An intergenerational meeting point where design, light, and space work together so that people with intellectual disabilities can choose, create, and actively participate in cultural life.
Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?
In Spain, 74% of young people with intellectual disabilities were unemployed in 2022, reflecting a systematic exclusion from social, cultural, and community life. This group lacks spaces that recognize their active and creative role in society. Can Crea responds to this gap as a flexible and stimulating cultural center for people with intellectual disabilities over 18, where participation, creativity, and learning coexist in an open and welcoming environment. Organized around two complementary services: one focused on labor insertion and the other on occupational therapy and creative expression, the center is conceived as a living experience that goes beyond the physical. It is a space that adapts to changing emotions and needs, allowing each user to find their own rhythm, combining focus, play, and learning according to the needs of each moment.
Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).
Everything in Can Crea starts from a clear concept: the person is at the center. From there, every design decision develops as a living system that responds to changing emotions and needs.The project transforms two industrial warehouses of the Can Ricart heritage complex, in Poblenou, Barcelona, into a flexible cultural center. The duality of the space itself allows us to read and develop the atmospheres: understanding where light enters more and where less, which zones invite encounter and which invite introspection.From this reading, color is applied according to the function of each space: warm tones activate and stimulate creativity while cool ones invite calm and emotional regulation. Strategic volumes of CLT panels, a renewable and sustainable material, connect and organize both warehouses, respecting the natural gradation of light and generating fluid routes between workshops, therapy rooms and rest areas. A space that listens, welcomes and transforms.
What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?
Can Crea is born from a constant dialogue between the space and the people who inhabit it. A cultural center that not only welcomes but listens, that not only functions but feels. It innovates by conceiving inclusive design as a living experience: flexible and multifunctional spaces, stimulating environments, therapy rooms, outdoor areas and interaction zones that adapt to the needs of each moment. CLT panels are not just structure; they bring warmth, enable sustainability, and allow reversibility, an intervention that respects heritage while building the future. Aligned with SDGs 10 and 11 and the Spanish Disability Strategy 2022–2030, the project promotes the integral development of people with intellectual disabilities by combining learning, artistic creation and community participation in cultural spaces. It connects families, caregivers, young people and local institutions, building a reference for inclusion where each person can explore their potential and be valued for their contributions.
Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?
Can Crea directly impacts young people with intellectual disabilities over 18, a group that is especially vulnerable during the transition to adult life. In Spain, 74% of this group were unemployed in 2022, reflecting an exclusion that extends beyond employment to a lack of spaces for growth, expression, and participation in society. Can Crea responds to this need by creating an environment free of physical, sensory and cognitive barriers, where each individual can explore their potential and be valued for their skills and contributions. Light, color and materials work together to generate atmospheres that accompany changing emotions and needs, allowing each young person to find their own rhythm. More than a space, Can Crea is a living experience that adapts and gives each person their own way of inhabiting it.
