Re-Visiting Metropolitan Barcelona. Public Space 2013-2017 by Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

VISITING

METROPOLITAN

BARCELONA PUBLIC SPACE 2013â&#x20AC;&#x201D;2017

VISITING

METROPOLITAN

BARCELONA PUBLIC SPACE 2013â&#x20AC;&#x201D;2017

INDEX

Foreword. Ada Colau, Antonio Balmón

PA R K S PAC E

114 R I V E R S PAC E

P RO LO G U E Concept and structure AMB Territory

118

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

116

8 10

22 25

The construction of metropolitan public space. 31 Pi Gros Park. Sant Vicenç dels Horts Ramon M. 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 — INTERSTICE 73 Joan Oliver Park. Badia del Vallès URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY 81 Mamut Venux Park. Sant Vicenç dels Horts URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY 87 3d1 column

C OAS TA L S PAC E

The coastal space of the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Lluís Cantallops Thirty years of the metropolitan shoreline. Moisés Martínez-Lapeña

97 Seafront by 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

Brigade, lasagne and neighbourhood paths. Martí Franch 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 García-Nieto Square. El Prat de Llobregat

URBAN — INTERSTICE 164 Signposting of La Capsa building 167 179 187 197 205

Els Encants school. Barcelona URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

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

L’Escorxador municipal swimming pool. Sant Feliu de Llobregat LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

New secondary school. Castelldefels

210 U R BA N S PAC E

212 214

… and all the rest, urban space. Ivan Blasi Public space in consolidated fabrics. Oriol Ribera

219 231

Sagarra Market and surrounding streets. Santa Coloma de Gramenet Garden 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-BCN 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

LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

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

E P I LO G U E

292

Fusing nature, public space and city. Enric Batlle

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

URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

296

INDEX

Foreword. Ada Colau, Antonio Balmón

PA R K S PAC E

114 R I V E R S PAC E

P RO LO G U E Concept and structure AMB Territory

118

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

116

8 10

22 25

C OAS TA L S PAC E

The coastal space of the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Lluís Cantallops Thirty years of the metropolitan shoreline. Moisés Martínez-Lapeña

Brigade, lasagne and neighbourhood paths. Martí Franch The lower course of the river Llobregat. Antoni Farrero

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 García-Nieto Square. El Prat de Llobregat

URBAN — INTERSTICE 164 Signposting of La Capsa building 167 179 187 197 205

Els Encants school. Barcelona URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

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

L’Escorxador municipal swimming pool. Sant Feliu de Llobregat LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

New secondary school. Castelldefels

210 U R BA N S PAC E

212 214

… and all the rest, urban space. Ivan Blasi Public space in consolidated fabrics. Oriol Ribera

219 231

Sagarra Market and surrounding streets. Santa Coloma de Gramenet Garden of Requesens Palace. Molins de Rei

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

LANDSCAPE — INTERSTICE

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

E P I LO G U E

292

Fusing nature, public space and city. Enric Batlle

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

URBAN — CONSOLIDATED CITY

296

CONCEPT AND STRUCTUR E

AMB TERRITORY

Projects carried out and published by the AMB in the last 30 years. The ones featured in this volume are highlighted with the page number. 73

286

131

245

237 219

65 109

638

km2

TOTAL SURFACE AREA

MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

PRINCIPAL RIVERS

OF COASTLINE

Network of metropolitan parks

251

285

Metropolitan beaches

289 179

58 231 81

167

31 205 187

3.2

INHABITANTS

MUNICIPALITIES

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 Montgat Pallejà

PROLOGUE

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

135 267 151

123 62 277 157 288

197 101

GEOGR APHICAL SITUATION: A CLOUD OF PROJECTS

CONCEPT AND STRUCTUR E

AMB TERRITORY

Projects carried out and published by the AMB in the last 30 years. The ones featured in this volume are highlighted with the page number. 73

286

131

245

237 219

65 109

638

km2

TOTAL SURFACE AREA

MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

PRINCIPAL RIVERS

OF COASTLINE

Network of metropolitan parks

251

285

Metropolitan beaches

289 179

58 231 81

167

31 205 187

3.2

INHABITANTS

MUNICIPALITIES

PROLOGUE

135 267 151

123 62 277 157 288

197 101

GEOGR APHICAL SITUATION: A CLOUD OF PROJECTS

R AMON M. TORR A

THE CONSTRUCTION OF METROPOLITAN PUBLIC SPACE

Architect. Manager, Barcelona Metropolitan Area.

The construction of metropolitan public space

PROLOGUE

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 42 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

R AMON M. TORR A

THE CONSTRUCTION OF METROPOLITAN PUBLIC SPACE

Architect. Manager, Barcelona Metropolitan Area.

The construction of metropolitan public space

PROLOGUE

R E-VISITING

PARK ESPAI PARC SPACE

An estimated S’estima que 1,3 1.3milions million d’habitants inhabitants tenen live within un parc 15 minutes’ de la XPM walk a 15ofminuts a park caminant that formsdes part deof casa the seva. metropolitan network (XPM). ELEMENTS XPM ELEMENTS DE LA XPM

24.105 24,105 ARBRES TREES

17,000

280

433

ELEMENTS SPORTS ESPORTIUS ELEMENTS

PLAYGROUND JOCS INFANTILS ELEMENTS

POINTSD’INTERÈS PUNTS OF INTEREST

XARXA DE OF NETWORK PARCS METROPOLITAN METROPOLITANS PARKS (XPM) WOODLAND

158 ha 20 parks

1995

268 ha 47 parks

2017

10,700 ha

154

SCRUB AND MEADOWLAND

USUARIS USERS

5,600 ha

CROPLAND

49.2

GO TO THE PARK EVERY DAY

4,150 ha

77.7

WALK TO THE PARK

>37,000

PARTICIPATE IN ACTIVITIES ORGANISED BY THE AMB IN THE XPM, IN 2016

URBAN PARK

PARK ESPAI PARC SPACE

24.105 24,105 ARBRES TREES

17,000

280

433

ELEMENTS SPORTS ESPORTIUS ELEMENTS

PLAYGROUND JOCS INFANTILS ELEMENTS

POINTSD’INTERÈS PUNTS OF INTEREST

XARXA DE OF NETWORK PARCS METROPOLITAN METROPOLITANS PARKS (XPM) WOODLAND

158 ha 20 parks

1995

268 ha 47 parks

2017

10,700 ha

154

SCRUB AND MEADOWLAND

USUARIS USERS

5,600 ha

CROPLAND

49.2

GO TO THE PARK EVERY DAY

4,150 ha

77.7

WALK TO THE PARK

>37,000

PARTICIPATE IN ACTIVITIES ORGANISED BY THE AMB IN THE XPM, IN 2016

URBAN PARK

DAVID BR AVO

AGAINST GR EEN POPULISM

Architect. Head of Contents and Secretary of the Jury of the European Prize for Urban Public Space of the CCCB.

Against green populism

he lack of green is one of the most frequent reproaches levelled at Barcelona. There is a widespread sensation among its residents that the Catalan capital is very dense, excessively built up, too mineral. No matter that Collserola is one of the largest metropolitan parks in Europe with incidents on its margins as wild as an overpopulation of wild boar. It’s not enough that the metropolitan seafront has a good 20 kilometres of beaches, the envy of any European conurbation. So what if we have two green axes like the Besòs river park or the Llobregat corridor, with an agricultural park that produces artichokes and chickens worthy of a designation of origin? Despite the exceptional nature of these naturalised spaces, many people complain that the city of “hard squares”doesn’t offer kids enough outdoor play areas and forces elderly people to walk large distances to find a nice place to sit outside and take the air. Is this reproach justified? Could the Catalan capital be greener? Before answering this question, it’s worth considering something that should be obvious: not everything that is green is ecological, and not everything that is ecological is green. Just think of the unsustainable green of a golf course or the immaculate grey of a railway line. By the same token, the mineral grey of a compact city is more ecological than the leafiness of a sprawling residential devel-

opment. The Barcelona metropolitan area is one of the most compact in Europe, which may detract from our chlorophyll green but there is no doubt that it gives us sustainability green. Compactness allows us to have one of Europe’s highest rates of journeys on foot. We are a city of pedestrians! This is something that large cities with very large or plentiful parks cannot have. Compactness also means that we have a public transport system that excels in many quality comparisons, an impossible feat in any low-density city. However, compactness becomes deadly if we let the car have its way. Today, Barcelona has over 7,000 cars per square kilometre, whereas Madrid has 3,000; Paris, 1,500; and London, 1,200. There is no need here to go into the damaging effects that this density of vehicles has on health, spatial justice, energy waste and the environment. It is, however, worth ref lecting on how this invasion of vehicles has prompted what Mario Gaviria called “chlorophyll ideology”. In the sixties, the massification of the car made Barcelona a worse place to live. The smoke dirtied lungs and façades; the noise troubled sleep; walking down the street became more difficult

There is a green populism that creates sprawling peripheries and another that empties centres. Rather than a shortage of green in Barcelona, perhaps it is poorly distributed, hard to get to or underused.

PAR K SPACE

and playing there more dangerous. Gradually, a desire to escape to greener peripheries spread among the middle classes. With calculated cynicism, the automobile emerged as the indispensable means to this dispersion. First it was just a Sunday spree: more and more families saw the SEAT 600 as a chance to get away to nature at the weekends along the costly roads built by an unbridled development policy, turning La Cerdanya or the Costa Brava into occasional districts of Barcelona. The moment came when it was no longer about getting away on holidays, but moving out of the city. The immediate peripheries were swallowed up by housing developments designed by modern urban planners. With the promise of democratising access to sunshine, clean air and vegetation, their detached houses and freestanding blocks were designed to float in a sea of lawns and leafiness. In reality, however, they became monofunctional dormitory cities, ghettos for the rich (Pedralbes) or for the poor (Bellvitge), where public space was excessive and, therefore, bleak, unsafe and difficult to maintain. Later, the possibility of moving a tonne and a half of metal tens of kilometres back and forth to work prompted the escape to suburbia, a universal outskirts made up of roundabouts, row houses and vast shopping centres. A veritable urban dystopia, greener perhaps than a city contained by walls but much more unjust and unsustainable. Ultimately, green populism is just as dangerous as any other kind. Under its banners, the herbivore city has irreversibly preyed on large extensions of natural and agricultural land. By the eighties, a change in paradigm was firing the desire to return to urban centres. With the effervescence of global capitalism, deindustrialisation forced councils to ask themselves what cities were supposed to live on. Many threw themselves into enhancing public space to attract investors, tourists or big events. Barcelona joined in enthusiastically. The Olympic push situated it at the forefront of a revolution that spread throughout Europe: the reconquest of public space by

pedestrians. Many plazas and streets were calmed, and neighbourhoods were dressed up in green © David Bravo with the opening of new parks. But this new paraEmpty plot in the Ciutat digm was not exempt from Vella district. Care must populism, either. In fact, be taken with empty many of the interventions development sites that carried out consisted not become temporary green spaces. so much of getting rid of © David Bravo cars as concealing them. Many “hard squares”, for example, would be softer if they weren’t the roofs of underground car parks. Likewise, attempts were made to “decongest” the Eixample by means of a pharaonic trench –the Ronda ring Poblenou Park. Many stretches of the ring road are covered with urban green that camouflages the priority given to cars.

VISITING

roads– that took the biggest slice of the Olympic pie. In many stretches (Vila Olímpica, Poblenou Park), the infrastructure was covered over by urban greens that camouflaged vehicle priority. Even today, the same spirit of greenwashing inspires the construction of the tunnel under the future Glòries Park, an unhygienic action of sweeping the dirt of cars under a green carpet. Having unmasked the automobile and property lobbies lying behind some greens, we can now proceed to ask ourselves if we really need to “renaturalise” Barcelona. What kind of green does such a compact city require? First of all, a domestic green. Instead of large central parks that interrupt the urban fabric or

DAVID BR AVO

AGAINST GR EEN POPULISM

Architect. Head of Contents and Secretary of the Jury of the European Prize for Urban Public Space of the CCCB.

Against green populism

PAR K SPACE

VISITING

MOISÉS MARTÍNEZ-LAPEÑA

THIRT Y YE ARS OF THE METROPOLITAN SHOR ELINE

Architect. Projects and Works Service I of the Public Space Services Directorate of the AMB.

Thirty years of the metropolitan shoreline At

the end of the eighties, the new Coasts Plan1 and Coasts Act2 made for the gradual recovery of land bordering the metropolitan coastline, thereby making urban fabric more permeable and offering citizens well organised access in good conditions to the coastal space. The transformation of the seafront in the course of these years has taken place progressively, with important specific actions, such as the recovery of the space occupied by camp sites in Viladecans and Gavà, and the chemical industry front in Badalona.3 It also received a decisive boost in the form of two major projects for Barcelona’s urban transformation: the Olympic project and the Forum of Cultures. Today, good conditions of accessibility and the large number of services and facilities available, together with the preservation and improvement of natural values (seawater and sand quality), have led to a significant increase in the number of users,4 making beaches and their environs a crucial recreation space in the metropolitan public space as a whole.

The seafront of Badalona, 1990. © Tavisa / Badalona City Council Fonds

Badalona seafront promenade, today. © Sandra Montserrat Compte / Badalona Recuerdos, Facebook

Accessibility of the metropolitan beaches

Access to the beaches, parallel to the sea, has been consolidated by the development of the seafront promenades, forming the transition between them and the urban space. The promenades are very attractive spaces, offering leisure

COASTAL SPACE

activities and walks beside the sea for citizens, all year round, and from morning to evening. In the stretches of coastline where demographic pressure and use is less intensive, the design of the promenades has continued to evolve. From being regarded as the last urban space to offer views of and access to the beach and the sea (with a major presence of asphalt, cars, paving and furniture), they have become the first passable strip of natural space. With this approach, natural values such as the dune system and native vegetation are preserved and become compatible with the enjoyment of this space on the part of citizens by creating routes that are integrated into the natural environment by means of the layout, dimensions and construction systems used. The second and third phases of remodelling of the seafront promenade in Castelldefels are good examples. Although based on different strategies, they share a common objective of integrating the promenade into the surrounding space. In the second phase, a three-dimensional mesh was laid over the sand to create a stable base for the paving slabs. They are laid on the mesh by gravity without the use of bonding materials, so they can be removed and recovered for other uses in the future. Dry construction avoids altering natural elements and makes use of the space in keeping

with the Coasts Act’s requirement of temporariness.5 Phase three of the remodelling of the promenade addressed the stretch alongside one of the largest beaches on the metropolitan coastline, with the strong presence of the sea and the Garraf massif. The promenade is extremely discreet and austere, and tends to blend into the landscape, disappearing from view, allowing this splendid natural space to steal the limelight. Running perpendicular to the sea, the wooden walkways are also basic elements of accessibility to the beaches. They are paths allowing everyone access to the sand and to the waterfront, and to the elements that make up the services installed there, such as showers, wastepaper bins, benches, bicycle parking racks, etc.

Beach equipment and services

The gradual increase in the number of users of the metropolitan beaches is accompanied by a diversification of the activities on them in which citizens take part. The traditional sea bathing of the summer months is joined by an increasing number of sports and leisure activities that can be enjoyed on the sand, whether or not they are related to the sea. To support these activities, which take place year round, the AMB equips the beaches with a large number of services.

Pineda Baths in Castelldefels, 1961. CC Public Domain, SACE. Carlos Rodríguez Escalona / ICGC Fonds

All the elements installed there are designed to respond well to the particularly harsh environmental conditions associated with exposure to the sun, damp, salinity, contamination, etc. They also have to be temporary, in keeping with their occupation of the public domain, which requires them to be set up and taken down every season. The harshness of the environmental conditions and Iron shower (Palina), temporariness are require1986. © AMB ments that call for extraorFibreglass shower, dinary rigour in the design 1995. of these elements. For the © AMB last 30 years, the AMB has Stainless steel shower, been responsible for their 2004. © Adrià Goula installation, maintenance

R E-VISITING

and renovation, accumulating valuable experience that has served to optimise them. Their evolution is the result of efforts to improve them, season after season, analysing the problems and updating solutions. The contrast between the precarious nature of the earliest installations and the quality of the ones that now exist is most pronounced in the first elements that were installed which therefore have had a longer evolution, such as the showers and the wastepaper bins. The first showers were vertical pipes, ending in two elbows in the form of a double pipe where the water came out. They were quite difficult to see because they were very slight. The pipe was then protected by an iron column painted with blue and white diagonal stripes, improving resistance to knocks and making it easier to see on the beach. Later, the protective column was made of lighter fibreglass, making it easier to dismount at the end of the summer. Today’s column is made of 316L stainless steel and is designed to be mounted and dismounted every season with an O-ring and pressure system. This simplifies the task of setting up the showers, making it unnecessary to cut the pipe at the end of the summer and solder it again the following season. The evolution of the column was accompanied by the modification of the water runoff sys-

MOISÉS MARTÍNEZ-LAPEÑA

THIRT Y YE ARS OF THE METROPOLITAN SHOR ELINE

Architect. Projects and Works Service I of the Public Space Services Directorate of the AMB.

Thirty years of the metropolitan shoreline At

Accessibility of the metropolitan beaches

COASTAL SPACE

Beach equipment and services

Pineda Baths in Castelldefels, 1961. CC Public Domain, SACE. Carlos Rodríguez Escalona / ICGC Fonds

R E-VISITING

L A CAPSA AND JOAN GARCÍA-NIETO SQUARE

BARCELONA

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

166

COVER ED SPACE

167

L A CAPSA AND JOAN GARCÍA-NIETO SQUARE

BARCELONA

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

166

COVER ED SPACE

167

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

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

BARCELONA

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 N

INSTALL ATIONS

100 m

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

UR BAN — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

169

ELS ENCANTS SCHOOL

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

BARCELONA

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

STRUCTURES

Bis Arquitectes N

INSTALL ATIONS

100 m

Tectram Enginyers DEVELOPERS

AMB Barcelona City Council GENER AL CONTR ACTOR

Dragados PHOTOS

Marcela Grassi

AWARDS

168

COVER ED SPACE

UR BAN — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

169

GAR DEN OF R EQUESENS PAL ACE

BADALONA

GREEN SPACE IN VERDI STREET

236

UR BAN SPACE

237

GAR DEN OF R EQUESENS PAL ACE

BADALONA

GREEN SPACE IN VERDI STREET

236

UR BAN SPACE

237

GR EEN SPACE IN VER DI STR EET

The project offers topographical continuity that eliminates architectural barriers, connecting the existing zebra crossings with diagonal paths that are long enough to create practicable slopes and widen at points to create spaces where people can sit and enjoy the space.

BADALONA

The natural topography of the site is modified to accommodate the proposed programme. Two dunes, planted with grass, creepers and shrubs, offer protection from traffic and a changing landscape with the passing seasons; the play area, marked out by a gentle hollow, takes the form of a yellow rubber dune, a soft material to cushion falls, which, like a game board, invites children to join in.

240

UR BAN SPACE

10 m

L ANDSCAPE — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

241

GR EEN SPACE IN VER DI STR EET

BADALONA

240

UR BAN SPACE

10 m

L ANDSCAPE — CONSOLIDATED CIT Y

241

ENRIC BATLLE

FUSING NATUR E, PUBLIC SPACE AND CIT Y

Doctor of Architecture and landscape architect. Director of the Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture, UPC - MBLandArch, founder member of Batlle i Roig Arquitectura.

Fusing nature, public space and city

In the last 30 years, many European cities, including the Barcelona metropolis, have dedicated themselves to reconquering the thing that most profoundly characterises them: the public nature of urban spaces, and their capacity for social cohesion. Today, when experts maintain that the future of humanity is being played out in cities, green infrastructure as an environmental and social network becomes one of the central pillars of the metropolitan territory. The aim must be to construct a new paradigm, a series of places to live, work, study, relax and go for walks, all interconnected with another series of productive, and equipped spaces that encourage biodiversity, sustainable energy production, water control, local food production, and citizen recreation.

292

EPILOGUE

he metropolitan area of Barcelona is a territory in which over 3.2 million inhabitants live. Its 638 km2 are occupied by a large number of urban settlements of all kinds and a dense network of infrastructures and services. Yet this densely occupied territory still has a system of open spaces that occupies over 52% of the total surface area. It is, then, one of the metropolises in Europe with most green spaces.

1 — “ The Metropolitan Ecological Matrix and the Different Scales of Green Infrastructures.” Enric Batlle, 2014. Quaderns 03. PDU Metropolità. Urbanism of open spaces: landscape, leisure and production. Barcelona Metropolitan Area.

Encouraging green infrastructure From original geography to principal structure of the metropolis The streets and squares of our cities—urban space—can be renaturalised and connected with all the urban and metropolitan park systems we can create—park space—and with all the farming and natural spaces we still conserve. A very diverse collection of open spaces, which includes all the spaces created by the original geography that lives on in our cities: beaches, wetlands and the sea—coastal space—, the rivers and streams—river space—and the various mountains and agricultural parks—agroforestry space.

VISITING

Green infrastructure is an environmental and social network that should be one of the backbones of the metropolitan territory.1 An environmental network—urban space, park space, coastal space, river space and agroforestry space—that we have to interconnect with the network of sustainable mobility—mobility space—and with all the places where our citizens engage in activities—covered space. A collection of places to live, work and study in, and to enjoy, that we have to fuse with the nature and the public space of our cities. A system that has to be recognised in unitary fashion, grouping all the spaces that have ecological values, possibilities of use for recreation, and productive capacities, independently of their varied origins and different characteristics, of the type of land classification—urban, non-development—, their degree of protection—natural parks, spaces of natural interest, coastal system—and type of ownership—public or private. The aim is to achieve a metropolis with a more accessible, healthy and, in short, habitable territory; a metropolis that is now also seen in terms of the network of open spaces as a common denominator of the metropolitan landscape. The definition of the green infrastructure system can help us construct a new

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ENRIC BATLLE

FUSING NATUR E, PUBLIC SPACE AND CIT Y

Doctor of Architecture and landscape architect. Director of the Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture, UPC - MBLandArch, founder member of Batlle i Roig Arquitectura.

Fusing nature, public space and city

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EPILOGUE

VISITING

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