The Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Port of Barcelona announce the international architectural competition for Liceu Mar

The project covers a site of 32,000 square meters and includes the creation of a new building, becoming a key element of the forthcoming redevelopment of the Muelle de España.

Liceu Mar aims to enhance the Port’s cultural dimension and become an integrative attraction rooted in its surroundings and the local territory.

The Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Port of Barcelona, and the administrations that make up the consortium—the Ministry of Culture, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona City Council, and the Diputació de Barcelona—are continuing to advance the development of the Gran Teatre del Liceu’s second venue, Liceu Mar, with the publication of the architectural competition for the contracting of project-design services.

Liceu Mar’s mission is to be a creative hub and a driver of cultural dynamism, offering innovative and collaborative proposals that rethink what it means to be an opera center in the twenty-first century. It will be a benchmark space for all audiences, ensuring universal access to culture and promoting contemporary creation. It will be a living, flexible, and sustainable facility, committed to both the present and the country’s cultural future, serving the public interest.

Liceu Mar seeks to strengthen educational activities and the Petit Liceu, as well as to boost contemporary creation through the establishment of the International Center for New Opera Creation. It also plans to establish a regular dance season and to program operas in diverse formats, such as baroque, chamber, or musical theater.

The Liceu Mar project envisions the construction of a new building and the design of its immediate context. The project encompasses the architectural requirements for its construction and, simultaneously, the definition of its urban integration. Architecture and urban planning are treated as an inseparable duo in the Liceu Mar Project.

Thus, the competition’s objective is to award the winning team the commission to prepare the Preliminary Design and the Basic Project of the building, as well as the Preliminary Design and the Basic Project for landscaping and civil works. It also includes the preparation of the documentation necessary for processing the amendment to the Port Vell Special Plan of Barcelona.

Liceu Mar’s location is situated within the service area of the Port of Barcelona, specifically in Port Vell, on a polygonal site. This project aims to enhance the Port’s cultural facet and become an integrative attraction rooted in the territory, acting as the spearhead of the new redevelopment planned for Muelle de España.

The building is estimated to cover approximately 9,000 square meters, with complete details of areas and requirements set out in the technical specifications, while the planning area encompasses a total of about 32,000 m². The new landscaping will include burying the roadways to enhance public spaces around Liceu Mar, creating shaded areas for comfort, providing access to the waterfront, and forming a new central space between Port Vell and the city.

The competition, with a budget of €1.2 million, equally funded by the Liceu and the Port of Barcelona, will be conducted in two phases: a first, non‑anonymous phase and a second, anonymous phase under a motto. The first phase will select five teams, which will then present their proposals in the second phase, from which a winner will be chosen. Non‑winning proposals that achieve at least 50 points will receive compensation of €25,000.

The international architectural competition is expected to run from July 2025 to June 2026, followed by the drafting of the preliminary design and basic project from July 2026 to April 2027. The second venue at Port Vell is projected to open in 2032, subject to the project’s progress.