRO Group) and the Hàbitat3 Foundation in compliance with urban planning legislation for the construction of 47 social housing units dedicated to public rental on 11-15 Badajoz street, in the Poblenou neighborhood. The homes will be fitted out by Habitant, the app designed by Mediaurban.
This award represents Barcelona City Hall’s first implementation of a new model called “delegated promotion” through which it awards third parties the promotion of affordable housing projects while the land remains in the ownership of public land. In this case, for the first time, the successful bid and developer is not a foundation or a non-profit entity but a commercial company, and the winning bid proposal has offered that the price of the house to be built is not only far below market price but also below the price of officially protected housing. The rental prices will be between € 5.5 per m² to €7 per m², compared to an average of 13-14 per m² in the area. Mediaurban, therefore, has presented a construction project of 47 protected rental apartments measuring between 50 m² to 80 m², to be managed by the Hàbitat3 Foundation.
Mediaurban will be responsible for the design and construction of the 47 apartments in a building plot of 4,340 m², known as “Illa Sibèria”, which will be rented out at affordable rates. Mediaurban and the Hàbitat3 Foundation have presented the best technical and economic proposal for the tender. The project, financed using private funding, also provides for the authorization of collective use spaces on the roof and in some areas of the ground floors such as an industrial laundry, a library and a landscaped area for community vegetable gardening, among others.
There will also be an area devoted to conserving the memory of the venue as a space within the urban complex, a tribute to the neighborhood of La Plata and the grassroots revolution undertaken by La Sibèria through the process of industrialization of artificial ice, which transformed consumption habits at the metropolitan level.
The promotion of rental housing for official protection in the "Illa Sibèria" aims to provide affordable housing to people who appear on the Register of applicants for official protection public housing in Barcelona. The area can also be used by local social groups and bodies. Mediaurban is responsible for carrying out the architectural project, the design and construction of the houses, which will be managed and administered by the Hàbitat3 Foundation, manager of social rental housing promoted from the Third Sector Committee. Families who are entitled to housing will be able to access if they are registered in the Single Registry of applicants for protected housing in Barcelona, through the regulated access processes carried out by the Barcelona City Hall.
Among the aspects that have stood out and that have been valued well above other proposals presented during the public bidding process are the flexibility of housing and the quality of the space of the architectural proposal, as well as universal accessibility, constructive rationality , structural and facilities.
The proposal contains double-orientation homes (one facing the street and the other inside the block) formed by a large dining space; an open kitchen that occupies the central space and articulates the distribution of the house, which allows the grouping into two, three or four rooms depending on the needs of occupation; and two terraces with glass doors to favor the vision of the green spaces of the surroundings.
The plot where future social housing will be built is located within the "Illa La Sibèria", an old ice factory built at the beginning of the 20th century by industrialists Christensen and Corominas with Bernadí Martorell as architect.
The new housing complex will consist of 5 scale cores, managed by a concierge and Habitat3 experts. Tenants and the concierge can also communicate through Habitant, a digital application developed by Mediaurban. Habitant allows, among other functions, to manage community spaces, make reservations or proposals for uses in shared spaces, as well as communicate any incident. The apartments also feature a tech-pack to monitor energy consumption via the Internet of Things and to reduce the property’s environmental footprint, not to mention energy and maintenance bills. Cellnex is the chosen technological partner of the platform developed by Mediaurban.
The construction of affordable housing in the "Illa Sibèria" is a pioneering project where, for the first time, a municipal lot is tendered under a surface right regime for social rent and opens up to commercial companies for profit, because they are also jointly responsible for The generation of official protection housing. The model is included in the “delegated promotion” provided in the Plan for the Right to Housing of Barcelona 2016-2025 of the Barcelona City Council, which consists of seeking alliances with private sectors for profit or non-profit to build and manage officially protected housing in a cooperative or rental regime, without losing in any case the public ownership of the land. In particular, the Right to Housing Plan foresees that 25% of the expansion of the affordable park will be done through partnerships with the private and cooperative sector.
The MEDIAPRO Group boasted the big stand at the recent NiceOne Barcelona event, which took place from November 28th to December 1st in the exhibition site on Gran Via. Over the four days of the event, thousands of people visited the stand in pavilion 6, where the Group had set up 9,500 square meters of digital entertainment possibilities. According to the official Barcelona Exhibition figures, more than 120,000 visitors made their way through the doors.
The MEDIAPRO stand featured three different entertainment options for visitors of all ages with one of the highlights being the world premiere presentation by The Breach Studios of their new video-game The Harvest, a new Class-Based Shooter game for PC which blends action, strategy and fast-moving decision making where players have to compete in teams against other users with the goal of controlling the Essence of the universe and be the last team standing.
LVP set up the Orange Stadium, with a capacity for over 1,300 spectators, and which played host to a variety of different eSports competitions. The Iberian Cup League of Legends, the competition organized by LVP and Riot Games, crowned a new champion at the event: MAD Lions. The broadcast of the finals by LVP saw more than 400,000 viewers with the Iberian Cup amassing more than 1.2 million viewers since its launch in October. In addition, the League of Legends Storm Circuit, the annual competition presented by Intel and HP which brings together the best amateur teams in Spain reached its final phase at NiceOne Barcelona with Vodafone Giants Academy running out winners.
VISYON was also present at the fair. With an impressive stand, the pioneering MEDIAPRO Group company which develops immersive technology solutions showcased its XReSports (a mix of Extended Reality and eSports) competition with its Tower Tag game, a multi-player shooter game (three against three) where users, equipped with VR glasses, a machine gun and a touch-sensitive suit to feel the impact of the shots fight against each other.
The 2020 European Championship will be one of the world’s greatest televised and broadcast sporting events. Òscar Lago Domínguez, match producer of the MEDIAPRO Group, has been selected by UEFA to be part of the select team of seven producers who are in place to guarantee the best possible coverage of an event taking place this coming 12th June to 12th July in twelve European cities.
Never before has a Spanish producer participated in events such as a FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship since the production of all major national football competitions is centralized. Òscar Lago Domínguez will take the helm at the headquarters of Baku (Azerbaijan) to become the first Spanish representative to be part of the production team of a Euro cup event. Lago is one of the most reputable and experienced sports producers on the international scene and has been in charge of the 2010 and 2019 UEFA Champions League finals in Madrid. Oscar’s experience includes more than 100 UEFA Champions League games, 1000 LaLiga matches, the last final of the Copa Libertadores and other events such as the Olympic Games in Barcelona or the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The MEDIAPRO Group has extensive experience in the production of major sporting events and will send a team a 51-strong operations team to Baku, including 28 camera operators, 12 replay, 2 producers, 2 sound technicians, 2 assistant cameras, 4 production assistants and 1 director.
The Iberian Cup League of Legends, the competition organized by LVP (MEDIAPRO Group) and Riot Games, has crowned its champion: MAD Lions. The Lions ran out as winners in the end (3-0) in the final played at the NiceOne Barcelona event, the benchmark digital entertainment festival organized by Fira de Barcelona.
The same teams, although with different players, were back at it again 12 months on. And the result didn’t change either but this year the MAD Lions’ win was even easier than the previous than in 2018, despite Vodafone Giants, the current Superliga Orange champs, starting as favorites at the bookies. The match was over in the blink of an eye with a 3-0 drubbing handed out by the team from Madrid with a great team performance with a special mention for the Czech shooter Ales "Freeze" Knezínek who was voted MVP. In the Summoner’s Rift there was only one winner with a repeat win for the Lions.
The broadcast of the finals by LVP attracted more than 400,000 spectators with the Iberian Cup notching up more than 1.2 million viewers since its start in October. The live final phase of the Iberian Cup played in front of an expectant Barcelona crowd filled the Orange Stadium, with more than 1,300 spectators from Friday to Sunday.
The LVP NiceOne Barcelona is part of MEDIAPRO Group’s commitment to the sector, which saw it set up the biggest stand (9500 m2) and which also showcased Visyon (virtual reality virtual) and The Breach Studios (The Harvest) products.
Three days of eSports at NiceOne Barcelona
In the first semi-final, played on Friday, MAD Lions took out S2V 3-1 overall. With an Orange Stadium packed to the rafters, the Alvar “Araneae” Martín and his boys ran out easy winners against the team from Barcelona, cruising to victory in the first two maps and although they lost the third, they sealed their berth for the final in the fourth map as predicted by all the experts. The MAD Lions surprised everyone with the announcement at NiceOne Barcelona that the Spanish set-up would be playing in the next edition of the LEC, Europe’s most important League of Legends competition.
The second final also went the way of the first, although Vodafone Giants didn’t have it all their own way. The current Superliga Orange champs beat the Portuguese team For the Win Esports 3-1, who won the second map and were close to forcing a fifth map.
Vodafone Giants Academy, Storm Circuit champs
The Vodafone Giants didn’t go home empty-handed from Barcelona, despite losing the Iberian Cup. The Storm Circuit League of Legends, the annual competition presented by Intel and HP and which brings together the very best amateur teams from around Spain, culminated at the NiceOne Barcelona with Vodafone Giants Academy crowned champs. The Giants’ academy team beat Kawaii Kiwis (2-0) in the final and walked off with the trophy as the best team in the amateur ranks in Spain. The finals of the competition organized by Riot Games was played in the Orange Stadium and was broadcast live by LVP.
“Maras. Ver, oír y callar” (Maras. See, hear and shut up) continues to claim awards and nominations. This morning, news published confirms that the short film produced by Globomedia (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) in collaboration with CEAR (Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance) has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Goya in the category of Best Drama Short, Maras, directed by Salvador Calvo and written by Alejandro Hernández, is joined on the shortlist by El nadador, Foreigner, Suc de Síndria and Xiao Xian, as reported by the Academy of Arts and the Cinematographic Sciences of Spain.
This short film, denouncing the situation for the majority of people fleeing violence generated by gangs in Central America who see their asylum applications to Spain denied, was received with widespread critical and public acclaim after visiting several festivals. Director, Salvador Calvo, picked up awards at the Alicante Film Festival and the l'Alfás del Pi Film Festival. In addition, the film received recognition zed with the special prize of the public by the Astorga Film Festival, as the Best Production by the International Short Drama Film Festival in Greece, and with the Retina Prize at the Ponferrada International Film Festival, among others. The movie is also in the running for a statuette in the prestigious Forqué Award in the category of Best Short Film.
“Maras. Ver, oír y callar” transports us to countries where the Maras mainly operate - Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala -, in which more than 10,500 murders were recorded last year, an average of 29 per day, figures similar to those recorded during an armed conflict. The short also denounces the situation of complete abandonment of victims of this violence during their flight to safety with real-life witness accounts form victims of these violent gangs served by CEAR in recent years so they can rebuild their lives.
The 22-minute short film, which stars Cristian Paredes, María Isabel Díaz, José Juan Rodríguez, Belén López and Edgar Vittorino. The cast is rounded off by Raul Prieto, Oscar Zafra, Luís Jaspe, and María Palacios.
The political comedy Vota Juan has been nominated for the Feroz awards in three categories: Best Comedy Series, Best Leading Actor in a Series, Javier Camara, for playing Agriculture Minister Juan Carrasco, and Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Adam Jerzieski, for giving life to the politician's assistant.
Created by Diego San José and Juan Cavestany, Vote Juan is an original TNT series, produced by 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) and WarnerMedia. It premiered on TNT in January 2019 and is popular among audiences with more than one million viewers in linear and non-linear broadcasts. The pilot episode became one of the year’s most successful pay-TV premieres.
The reviews have also been very positive with some media comparing it to American series such as Veep and highlighting the boldness and originality of addressing Spanish politics through comedy.
The huge success of Vote Juan also led to TNT and 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) deciding to produce a sequel titled Vamos Juan, the filming for which wrapped last week with release date scheduled at first half of 2020. In season two, Javier Camara made his directorial debuted responsible for one of the episodes.
Vote Juan focuses on an insipid political figure of the Agriculture Minister, Juan Carrasco. After an aligning of the political planets, sparking Carrasco’s ambition, he decides to run in the party’s primaries and thereby qualify to enter the presidential candidacy race. Together with Javier Camara, the cast also features many others including, María Pujalte, as his Spin Doctor, Adam Jerzieski, as his PA, Yaël Belicha, as his wife, Esty Quesada (Soy una pringada), the Minister’s daughter, and Joaquín Climent, a Moncloa pack hound constantly terrifying our star. Vote Juan consists of eight episodes directed by Víctor García León and David Serrano.
