The Beach Center (Barcelona City Council), an environmental and sustainability education facility specializing in the sea and the coastline, opened its doors on Somorrostro Beach in 2005 Initially designed as a space for family educational play in summer, the vision of its role in the neighborhood and the city has been evolving, as well as it has evolved, as well as it has been achieved. Today, with maturity, it is a meeting place for all, to know and connect with the sea, to discover its complexity, beauty, as well as fragility, and to reflect on how we relate to the sea.
During these first 20 years, the Beach Center’s educational team has brought the sea to 161,000 people, who have enjoyed some of the experiences, all of them free of charge, offered, such as workshops and educational games for children and adults, itineraries and guided tours, exhibitions, events. The Center, a member of the Barcelona Environmental Facilities Network (XEAB), has generated synergies with more than 100 public and private entities and NGOs, neighborhood groups and various initiatives that share the love and respect for the sea. In recent years, the Beach Center has become a point of communication and coordination of the network of entities that periodically organize awareness and waste collection actions on the city’s beaches and make visible the need to be responsible consumers.
Looking to the future, the Beach Center will continue to work to reinforce awareness of the need to care for the sea and the ocean, because we are only one species on a complex and wonderful planet, and because the benefits we receive from a healthy ocean outweigh the effort. We can enjoy with respect, and with the awareness that every small daily action has an impact – positive or negative – on our environment.
The Beach Center is open to the public from April 1 to October 31, from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 2 pm, with a program of diverse activities for everyone.
Instagram @ centredelaplatja_bcn / centreplatja@bcn.cat / 932 565 194
