CONGRESS FOR THE
NEW URBANISM
CNU CHARTER AWARDS 2012 PHYSICAL ENTRY MATERIAL
PROJECT DESCRIPTION FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK One methodology for two smart neighborhoods in the Barcelona Metropolitan context. The following projects are the response of our studio to two of the major challenges raised in Catalonia in the last 20 years in relation with territory, city and housing. These projects have given us the opportunity to reflect, think, discuss and design the future city from a comprehensive and integrated point of view. It is essential to explain these two nodal and strategic projects together in order to understand the territorial scope of their opportunity, going beyond the specific areas and specific projects, to reflect on the overall incidence in the Region. The centrality of these territorial areas in relation with the main infrastructures of our territory (high speed train, airport, highways, main roads, subways…), the relation with the structural elements of territorial relevance, as the natural systems or the rural and agricultural environment (the “Llobregat” river and its river park, the “Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park”, the county park of “Massís d’Olèrdola”…), the role of the XXI century neighborhoods, the discussion of the city limits, the integration with the existing urban systems and fabric, or the incidence of these areas in the new emerging productive economies, are some of the territorial scope common issues that both projects deal with. We consider this application to the CNU Charter award 2012 as a territorial strategy, as a sum of projects with the same approach. We think that both proposals have to be considered as a methodology, and not only as projects themselves. A methodology that gives a possible answer to contemporary needs. The discussion begins with the restricted International Competition for the infill development of “Project B”, in which we were invited to participate. The proposal (“+ Prat”) for this smart neighborhood is conceived as an extension of the grid and the urban pattern, where the street is the main element of urbanity, identity and relation between the existing and the new city. The transformation of a highway (the “Gran Via”) into a new urban axis, is the proposed key solution to unify the existing city with the new smart neighborhood. After this experience we had the chance to be invited to participate at the restricted competition for the infill development of “Project A”. In this case the proposal (“Mar-Muntanya”) and guidelines for the district are conceived from the relationship between the city and the territorial scale open spaces. The smart neighborhood is conceived as a patchwork, the result of the reinterpretation of the historical patterns of the city, where public spaces, streets, blocks and buildings coexist in mixed use and complex urban tissues and fabrics.
+ PRAT
These two opportunities, and consequently the close knowledge of two realities, is what allows us to explain these two projects together as a common strategy and with the same methodological approach, a methodology in constant evolution. In relation with the Charter Principles, the conceptual contribution of the research of our team to the Regional and Urban Design Project, can be summarized under the following premises:
The Region: Metropolis, city and town - Territorial and Urban Identity: Landscape, culture and history The neighborhood, the district, and the corridor - Urban Structure: The definition of the open spaces - Codes and rules for the generic city: the urban fabric - Designing with management, or how to make projects possible - Environmental sustainability and social integration The block, the street and the building - The diversity of the city
MAR-MUNTANYA
awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
RESPONSE TO CHARTER PRINCIPLES Although these two projects are presented in the category according to the second level of the charter principles: Neighborhoods, Districts and Corridors, the approach and discussion was done from the territory scale to the local scale, defining blocks, streets, and building typologies. This “multiscale” approach allows to fit both proposals in the three scale charter principles proposed by the CNU. THE REGION: METROPOLIS, CITY AND TOWN TERRITORIAL AND URBAN IDENTITY: LANDSCAPE, CULTURE AND HISTORY Beyond the integration of projects in the context in which they are set, the proposals provide and define new meanings to the territory. The city no longer holds the Territory; it is the territory that falls within the city. The contrast between the city and the region gives way to a more inclusive reality that can be called Town-Territory. Instead of boundaries between conflicting realities, we talk about gradations or transitions between areas with different attributes. (Principles 3, 5, 6) THE NEIGHBORHOOD, THE DISTRICT AND THE CORRIDOR URBAN STRUCTURE: THE DEFINITION OF THE OPEN SPACES Once we determine the principal connections and relationships with the region, we define common and open spaces as the determined elements that define the attributes and values of the territory. Open spaces are defined in their strategic key points as the most powerful elements of the urban structure. (Principles 11, 14) CODES ANT RULES FOR THE GENERIC CITY: THE URBAN FABRIC We work on the physical form of the city making the distinction between closed formal projects and projects that need to be open and adaptable. We propose adaptable tools over time to ensure the structural and essential aspects of the city. The definition of a “probable city”, not predefined or predetermined that includes in its project its most visible component, the urban form and the architecture, but in which there are rules to design the city without designing every building. (Principle 17)
DESIGNING WITH MANAGEMENT, OR HOW TO MAKE PROJECTS POSSIBLE. We understand management as an integrated and inseparable part of the urban design. As a part of the development process of the city and as a guarantee of the real implementation of planning and execution of projects. The present context of economic crisis makes design and management even more necessary as well as the research of new tools and methods, that make projects possible and that assure the temporal implementation of the urban designs. (Principle 17) ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION Beyond ensuring the sustainability of the project, we must take active responsibility for returning the original environmental quality to the area. These proposals contribute actively to the environmental recovery incorporating the following principles: -Water cycle -Production of energy -Waste management -Environmental control from architecture (Principle 26) -Efficient mobility (Principles 8, 12, 15) oReduce the presence of private vehicles compared to other transport systems oIncrease public transport to promote the city and the intercity mobility oImprove and connect the network of open spaces to encourage walking or cycling
P3: The metropolis has a necessary and fragile relationship to its agrarian hinterland and natural landscapes. The relationship is environmental, economic, and cultural. (...) P5: (...) new development contiguous to urban boundaries should be organized as neighborhoods and districts, and be integrated with the existing urban pattern. (...) P6: The development and redevelopment of towns and cities should respect historical patterns, precedents, and boundaries. P7: Cities and towns should bring into proximity a broad spectrum of public and private uses to support a regional economy that benefits people of all incomes.(...) P8: The physical organization of the region should be supported by a framework of transportation alternatives. Transit, pedestrian, and bicycle systems should maximize access and mobility throughout the region while reducing dependence upon the automobile. P10: The neighborhood, the district, and the corridor are the essential elements of development and redevelopment in the metropolis. (...) P11: Neighborhoods should be compact, pedestrian friendly, and mixed-use. (...) P12: Many activities of daily living should occur within walking distance, allowing independence to those who do not drive, especially the elderly and the young. Interconnected networks of streets should be designed to encourage walking, reduce the number and length of automobile trips, and conserve energy. P13: Within neighborhoods, a broad range of housing types and price levels can bring people of diverse ages, races, and incomes into daily interaction, strengthening the personal and civic bonds essential to an authentic community. P14: Transit corridors, when properly planned and coordinated, can help organize metropolitan structure and revitalize urban centers. (...) P15: Appropriate building densities and land uses should be within walking distance of transit stops, permitting public transit to become a viable alternative to the automobile. P16: Concentrations of civic, institutional, and commercial activity should be embedded in neighborhoods and districts, (...) P17: The economic health and harmonious evolution of neighborhoods, districts, and corridors can be improved through graphic urban design codes that serve as predictable guides for change.
THE BLOCK, THE STREET AND THE BUILDING THE DIVERSITY OF THE CITY Understanding that reality to which we respond is, in itself, very complex, in these projects diversity is proposed from specifics and precise solutions. Diversity is not a quality that we must find, it’s a resulting necessary commitment and condition of the concrete, synthetic and specific answer to the requests of the territory. These projects work on different defining elements of the city’s diversity:
P18: A range of parks, from tot-lots and village greens to ballfields and community gardens, should be distributed within neighborhoods. Conservation areas and open lands should be used to define and connect different neighborhoods and districts.
-The street as the support of urbanity: Working with the street and their diversity of solutions and types. (Principles 19, 23) -The open spaces: the systematization of a “multiscale”, wide range and different types of open spaces, with specific relationships with their urban environment, and with specific potential functions associated. (Principles 18, 19) -The “collective dimension” of the city: At the present time, the “collective dimension” of the city and the territory does not only occur on the public places. The consumption and leisure habits make necessary the reflection of these spaces of social relation (privately owned public spaces) as a part of the civic dimension of the city. (Principles 16, 25) -Typologies, urban form and architecture: New forms have to be reinvented through reinterpretation of the present values, maintaining the diversity and complexity of the existing urban fabric, in relation with the existing city and recognizing the urban identity of the city. (Principles 10, 13, 22) -Diversity in the private sphere: In order to find the balance of the city, urban fabric must incorporate mixed uses and variety of typologies, searching a multifunctional city. This balance between flexible uses and activities will bring urban intensity to the urban places. (Principle 7)
P22: In the contemporary metropolis, development must adequately accommodate automobiles. It should do so in ways that respect the pedestrian and the form of public space.
P19: A primary task of all urban architecture and landscape design is the physical definition of streets and public spaces as places of shared use.
P23: Streets and squares should be safe, comfortable, and interesting to the pedestrian. Properly configured, they encourage walking and enable neighbors to know each other and protect their communities. P25: Civic buildings and public gathering places require important sites to reinforce community identity and the culture of democracy. They deserve distinctive form, because their role is different from that of other buildings and places that constitute the fabric of the city. P26: All buildings should provide their inhabitants with a clear sense of location, weather and time. Natural methods of heating and cooling can be more resource-efficient than mechanical systems.
awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT
Project A result
Project B result awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
THE REGION: METROPOLIS, CITY AND TOWN TERRITORIAL AND URBAN IDENTITY: LANDSCAPE, CULTURE AND HISTORY “PROJECT A” REGIONAL CONTEXT
s. XIII
s. XIII
s. XIII
the premodern city
The explosion of the city
The territory of the city
s. XVII “Eixample Gumà” the first extension
RESPECT OF THE HISTORICAL PATTERNS, PRECEDENTS LANDSCAPE AND BOUNDARIES
awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
THE REGION: METROPOLIS, CITY AND TOWN TERRITORIAL AND URBAN IDENTITY: LANDSCAPE, CULTURE AND HISTORY “PROJECT B” REGIONAL CONTEXT
ANALISI OF THE HISTORICAL PATTERNS AND PRECEDENTS IN ORDER TO RETURN THE AREA ITS TRADITIONAL RELATION WITH THE TERRITORY
1956 The traditional relation Prat-Territory
current operation of the infraestructure
2010 Segregation of the territory due to the infraestructures
2025
Urban transformation of the infraestructure
Definition of a NEW URBANITY
2025 Definition of NEW CENTRALITIES agricultural park gate Llobregat river gate
The existing centralities along the “Gran Via” and the definition of new centralities in the project acording with the territory
central park axis
awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
THE REGION: METROPOLIS, CITY AND TOWN TERRITORIAL AND URBAN IDENTITY: LANDSCAPE, CULTURE AND HISTORY INTEGRATION WITH THE EXISTING URBAN PATTERNS ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL RELATIONSHIP
awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
THE NEIGHBORHOOD, THE DISTRICT AND THE CORRIDOR URBAN STRUCTURE: THE DEFINITION OF THE OPEN SPACE
OPEN SPACES ORGANIZE METROPOLITAN STRUCTURE AND REVITALIZE URBAN CENTERS
awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
THE NEIGHBORHOOD, THE DISTRICT AND THE CORRIDOR CODES AND RULES FOR GENERIC CITY: THE URBAN FABRIC
environmental sustainability criteria type block environmental sustainability criteria estructure for the private comon space
type block
estructure for the private comon space
estructure for the significant urban spaces
estructure for the significant urban spaces
environmental sustainability criteria
environmental sustainability criteria
type block
type block
estructure for the private comon space estructure for the private comon space
estructure for the significant urban spaces estructure for the significant urban spaces
awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter
THE NEIGHBORHOOD, THE DISTRICT AND THE CORRIDOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION
pedestrian network, facilities and common space
INTERCONECTED NETWORKS OF STREETS DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE WALKING
facilities, public transport and cicling path
FRAMEWORK OF TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES. TRANSIT, PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLES SYSTEMS REDUCING DEPENDENCE UPON THE AUTOMOBILE
general sistem of the water cicle sistem of production and distribution of the energy self-management of wastes WATER
WASTES pneumatic collection network waste to be recicled compost / organic waste fruits from the urban gardens market waste collection plant compost plant
RENEWABLE ENERGIES energy distribution network renewable energu income solar power catchment wind power catchment power plant
areas of natural infiltration clouds + rain shaft_control area shaft_infiltration area sewage treatment plant water income to the network rain water network channel network underground channel network
300m to bus station 500m to underground station productive services residential
accessibility to public transport
WALKING DISTANCE OF TRANSIT STOPS, PERMITTING PUBLIC TRANSIT TO BECOME A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO THE AUTOMOBILE
ambiental areas awards 2012 FROM THE REGION TO THE BLOCK ONE METHODOLOGY FOR TWO SMART NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN CONTEXT CNUcharter