AN EXTENSIVE STUDY ON BARCELONA by Abirami

EVOLUTION OF CIUTAT VELLA & EIXAMPLE

INTRODUCTION On the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, in the Spanish Levante, it sits on a plain of land about 5 kilometers wide, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the east, the Collserola mountains to the west, the Besòs river to the north, and the Llobregat river to the southwest. It is a neatly defined and easily defensible area, with fertile soil, and it serves as the easiest passageway from the rest of the peninsula into Europe. Humans have been settling there, according to archeological remains, as far back as 5,000 BC. The city’s origins trace back to the Romans, who settled in the area in 15 BC and, in the first century BC, built the medieval city of Barcino. It was small, surrounded by a wall roughly 1.5 kilometers in circumference, with the characteristic Roman grid of perpendicular streets.

CERDÀ’S UTOPIAN PLAN In 1855, after the wall’s demolition the Spanish government approved plans for expansion of the city by architect Ildefons Cerdà.

KEY POINTS ABOUT CERDÀ’S PLAN His blocks were oriented northwest to southeast to maximize daily sun exposure. Almost identical proportions, with buildings of regular height and spacing and a preponderance of green space. Commerce was to take place on the ground floor, the bourgeoisie were to live on the floor above and the workers were slated for the upper floors. Each 20-square-block district was meant to be largely self-contained, with its own shops and civic facilities. Hospitals, parks, and plazas were to be spaced evenly throughout the city, to maximize equality of access.

HOW BARCELONA’S WALL FELL In 1859,

After the Roman Empire fell in the fifth century CE, the years saw a series of conquests — Visigoths, Arabs, what have you — but they all reused the existing city.

in response to criticisms, Cerdà released a modified version of the plan, with narrower streets no more than 20 to 30 meters wides and somewhat deeper buildings, with more room for commerce.

In the Middle Ages, the city grew and became more complex, the center of a region known as Catalonia. An extended wall was built in 1260, and then in the 15th century, the wall was expanded again to encompass the new Raval neighborhood. The part of the plain outside the wall was used for agriculture to provision the city.

The plan was approved by royal decree in

1860

Originally, each of Cerdà’s blocks was to have buildings on just two sides (sometimes three), occupying less than 50 percent of the total area, with gardens and green space. The buildings were to be low enough (no more than 20 meters tall) to allow for almost continuous sunlight in the interiors during the day.

THE GOAL In 1714, the War of the Spanish Succession ended and Barcelona was on the losing side. Upon its surrender, in order to suppress any future challenge, Philip V abolished many of the city’s institutions and charters, built a fortress citadel to keep an eye on it, and forbid Barcelona to grow beyond its medieval walls.

The goal of Cerdà was to combine the advantages of

Rural living (green space, fresh air and food, community) with the advantages of Urban living (commerce, culture, free flow of goods and ideas).

Though Cerdà designed the city before automobiles, he included wide streets and his famous chamfered (45-degree) corners in anticipation of urban steam trams distributing goods and people. They would need lots of room to turn. Remarkably, the wall around the city stayed in place hemming in a growing population and almost completely separating the city from the sea next to it for two more centuries. By the middle of the 19th century, population density was the highest in Spain, working conditions were miserable, sewage was out of control, water was dirty, and the city was struck by a series of cholera epidemics and riots.

CERDÀ’S ORIGINAL PLAN FELL VICTIM TO GREED AND POLITICS

1859

In , the royal government was approving Cerdà’s plan, the city government announced the winner: a plan by architect Antoni Rovira. The Spanish government ignored Rovira’s plan and pushed forward with Cerdà’s, but in Barcelona, the Catalan-friendly city government and the working classes alike saw it as an imposition from outside.

By 1854, when the Spanish government finally gave permission to take the wall down, it was one of the most hated structures in Europe. Townspeople immediately went at it with crowbars and pickaxes; it took 12 years to completely remove it. Then came one of the most extraordinary and underappreciated chapters in urban design history — a chapter that, though 175 years in the past, contains many omens and warnings for Barcelona’s current efforts.

Commercial pressures meant that blocks set aside for schools and other civic facilities were given over to commerce and industry. Buildings were often built on all four sides of the blocks’ interiors, rather than two. By 1890, the buildings occupied an average of 70 percent of the block’s area. By 1958, the total volume of space on the manzanas occupied by buildings had grown from Cerdà’s envisioned 67,200 square meters to 294,771. The blocks have only been built up further since.

URBAN TRANSFORMATION IN BARCELONA AFTER CERDÀ In 1888, Barcelona (which by then was home to 450,000 people) hosted the Universal Exhibition, a celebration of Catalan culture and the city’s growing influence. The event prompted urban upgrades throughout the city, including a new sewage and water system, and ushered in the architectural era of modernism, with several grand new structures built throughout the city. In 1929, the city, which had since grown to encompass six smaller settlements around it, hosted the International Exhibition, which brought more improvements, like public toilets and the complete replacement of gas lights with electric.

BATCH 2016 | SEC A

barcelona

urban study