Between 1836 and 1840, construction work began on a monumental square designed by Francesc Daniel on the extensive plot of land occupied by the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Sant Josep since 1593, and in the area closest to Les Rambles. Molina designed a harmonious and orderly architecture that was superimposed on a strict Ionic colonnade that supported a generously sized terrace. In this dignified and unfinished square, the Boqueria Market was installed, one of the most popular temporary markets in Barcelona and which ended up being covered - for practical reasons - with a permanent metal shed, poorly attached to the surrounding buildings preventing the perception of its magnificent architecture. On the other hand, between the market and the Old Hospital of the Santa Creu, the so-called Gardunya Square was found, which was actually an open field caused by the bombings suffered during the civil war and which was used as a temporary area of loading and unloading.
In 2006, the City Council showed its will to start an operation to refurbish and improve the market and its surroundings.
The project was oriented towards the formation of three pieces: the square of Dr. Fleming facing Carme Street, the Canonge Colom Square facing L'Hospital Street and the large square formed by the gaps of La Gardunya and Sant Josep. Housing conceived in the manner of those proposed by Francesc Daniel Molina on the one hand and the new headquarters of the Massana School on the other were the new constructions that were proposed to define them.
Once the problems of loading and unloading had been solved underground, the main character of the proposal was this huge void (166 m x 84 m), practically three times the size of the Reial Square and partly occupied by the metal shed of the market. The project wanted to emphasise its temporality, its calligraphic character, its character as a shed and its secondary character in relation to the higher order of the surrounding architecture.
Following one of the first intentions outlined in the 'From the Liceu Theatre to the Seminary' project, everything possible was separated from the surrounding architecture and it was very much insisted that the Boqueria market was a shed and not a closed building; one of those light sheds with high ceilings to facilitate natural ventilation, without closed façades and with vertical blinds to protect it from the sun and rain. We did not want to lose the character of the Mediterranean market that represented the Boqueria all over the world and that related it so directly to Palermo and Istanbul.
The traditional vertical protections were replaced by horizontal tinted crystals hanging from the roof, thus increasing the market's natural lighting and improving the perception of the perimeter colonnade from any point inside.
The reduction in sales points implied by these operations was compensated by the proposal for an extension towards the Hospital area, treated as an extension of the old one with the added intention of balancing the very busy entrance from Les Rambles.
In order not to weaken the concept of a shed treated in the manner of a pleasant thick, protective, exempt and isomorphic forest that could be accessed from any point of its perimeter, the indispensable service building was built as small as possible and at the point that would be, after the expansion, the geometric centre of the shed.
