Smart Urban Heritage- El Raval, Barcelona

from Afrah Bathsha - Portfolio

by Afrah Bathsha

Curriculam Vitae

Land Use in El Raval

Zone 2

Zone 3 Zone 1

Zone 4

Zone 5

Ground Floor

400 350 Zone 1

300

250

200

150

100

50 Zone 2 Zone 3

500

Zone 4 Zone 4Zone 5 Zone 5 400 Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3

First Floor and Above

300

200

100

0

LAND CONGESTION

ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

HOUSING

The El Raval District has its beauty in its history and culture, but there are certain blots that keep it from being picturesque wholly. Some of the imperfections in the visual aspect can be found due to the some of the following reasons:

• Lack of green spaces and hence Grey. • Congested electric and other service lines • Heterogeneous character • Unorganised positions for the waste bins (which are tremendously

SOCIAL

Problems in Raval

ECONOMIC

Despite barcelona is the 8th best smart city in the world, El Raval district still suffers to be the one of the backward areas in the European Union that requires the EU Cohesion fund for it’s development.

FADING HERITAGE SERVICE & INFRASTRUCTURE

MOBILITY

DECONGESTION: The city is characterised by its dense habitable zones and congested streets. The congestion is such that the streets are extremely narrow and hence have to be pedestrianised. Illegal immigrants live in this district and hence government has to figure out on how to deal with the current scenario. Hence,decongestion is a necessity in El raval District.This can be acheived by providing alternate transit routes and reorganisation of street elements. 1. CONSERVATION : Barcelona is an archaic city with abundance of culture, history and architecture. Traditional El Raval DIstrict consisted of low rise buildings with ample street interaction. As time passed, the monstorous jaws of modernism gripped the city causing it’s conventional buildings to disappear. This calls for immediate attention to the existing heritage buildings. • Adaptive Reuse like Identifying dark spots (shady) so that they can be redeveloped like senior citizen activity center • Maintaining the Elevation features of the district The two major proposals to this effect being : • Reorganisation of transit system • Reviving streets through reformation • Making Policies for the grading of the buildings so that we know which has to be rennovated and which has to be demolished.

•Pedestrianisation of the El Raval District • Introduction of Government Policies for Immigrants ADAPTABILITY The ever growing nature of El Raval District necessitates the need for constant adaptation for sustenence. In order to equip the city for future needs (2030),the current resources and its permeability has to be evaluated.Such an evaluation resulted in the following proposals • Introduction of the shopping arcades • City Beautification • Revival of Del Rambla • Turning the green space near the church in zone 3 to accessible Contemporary Arts Museum Biblioteca de Catalunya Gran Teatre del Liceu Comandància Naval de Barcelona Mirador de Colom Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona University Of Barcelona Mercado de La Boqueria

Rambla Del Raval

Museum Of Maritime Sant Pau del Camp World Trade Center SUSTAINABILITY : With the climate crisis over heads, as architects we need to forsee this reality and sustainable pragmatic solutions have to be thought of. Some Solutions which includes :

•every building has roof top solar panels.

•a government initiative along with a private water supply company to provide clean drinking water in subsidiary rates.

• Desalination Plant for all other purposes.

• Urban forests to open up the concrete grounds for grass and breathable ground.

STREET INFRASTRUCTURE

INTERACTIVE STREETS

THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The development plan for the proposal is to beautify and make human friendly atmosphere in the most significant areas of the El Raval District i.e, del Rambla and introduction of green spaces in connectivity to the plazas outside Raval. These two areas are key elements while defining the structure of the city and hence the beautification process can prove to be a success.

The procedure is to compliment the existing traditional character of the buildings and to not lose its virtue which is one of the eminent features that should be retained. The Del Rambla is already an open space but it’s just grey plain area with uninteractive and unattractive area with street shopping making it more tourist friendly.

POLICY

The policy set is to instigate a city beautification process in specific areas of importance in the El Raval District to invoke the creation of moral and civic virtue in the urban population. The purpose behind such a process is that the inhabitants see the changes executed by having more beautiful streets and they themselves take up the responsibility for a change in the future. This can be done with integration of the top down and bottom up approach.

SMART URBAN HERITAGE PROJECT, BARCELONA PROFESSORS IN CHARGE: EAMONN CANNIFFE ( COURSE LEADER) MAZIN AL-SAFFAR (TUTOR) TEAM MEMBERS: AFRAH BATHSHA, CHING-HSING CHANG, GE HUI, XIAOWEN HUANG, KAIWEN SHI, LU YAN, ZHIYUAN PENG, WENYAN SUN, HEYING WANG, RUOYING WANG, WEI ZHOU, ZHUJUN YE, ZHUJUN ZHA, MENGXUE YU, XIAOYU BAO, KAIXIANG ZHOU PROFESSORS IN CHARGE: EAMONN CANNIFFE( COURSE DIRECTOR) MAZIN AL-SAFFAR (MENTOR) SMART URBAN HERITAGE PROJECT, BARCELONA: PUBLIC SPACES TEAM MEMBERS: AFRAH BATHSHA, CHING-HSING CHANG, GE HUI, XIAOWEN HUANG, KAIWEN SHI, LU YAN, ZHIYUAN PENG, WENYAN SUN, HEYING WANG, RUOYING WANG, WEI ZHOU, ZHUJUN YE, ZHUJUN ZHA, MENGXUE YU, XIAOYU BAO, KAIXIANG ZHOU All other zones doesn’t have any proper gathering green spaces and hence it’s just a highly congested area with just building blocks which kind of causes immense amount of littering and people’s lack of interest and sense of responsibility has made the condition worse. Interactive Public Space

Being partly pedestrianized, these streets has its own character but requires certain aspects of change as this is frequently visited both by local inhabitants and tourists equally and hence has its prominence.

OBJECTIVES

• The process would be done in two phases; first phase being the central spine redesign, since this area requires immediate attention, and the second phase that of the green connecting line of the zone 2,3 and 5 to the rest of the Barcelona and the third phase can be the redeveloment in the museum area and the external boundary redesign.

• Decluttering and decontaminating the area from the existing littering and unmaintained buildings.

• Integrating the local inhabitants of the area for the processes so that they can be a part of the developments taking place.

FUTURE VISION

Water Feature

The concept is to create an urban forrest for a start towards climate crisis. Pedestrianisation of the internal roads help to achieve this. The irrigation will be provides by the desalination plant.

Ramp so that the ground has a grass cover.

PRT Lane on columns

LRT Lane on columns

SMART URBAN HERITAGE PROJECT, BARCELONA SMART URBAN HERITAGE PROJECT, BARCELONA: PUBLIC SPACES

PROFESSORS IN CHARGE: EAMONN CANNIFFE ( COURSE LEADER) MAZIN AL-SAFFAR (TUTOR) PROFESSORS IN CHARGE: EAMONN CANNIFFE( COURSE DIRECTOR) MAZIN AL-SAFFAR (MENTOR)

TEAM MEMBERS: AFRAH BATHSHA, CHING-HSING CHANG, GE HUI, XIAOWEN HUANG, KAIWEN SHI, LU YAN, ZHIYUAN PENG, WENYAN SUN, HEYING WANG, RUOYING WANG, WEI ZHOU, ZHUJUN YE, ZHUJUN ZHA, MENGXUE YU, XIAOYU BAO, KAIXIANG ZHOU TEAM MEMBERS: AFRAH BATHSHA, CHING-HSING CHANG, GE HUI, XIAOWEN HUANG, KAIWEN SHI, LU YAN, ZHIYUAN PENG, WENYAN SUN, HEYING WANG, RUOYING WANG, WEI ZHOU, ZHUJUN YE, ZHUJUN ZHA, MENGXUE YU, XIAOYU BAO, KAIXIANG ZHOU