Palo Alto is an industrial complex founded in 1875 by entrepreneurs Ramon Gal and Joan Puigsech, designed by architect Antoni Vila i Bruguera. In the 1970s it was divided up into small workshops and in the 1990s various professional artists and craftspeople established themselves here, renaming it Palo Alto.
Palo Alto is an enclosed territory, an urban island that conserves a piece of the memory of Barcelona, of its industrial past. Nineteen creative studies are distributed in the installations of this old manufacturing complex, reconverted now in full, comfortable spaces of light and with views of the exuberant garden. In Palo Alto, where businesses with different strategies live together, professional very diverse, and studies of very different dimensions, a project exists nevertheless and some common desires: to rehabilitate to recover, and to invest effort in rescue this place of work of the objections of the city.
More information:
http://unlike.net/barcelona/food/la-cantina-de-palo-alto
http://www.gardenista.com/posts/palo-alto-barcelona
Apologies for the video presented as it’s mostly an interview (and not in English!) nonetheless you can catch glimpses of the place throughout the video, especially towards the end. Note this is NOT a tourist attraction -as neither most off-the-beaten path proposals in this website- but something for those looking out for “non-touristy” stuff to do/to see while visiting Barcelona.
Video: © Barcelona.cat
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuKWoj_wO8A