Passeig de Circumval·lació, 8
History
In the same place where the França building is found today, in 1848 the Barcelona-Mataró railway station was built, on one of the few empty spaces that then remained within the city of Barcelona. It was to be kept the same, with several extensions, until 1926, the year in which works for the new station got underway, later inaugurated in 1929, coinciding with the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona.
The façade of the station building is 123 metres long, which allowing an exterior image grandiloquently integrated into the urban landscape. The style of the building followed a classic tendency, to highlight the magnificence and power of RENFE, the railway company which is the owner of the building.
The architects were Pedro de Muguruza, Raimon Duran Reynals and Pelai Martínez Paricio. Engineer Andreu Muntaner i Serra was author of the vault that covers the platforms. The decoration was done by Santiago Marco.
Rennovation
The building, which belongs to RENFE, was ceded to the University in April 1993. Renovation was quickly carried out since in September of the same year the new three-year degree in Labour Relations classes were due to begin there.
Years later, the south wing of the building was opened, with an entrance in Ocata street, which today houses the headquarters of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra Foundation, the Communication Station and the Audiovisual University Institute.
The surface area of the building, renovated for university purposes, is 15,558 m2. The architects who performed the rehabilitation of the part occupied by the University were Jaume Llobet and Josep Benedito.
Today, the França building houses the studies in the areas of Computing and Telecommunication engineering. It is scheduled for all of them to move for the 2006-2007 academic year to the new Ca l’Aranyó campus, which will be host to all of University’s communications studies.