The old Vinival wine cellars: the most visited architectural jewel of the Open House Valencia 2023 festival

• More than 350 people came to visit the old Vinival winery this weekend.

• Since 2018, Metrovacesa has been promoting the project to transform the area designed by the prestigious architect Juan Herreros. A proposal that would rehabilitate the wineries to put them at the centre of an eco-neighbourhood with new housing, facilities, services and 37,000m2 of open spaces, green areas and meeting places.

• The urban planning proposal already has more than 400 signatures of citizen support and is seen as the best guarantee to put an end to the vulnerable situation in which the winery building and its surroundings find themselves.

• The building is part of a project to regenerate a disused industrial area into an eco-neighbourhood.

Valencia, 22 October 2023. Breaking all attendance records for the activities of the Open House Valencia (OHV2023) international festival to promote the city’s architecture, more than 350 people came to visit the old Vinival winery this weekend. The building thus became the most visited of the 5th edition of the event, followed by such admired spaces as the Palacio de los Marqueses and the Lonja de la Seda.

In disuse since 2008, when it moved its activity to Chiva, this unique piece symbol of identity of the Patacona neighbourhood in the municipality of Alboraya continues to deteriorate as it awaits a second life. Asked for their impressions of this jewel of Valencian industrial heritage, those attending the open day highlighted its formal singularity and regretted its state of deterioration, while imagining a future for the building with new uses for the community: “Rehabilitating this space would be great to give it a cultural and family use that would be a further boost for Alboraya and for the city of Valencia” said Alicia, one of the visitors who came last Saturday afternoon.

The Open House Valencia has become, for the second consecutive year, an unmissable event for those who demand the protection of the building and the regeneration of the area: “The Vinival sector is a space full of opportunities that is being wasted”, said several neighbours who demanded that the relevant administrations and bodies make progress in the processing of the urban development plan they have on the table to transform the whole area and stop the degradation it is currently suffering.

Since 2018, Metrovacesa, majority owner of the area, has been promoting the project to transform the area designed by the prestigious architect Juan Herreros. A proposal that would rehabilitate the wineries to put them at the centre of an eco-neighbourhood with new housing, facilities, services and 37,000m2 of open spaces, green areas and squares for people to meet.

The urban design, inspired by other reference neighbourhoods at the forefront of social and environmental sustainability, has been worked on with administrations, technicians and professionals, local associations and neighbours of the neighbourhood to better adapt to the needs and expectations of the local community. Through this extensive process, the project has incorporated improvements such as the reduction of the heights of residential buildings, the reservation of space for a supermarket, a new access from the north or the introduction of restrictions on the use of tourist housing and recreational uses that may generate nuisance to residents.

This is why the urban planning proposal already has more than 400 signatures of citizen support and is seen as the best guarantee to put an end to the vulnerable situation in which the winery building and its surroundings find themselves. The success of Open House Valencia 2023 once again puts all eyes on the future of this former industrial sector, which is currently awaiting the institutional impetus necessary to restore the value of one of Alboraya’s most prized architectural treasures.