Re-Visiting Metropolitan Barcelona

VISITING

In addition to compiling and presenting the projects built in the 2013-2017 period, this book takes a look back at the work carried out over the last 30 years, and outlines new ways forwards in the design and construction of metropolitan public space.

RE

The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is a public institution with the primary mission of structuring and unifying the territory, and its Public Space Services Directorate is responsible for designing and constructing the public spaces that connect and define the 36 municipalities that make up the metropolitan city.

ISBN 978-84-87881-22-0

RE

VISITING

METROPOLITAN

BARCELONA PUBLIC SPACE 2013—2017

RE

VISITING

METROPOLITAN

BARCELONA

PUBLIC SPACE 2013—2017

INDEX

5 Foreword. Ada Colau, Antonio Balmón

20

P RO LO G U E

22 Against green populism. David Bravo 25 Knowledge of the place, essential in the metropolitan park project. Claudi Aguiló-Riu, Eva Pagès 28 Managing the XPM. Jordi Bordanove

8 10

Concept and structure AMB Territory

PA R K S PAC E

14 The construction of metropolitan public space 31 Pi Gros Park. Sant Vicenç dels Horts Ramon Torra LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

39 Can Zam Park. Santa Coloma de Gramenet LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

47 Service building of the Botanic Garden. Barcelona LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

55 Interventions in parks Network of Metropolitan Parks LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

58 Torreblanca Park Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Sant Joan Despí, Sant Just Desvern 60 Historical Botanic Garden Barcelona 62 Muntanyeta Park Sant Boi de Llobregat 63 Turonet Park Cerdanyola del Vallès 65 Signposting. Network of Metropolitan Parks LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

73 Joan Oliver Park. Badia del Vallès URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

81 Mamut Venux Park. Sant Vicenç dels Horts URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

87 3d1 column

88

C OAS TA L S PAC E

90 The coastal space of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. Lluís Cantallops 92 Thirty years of the Metropolitan shoreline Moisés Martínez-Lapeña 97 Seafront of the Torre de Guaita. Montgat URBAN — INTERSTICE

101 Seafront. Castelldefels LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

109 Furniture. Metropolitan beaches LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

111 CIM-AMB integrated modular column 112 RIM-AMB bicycle parking racks 113 AMB korfball basket

6

114

R I V E R S PAC E

116 Brigade, lasagne and neighbourhood paths Martí Franch 118 The lower course of the river Llobregat Antoni Farrero 123 Ford across the river Llobregat Sant Boi de Llobregat / Sant Joan Despí LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

131 Promenade and footbridge over the river Ripoll Montcada i Reixac URBAN — LIMITS

135 Approaches to the river Llobregat

Sant Vicenç dels Horts LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

142

C OV E R E D S PAC E

144 Co-open space. Olga Felip, Josep Camps 146 Social use beyond the usual. Xavier Segura 151 Can Baruta civic centre Santa Coloma de Cervelló LANDSCAPE — CONSOLIDATED CITY

157 La Capsa and Joan Garcia-Nieto square El Prat de Llobregat URBAN — INTERSTICE

164 Signposting of La Capsa building 167 Els Encants school. Barcelona URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

179 Antonio Amorós athletics track Santa Coloma de Gramenet LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

187 L’Escorxador municipal swimming pool

Sant Feliu de Llobregat LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

197 New secondary school. Castelldefels LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

205 La Barruana football stadium Sant Vicenç dels Horts URBAN — INTERSTICE

210

U R BA N S PAC E

212 … and all the rest, urban space. Ivan Blasi 214 Public space in consolidated fabrics Oriol Ribera 219 Sagarra Market and surrounding streets

Santa Coloma de Gramenet URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

231 Gardens of Requesens Palace Molins de Rei LANDSCAPE — CONSOLIDATED CITY

237 Green space in Verdi street. Badalona LANDSCAPE — CONSOLIDATED CITY

245 Vila square. Montgat URBAN — INTERSTICE

251 Penedès square. Cerdanyola del Vallès URBAN — INTERSTICE

258

M O B I L I T Y S PAC E

260 Towards a new concept of urban mobility in metropolitan space Carles Llop 262 Stories of mobility and revisiting some public spaces. Noemí Martínez, Luisa Solsona 267 Paral·lel Avenue. Barcelona URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

275 Paral·lel column 277 Civic path. Sant Climent de Llobregat LANDSCAPE — LIMITS

283 Passages URBAN — INTERSTICE

285 Cuba street. Badalona 286 Farigola walkway.

Cerdanyola del Vallès 288 Railway underpass. Gavà 289 Railway underpass. Badalona

E P I LO G U E 290 Fusing nature, public space and city Enric Batlle 296

AMB Collection. Metropolitan spaces 1989—2017 302 AMB Team 304 Imprint

7

CONCEPT AND STRUCTUR E

AMB TERRITORY

638

km2

TOTAL SURFACE AREA

3.2

millions

INHABITANTS

10

3

MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

36

MUNICIPALITIES

2

PRINCIPAL RIVERS

Badalona Badia del Vallès Barberà del Vallès Barcelona Begues Castellbisbal Castelldefels Cerdanyola del Vallès Cervelló Corbera de Llobregat Cornellà de Llobregat Esplugues de Llobregat Gavà L’Hospitalet de Llobregat Molins de Rei Montcada i Reixac Mongat Pallejà

PROLOGUE

42

km

OF COASTLINE

La Palma de Cervelló El Papiol El Prat de Llobregat Ripollet Sant Adrià de Besòs Sant Andreu de la Barca Sant Boi de Llobregat Sant Climent de Llobregat Sant Cugat del Vallès Sant Feliu de Llobregat Sant Joan Despí Sant Just Desvern Sant Vicenç dels Horts Santa Coloma de Cervelló Santa Coloma de Gramenet Tiana Torrelles de Llobregat Viladecans

Projectes realitzats durant els darrers 30 anys publicats per l’AMB i, destacats amb el número de pàgina, els que apareixen en el present volum.

73

286

251

63

131

219

39

285

237

245

65

97

289 179

58 231 81

167

31 205 187

137 267 151

47

60

123 62 277 157 288 109 199 101

GEOGR APHICAL SITUATION: A CLOUD OF PROJECTS

11

R AMON M. TORR A Architect. Manager, Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona.

The construction of metropolitan public space

14

PROLOGUE

THE CONSTRUCTION OF METROPOLITAN PUBLIC SPACE

F

or over 30 years, at the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) we have worked with the conviction that public space, the space that belongs to everyone, plays a vital role in the conception, construction and transformation of cities.

The metropolitan city (the city of cities) is a complex, diverse reality, an urban continuity of 36 municipalities with well-defined historical identities, bound up with a geography characterised by natural systems: the Litoral hill range, including Collserola, the Marina range and the Garraf massif; two rivers, the Besòs and the Llobregat; and 40 kilometres of coastline.

Public space, the ultimate democratic space, defines and identifies a collectivity; it is a meeting place, a place in which to coexist, celebrate and protest. It mitigates social inequalities and functions as a catalyst of social cohesion.

Public space organises the territory, giving it consistency and internal structure. It is capable of bringing the same urban quality to the centre and to the periphery, to the whole and to each of the parts of the metropolis.

This confidence in public space as an element that structures and unites the territory defines a way of

working in which the intentions and objectives are constant, backed by a strong political will, while the criteria and logics of intervention respond to each specific programme and location thanks to the involvement of a highly-specialised technical team.

Looking back, reviewing and revisiting the different interventions in public space that have been designed, tendered, built and, in some cases, maintained by the AMB, we see the arguments and common criteria which, beyond the particularities of each work, at once define and explain the ‘model’. Model in quotation marks, because it cannot be reduced to an intellectual imposition, to a reference to be imitated or reproduced, which, by definition, has an expiry date.

Instead, this model has to emerge as a way of working that is enhanced and transformed by each new proposal, a way of working that is constantly guided by its own experiences and is, therefore, capable of adapting and responding to the needs and demands of each historic moment.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the deficit of infrastructures, facilities and services, the discontinuous occupation of the territory and the accumulation of historic buildings in rundown urban centres called for forceful

R E-VISITING

15

COVERED SPACE 42 %

TEACHING FACILITIES

26 %

CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS FACILITIES

12 %

9

%

142

SPORTS FACILITIES

HEALTH ANDCARE FACILITIES

9

%

ADMINISTRATIVE AND SAFETY FACILITIES

2 %

SUPPLY FACILITIES

The land set aside for amenities is equal to the surface area occupied by built amenities.

AMB ELEMENTS

500

> 80

PRE-SCHOOL CENTRES

400

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

SOCIAL CENTRES

FACILITIES 1975

MUNICIPAL MARKETS

FACILITIES DEVELOPED BY THE AMB

1,800

1991–95

6,000

2017

USERS

94

3 47

2011–15

PROXIMITY OF POPULATION TO BASIC FACILITIES

10’

87 %

CLOSE TO A PUBLIC OR PRIVATE INFANT AND PRIMARY SCHOOL (3-11 YEARS)

87 %

CLOSE TO A CIVIC OR CULTURAL CENTRE

67 %

CLOSE TO A FACILITY IN THE BASIC SPORTS NETWORK

14 3

OLGA FELIP / JOSEP CAMPS Architects. Camps Felip Arquitecturia.

Co-open space

City and nature

“We can achieve a more humane material life if only we better understand the making of things, the processes that have shaped our surroundings, and we become craftsmen of the environment.”

RICHARD SENNETT

E

urope is a city of cities as well as a landscape of landscapes. The city of yesterday was seen as the antithesis of nature, since nature was perceived as a hostile reality and represented as a danger from which we had to protect ourselves. Whereas, in the early 20th century, the new modern vision set out to improve people’s quality of life by means of healthier, well-lit and wellaired spaces, today improving our quality of life means improving the quality of the environment in which we live. The time of living within walled enclosures is past,

14 4

we have left behind expansive growth models and decontextualised new towns, and the era of large infrastructure that was a symbol of modernity. Now, we are living in a time of rebalance and reconciliation, when we have to look back to rediscover our origins, and take a step forwards in relation to history (who we are) and nature (what we are).

European cities are the memory and legacy of our past and our habitat, where we live and interrelate. Today, we imagine and conceive of cities adapted to natural processes and cycles, that preserve the natural systems running through and surrounding them, and are integrated into the geography and the territory of which they form part. Architecture has to learn to incorporate these cycles, too, generating permeable spaces and understanding them as the landscape that forms a habitat.

We see each city as having a deepseated inherent structure that has been shaped by its natural substratum and historic layouts. It is this structure that lives on, and that we understand to give it its identity, reinforcing the sense of belonging of the community that inhabits it, the sense of forming part of this place rather than another, in the situation of a globalised world. This permanent structure linking memory and nature exists alongside the ephemeral and changing, the fleeting aspects of today’s world in which we are nomads rather than in-

COVER ED SPACE

habitants. Permanent and ephemeral, in architecture, too, they are superposed to form today’s living city. And this life is the point of departure for public architecture in the city.

Permanent and ephemeral

“The more mobile everything becomes, the more important localisation is.”

RICHARD FLORIDA

One of the most striking transformations for life in cities has been the advent of digital technology, which has changed the way people relate, introducing new languages and new media that generate an intangible, globalised public space.

Though we need spaces in which to work, exchange and interrelate, highly dynamic, uncertain and ambiguous in their configuration, this reality will continue to form part of a concrete, tangible, physical world, with buildings where the presence of matter and environment will be substantial. The city, public and urban space, and public facilities become the common place and the setting where the condition of the specific and material

CO -OPEN SPACE

becomes necessary and even indispensable to knowing that we continue to form part of a place, a time and a culture. The city, like architecture and nature, has a physical, material condition, and this condition of rootedness and permanence may gain in strength to counter virtual reality.

Furthermore, urban spaces that act as a threshold, interstices between neighbourhoods or spaces of transition between natural systems and urban layouts, between infrastructures and public space, offer a good opportunity to generate generic, ephemeral and changing, social or cultural meeting spaces, platforms to support the event. Like in nature, threshold spaces are the most alive and favourable to interaction and exchange. This condition of ambiguity is also present in heritage and in some historic fabrics, infrastructures that have become obsolete and been forgotten but which nonetheless form part of the memory of a place or a neighbourhood. Their condition of boundary often offers an urban opportunity for a public facility when we set ourselves to imagining how they can be incorporated once more into day-to-day life. This need gives rise to the occupation of urban ruins or historic buildings, reincorporating them into the everyday fabric. In this case, the challenge lies in adapting them to present-day regulations and the functional requirements of new uses.

It is precisely its condition as a threshold but also the abandonment of any prior functional question that allows the public facility to enjoy a unique characteristic, the condition of stage: spaces where everything imaginable is possible, with no predetermined programmes, where everyone is welcome, a game board, a platform of action for the community. This is the condition of the co-open space, public open space, quite distinct from the interior that clearly defines the private, intimate space. The co-open space is inclusive and open to the entire community, a continuation of the landscape, be it urban or natural.

These are permeable facilities in rela-

tion with the conditions of the physical, social and natural environment, so that they do not just transform the space that they delimit, they also influence their nearby urban environment. The interior programme of the public amenity overlaps with the existing structure and the environment, with the layout of the city and with everything that is concrete and specific about the place, both addressing the context and transforming it.

Stage and event

“Everything is transformed into instants, into looks.”

ENRIC MIRALLES

Life, moments and looks are what give meaning to architecture, the public building, urban space and the city. This is the point of departure, where architecture becomes the backdrop to histories and stories, of encounters and missed meetings. Today, covered public space takes on this meaning, like a blank sheet of paper on which multiple realities are drawn and blur, like an inert, ambiguous, mute space that light up when it fills with action and life.

The way we experience urban public space and the way we relate has changed over time. We have gone from voyeur to Instagrammer and from collecting to sharing, where the essential difference lies in the focus of the action and who carries it out. Privacy has vanished, and both public and domestic space have changed their meaning. Personal opinion or comments, the intimate, domestic moment, along with gossip, acquire a public dimension available to everyone.

In this context, where the immediacy, proximity and domesticity of relations transcend formality, composure and regulatory protocols, public facilities and, by extension, public space have to

VISITING

become co-open space—that is, open, shared space, a space with no filters or limits.

This means that the content of the building is not as important as the event or the action in itself—that is, the activities that take place both around and inside it. For this reason, parts of the functional programmes have become obsolete, whereas new open and spontaneous needs have emerged. Architecture, like the city itself, has to be capable of providing a support to the unpredictable to allow diversity and heterogeneity to burst forth and coexist, towards a social cohesion and a common identity, welcoming both local residents and everyday users, and people who are passing through.

We are all actors and spectators, which means that public space, whether it is covered or uncovered, is an undetermined, neutral space that can be appropriated. Architecture and urban space become a continuum, and only the most personal and intimate is preserved from prying eyes. What roots us in a place is that which makes it specific and unique— that is, when the public facility recognises and reveals the deep-seated, inherent structure of the city.

“If we are to achieve balance in any ecosystem –natural or urban–we have to promote diversity, a wealth of elements regarded as a whole, resulting in a greater interchange of stimuli and creative interaction between people.”

RAMON FOLCH

145

X AVIER SEGUR A Architect. Director of Public Space Services, AMB.

Social use beyond the usual

I

f by public space we understand civic space that is available to citizens, we have to include under this heading public buildings and amenities, covered public space, where public space offers a continuum of spaces with no precise borders, accommodating all manner of engagements and intermediate space, spaces of symbiosis. At Mercè Rodoreda Arts Centre and Library (2011, Carlos Llinás) in Sant Joan Despí, there is a series of public spaces in the form of courtyards, indoor gardens, terraces and landscaped roofs; and at the school of music in Santa Coloma de Gramenet (2007, Carlos Llinás), a square that can host musical performances is also the entrance and provides lighting, via a series of courtyards, to a new underground auditorium with seating for 216 persons.

But it is not just the border between covered and uncovered public space that is blurred; the very definition of the terms is, too. An amenity can be an outdoor athletics track or the Grec Theatre, a street, a square or an arcade, a market or a station. Streets, squares, parks and beaches have become consolidated as settings to accommodate important sports and cultural events, as well as civic, recreational, social and even commercial activities.

Outdoor public space has come into its own and is showing that it is possible to consider other ways of using it, in a territory with a favourable climate and an established tradition of appropriation of

146

Can Roig i Torres Municipal Music School in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. © Aleix Bagué

Covered public space meets specific needs and offers quality of life; it also makes the city and is inseparable from its setting.

COVER ED SPACE

the street. Covered public space meets specific needs and offers quality of life; it also makes the city and is inseparable from its setting.

Over the last 30 years, the AMB has been a prime witness to the changes undergone in the demand for amenities.

Investment plans highlight a constant increase in the proportion in number and budget of interventions involving covered as opposed to outdoor public space. They have grown in surface area, complexity of brief, services provided, versatility, proximity, cost and quality,

SOCIAL USE BEYOND THE USUAL

alongside a continuing development of new typologies in all sectors. A complex brief, mix of uses and social use beyond the usual—like Jaume Fuster Library, a venue that accommodates homeless people—are now a general trend.

Despite the current crisis that began in 2007, the municipalities in the AMB have diminished neither their demands nor the desire to continue investing, in the conviction that social cohesion, employment and self-esteem are at stake. In fact, during the last mandate (2012-2015), metropolitan councils presented as many as 150 amenity-related requests to the P ublic Space Service, of which 87 have been transformed into projects, and 47 of them have been constructed.

Although the global crisis and municipal debt might have suggested a drop in investment, this has not been the case. With determination, administrations in the local world, with the support of inter-municipal administration, have been able to find ways of managing investment in both new construction and rehabilitation. In this respect, implementation by phases, programmed with criteria and consensus, has been one of the most successful mechanisms. One example is Ricard Ginebreda Sport Complex (2013, Roger Méndez) in Molins de Rei, carried out in three phases, the last of which will begin in December and includes a hall for gymnastics and climbing.

Amenities have been vital in the process of democratic recovery: social, cultural and civic centres, sports installations and libraries, education, health and residential centres, and museums.

We should also add social housing for young and elderly people, and the in-

Ricard Ginebreda Sports Complex in Molins de Rei. © Marcela Grassi

Marta Mata Library in the Titan Building in Cornellà de Llobregat.

Cerdanyola Central Library. © Simón García

© Adrià Goula

frastructure of technical spaces for the management of our towns and cities (power plants, water and waste treatment plants, etc.).

Retrofitting cannot be considered separately from neighbourhood protests that continue to call for green space and facilities, from good council management, and the forecasts of the Metropolitan Master Plan of 1976. The purchase of land and property by administrations has provided space for new proposals and

R E-VISITING

147

X AVIER SEGUR A

the possibility of recovering architectural heritage, like the mythical Titan cinema in Cornellà de Llobregat, now Marta Mata Library (2008, Antonio Montes), or the former Altis gymnasium, transformed into a central library for Cerdanyola (2015, Marina Salvador). Social demands have, in some interventions, prompted the creation of veritable city blocks of amenities, as in the case of the Sant Andreu barracks or the Can Batlló factory, also in Barcelona.

No less important in our part of the world is the fact that, whereas elsewhere all the effort of retrofitting had to be carried out by the public sector, here we had a large private network of facilities of many associations, clubs, factories, cooperatives, etc., which have also been updated, often with public support.

With time, typologies have evolved: libraries have been leaders of change, sports associations have increased their services and activities, as have civic and social centres. Schools have once again blurred the boundaries of the learning and work space, as in the case of the new Els Encants School (2016, Roger Méndez) in Barcelona, and old markets have reinvented themselves. Health centres have become more specialised, welfare centres are now more diverse, and social housing and prisons have also changed.

New words and new concepts in new spaces have emerged over the years, with business incubators, creation factories, coworking spaces, business landings, start-up launchers, fab labs, city labs, collaborative economy initiatives, etc., becoming part of the public offer and blurring the boundaries of more traditional programmes.

The latest interventions aim to incorporate and develop concepts that promote sustainability in all its aspects.

With the impetus of European directives, international agreements and Agenda

21, and technical building codes, there is an increased sensibility to accessibility, versatility and, in particular, quality in the management and delivery of services to citizens.

Despite increasing complexity, when the brief is well defined and the project entrusted to good architecture and engineering professionals, and when the surroundings and covered public space are worked on jointly, it is possible to produce the best works, obtain social and public recognition, and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.

As a result, the metropolitan territory is full of high quality public amenities that define the identity of each district. In the last 40 years, they have tripled, now occupying 6 % of the territory, twice as much as parks and almost the same as industry, to serve a population that has remained relatively stable. These facilities become nodes of attraction of activity and constitute a network of basic local services that structure our towns and cities.

In the framework of the new Metropolitan Urban Master Plan, and in view of preliminary studies and the creation of an exhaustive database of existing metropolitan amenities, the debate about their future is now being tabled, addressing issues such as available land and its format, and the mobility deriving from it.

Urban planning keys and classical typologies must be reviewed to ensure amenities that are more comprehensive in supply and use. Hybrid facilities such as the Borbó Depot, Santa Caterina Market or the Design Hub—all located in Barcelona—show that health and welfare uses and social housing, key elements in the challenge of an ageing population, are compatible with cultural or supply uses.

To avoid indefinite consumption of land, we have to densify existing amenity land by developing a compact, high-rise diversity of uses. The example of Europa

Facilities become nodes of attraction of activity and constitute a network of basic local services that structure our towns and cities.

148

COVER ED SPACE

Sports Club, in Barcelona, shows that accommodating compact covered public spaces beneath outdoor spaces is a good strategy; beneath a neighbourhood football ground, over 7,000 m2 of new facilities are located, bringing more activity and versatility to the existing site and more life to the streets that surround it.

Recovering heritage and reusing former factories, warehouses and hospitals offer an opportunity to continue advancing without using up more land, as well as making the city. However, the overall reduction in land requirements must be accompanied by an increase in anticipated interventions at a smaller, more local scale. Civic use of natural and developed spaces linked with the amenities will give them a new brief and turn them into spaces of relation and activity.

New types of amenities will inevitably appear in order to meet the demands of a changing society. The future challenge will be to find a fit for them in the city, according to criteria of constraint and reuse of square metres of available land.

PROJECTS

151

167

179

205

197

187

157

Facilities, or covered public spaces, form the basis of the welfare state and ensure the quality of metropolitan life. In the last three decades, the population of the metropolis has remained practically stable, while the number of amenities has tripled. The AMB has centred its efforts on connecting new and existing amenities, and promoting the construction of local multifunctional amenities.

150

COVER ED SPACE

BARCELONA

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

167

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

ROGER MÉNDEZ (AMB) 2013 – 2015 4,150 m2 building 2,672 m2 urban development 4,819,062 €

The purpose of this intervention was to build a school with a pilot pedagogical project in Barcelona’s public schools network, in Les Glòries Plaza, an urban setting undergoing transformation and full of potential, some yet to be decided.

From the outset, the project established a dialogue with the school and the Catalan Department of Education, working together to reach a proposal that meets the specific needs of the school community.

AMB TE AM

Olga Méliz Aïda Artiz Gisela Traby Cati Montserrat Paula Beltran Cristina Pedreira Antonio Duran SUSTAINABILIT Y CONSULTANCY

Estudi Ramon Folch i Associats

Planning regulations called for the design of a high-rise school (five floors), and the dimensions of the plot were ideal for optimising the space set aside for the playground and generating outdoor spaces within the built volume. This made it possible to meet one of the school’s requests: teaching in the open air.

STRUCTURES

Bis Arquitectes INSTALL ATIONS

Tectram Enginyers DEVELOPERS

AMB Barcelona City Council GENER AL CONTR ACTOR

Dragados PHOTOS

Marcela Grassi

AWARDS

Finalist, Catalonia Construction Awards 2017. Category: Direction and execution of work.

Nominated, EU Mies Award 2017.

FAD Architecture Opinion Awards 2016.

Mention, Barcelona Architecture Exhibition 2016.

Shortlisted, 13th Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial 2015.

168

COVER ED SPACE

BARCELONA

N

UR BAN — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

100 m

169

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

170

COVER ED SPACE

BARCELONA

Second and third floor

N

Ground floor

10 m

The school was laid out by floors, grouped into twos. The ground and first floors accommodate the public part of the brief and the infants’ classroom, which are communicated by their own internal staircase. Floors two and three house the primary brief in a double block; classrooms to either side, communicated by a central space that will be used to continue teaching activity outside the classroom. To this end, the project includes open spaces to encourage pupil mobility around the various learning spaces. The fourth floor accommodates the communal spaces: the assembly hall/gymnasium, and a large terrace with a kitchen garden.

UR BAN — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

171

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

172

COVER ED SPACE

BARCELONA

UR BAN — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

173

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

The building expresses itself via an outer skin of post-painted metal sheet that is 35 % permeable to filter direct radiation and protect the classrooms from view. Behind this first skin is a second façade with a high percentage of glazing to allow natural light to shine in. The opaque facings are thermally insulated to well above the required standards, and an impermeable membrane aids breathability.

174

COVER ED SPACE

BARCELONA

UR BAN — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

175

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

176

COVER ED SPACE

BARCELONA

The south-east façade has three large openings to respond to the urban void of Les Glòries: the terrace on the fourth floor draws back the metal sheet to open up vistas; a gap in the façade of the special classrooms on the second and third floors is expressed as a large opening that also attends to the scale of the place; finally, a terrace on the first floor provides the necessary play area for the infants’ classrooms on this floor.

To achieve zero energy balance, the project includes 254 solar panels installed on the roof, a domestic hot water (DHW) production system based on three cascade condensing boilers with the support of an array of solar panels and an accumulation system, and the building’s double block typology is used to create the optimum climate for the installation.

67KW

TL5

CO2

O2

H 2O

100 m

UR BAN — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

177

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

178

COVER ED SPACE

MONTGAT

VILA SQUARE

245

VIL A SQUAR E

2013

ANTONIO MONTES (AMB) 2014 – 2017 1,089 m2 building 2,812 m2 urban development 1,257,627 € AMB TE AM

Mònica Mauricio Rosa Bertran Paula Beltrán Susana Casino Laura Gómez

To rationalise vehicle mobility, a public underground carpark has been built for local residents and municipal vehicles, with access from the side streets that take advantage of the site’s complex topography. The new section of the N-II where it meets Catalunya Street has made it possible to reduce the space allocated to the carriageway and increase the surface area of the square, where the free space for pedestrians is concentrated around the Town Hall.

STRUCTURES

Bis Estructures INSTALL ATIONS

ARCbcn DEVELOPERS

AMB Montgat Town Council GENER AL CONTR ACTOR

Dragados PHOTOS

Aleix Bagué

N

246

The remodelling of Vila Square is part of the project to integrate the main N-II road into the traffic network of Montgat. The aim is to create a more up-to-date urban space, in keeping with the reduction of traffic produced by the alternative use of the B-20 motorway and the construction of new infrastructure to connect with the urban nucleus.

10 m

UR BAN SPACE

MONTGAT

UR BAN — INTERSTICE

247

VIL A SQUAR E

The square has been constructed at the level of the municipal building. From the old Camí Ral road, the pavement divides into two alternative paths: one follows and continues the old N-II; the other starts as a gentle slope and leads to the public space in front of the Town Hall, which stands on a kind of raised platform that allows people to ‘discover’ the sea above the vehicles driving along the road. Placing a linear bench at the end of the platform serves as a boundary between the square and the pavements, and reinforces views of the sea.

248

The differences in level between the new square, the N-II and the side streets are resolved by ramps and stepped surfaces. To encourage pedestrians to use Mercat Street, the steps connecting it with the plaza have been remodelled in keeping with criteria of clarity, layout and urban versatility.

UR BAN SPACE

MONTGAT

The new plaza is paved with different sizes and layouts of granite slabs, and vegetation and shade are provided by palm trees planted in a grid arrangement that gives a new formalisation to the bounds of the plaza.

UR BAN — INTERSTICE

249

VIL A SQUAR E

250

UR BAN SPACE

VISITING

In addition to compiling and presenting the projects built in the 2013-2017 period, this book takes a look back at the work carried out over the last 30 years, and outlines new ways forwards in the design and construction of metropolitan public space.

RE

The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is a public institution with the primary mission of structuring and unifying the territory, and its Public Space Services Directorate is responsible for designing and constructing the public spaces that connect and define the 36 municipalities that make up the metropolitan city.

ISBN 978-84-87881-22-0

RE

VISITING

METROPOLITAN

BARCELONA PUBLIC SPACE 2013—2017