IaaC Bit Extra 1.4

Implementing Advanced Knowledge

bits Extra Edition: Piso Piloto

1.4 The pending “upgrading” in Barcelona UIC Team

The pending upgrading in Barcelona Poor quality housing: Ciutat Meridiana

“We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.”

Winston Churchill, 1944 The successful and highly published ‘Barcelona model’of the 1980’s and early ‘90s (Busquets, 2004; Bohigas 1985; Ajuntament de Barcelona 1983,1987, 1996; Monclus, 2003; Montaner, 1999), based on an accurate morphology and design of physical interventions, made the headlines and was internationally acclaimed; however, many don’t know that in that same city and time, the low-income, poor quality housing developments built during the 1960’s, such as Ciutat Meridiana1, were still housing their dwellers in poor urban and architectural conditions, equal to when they were built. Therefore, the challenge of regenerating these housing developments to the status of ‘neighborhoods’; with mixed use, public spaces and facilities, good connectivity and, social cohesion, is still pending today, even after having experienced some urban betterments implemented in 2004. The challenge considerably increases when the social data kicks in, and we acknowledge that Ciutat Meridiana is: the housing estate with most evictions in Barcelona; its inhabitants have the lowest income of the city, and, due to many waves of immigration, it has become a huge melting pot of ethnic and cultural groups which lack real integration.

Therefore, and with this huge complexity in mind, it is necessary to assume the enormous challenge of asking ourselves if we shouldn’t start thinking of an urgent new approach and tools capable of bridging the social and spatial deficits of Ciutat Meridiana. However, social inclusion is not a one semester or two semester issue; it is a long term process which must involve the community in a decision-making participatory process in order to be successful. This reality calls for a comprehensive approach that can propel a consistent regeneration program through a rich array of topics with significant meaning for its hillside community.

With many questions, and an academic year ahead (2014-15); the group of professors of urbanism and projects at the School of Architecture UIC, in the courses of Projects 5 and 6, asked ourselves the following questions: ‘Can the built form have the capacity of creating social cohesion on its 2

own, without a long term participatory process?’ and, ‘Is a systemic and morphological approach enough to tackle these long term deficits?. The answer we came up with, was to challenge ourselves (and our fourth year architecture students) to implement and experience, a methodological approach which went back and forth across drawing scales (1.2000 to 1.50 and back) in order to offer strategies capable of bridging the urban and architectural needs of this complex site.

In order to ‘narrate’ this academic challenge in this article, and express the effort, creativity and outcomes; we will explain this experience around the four urban strategies we used to guide the architectural interventions in Ciutat Meridiana: 1. Building projects related to mobility; 2. Building projects related to creating a gradient of public spaces; 3.

Building projects related to the section and typology; and 4. Building projects related to a balance between activities, landscape and the metropolitan scale of Ciutat Meridiana. These strategies are explained through the statements of the staff involved ,and the graphic examples of our students, and intend to offer an alternative to Ciutat Meridianas’s regeneration by rethinking urban elements and existing architecture.

Four strategies on building an inclusive approach through urban architecture.

Community participation?. This was the first great question. Due to the short timeframe (an academic year), and lack of a profound understanding of the social reality of Ciutat Meridiana, we took up the understanding that, in order to incorporate the stakeholders needs and claims, we would build on the idea that ‘…Less formal processes grounded on stronger community involvement have proven to be more effective for enhancing public space systems (Mendoza Arroyo and Vall-Casas, 2014:66). Therefore, we adopted the belief that if the spatial quality and activities incorporated to each strategy were enhancing all the systems (vehicular, open space and typology), and creating economic and social activities, the community bonding would be developed through the social interaction they generated.

Cover - UIC Jury

4

1. Mobility: in search of connectivity.

A special accent is put on vehicular and pedestrian mobility in order to reinforce the connectivity with existing places of community interaction, as well as the addition of new activities to better the comprehension of all the sectors of Ciutat Meridiana.

Diagnosis: Mobility is linked exclusively with private cars. Buses and metro have improved the accessibility to the neighborhood, however, a one Way Street which connects the entire neighborhood creates a complicated and fragmented roadway system. In recent interventions (2004) there has been a partial improvement of pedestrian accessibility and mobility. There exists a great discontinuity and lack of quality in the urban image (The view of the road).

Proposals: The aim is to introduce diversity, creating new routes, provide adequate public transportation adapted to the topography, and give priority to a clear and safe pedestrian network. The projects introduce a new way of understanding the roadway system with a more flexible use and road space.

2. Public space: in search of civic engagement.

We understand public space as an object to requalify, complement or extend infrastructures and facilities. The urban strategies reinterpret the existing buildings and their relationship with the public-private spaces.

Diagnosis: Steep topography and fragmented public spaces. There exist two main open spaces with collective meaning: (1) Plaza Roja (Red Square), located in the lower area of Ciutat Meridiana, located close to the train station and (2), Collserola’s natural park, located in the upper area of Ciutat Meridiana. There are incipient public spaces connecting these two main areas, however, there lacks a gradient of collective spaces from the residential units to these major open spaces. The existing green areas in-between buildings with a 40% slope and spaces in between buildings which area used as improvised parking lots.

Proposals: Identify and transform new civic axes connecting requalified open spaces and introducing new activities. Create a systemic approach to enhance walkability and social interaction in order to connect the community space in-between residential blocks, the Collserola Mountain, and the major public spaces with collective significance.

1. Transformation of public spaces and introduction of new facilities in two main plain areas: around the metro station and the market (upper sector), and in the private parking plot near plaza Roja (lower sector) .

2. Requalification of community spaces between residential blocks introducing new activities on the ground floor level.

3. Regeneration of the existing historical aqueduct as a pedestrian pathway incorporating new facilities and connecting Ciutat Meridiana with the surrounding neighborhoods of Can Cuiàs and Torre Baró.

Figure 1 - Public Space Model 6

8

3. Typology, a matter of section.

The steep topography of the site should be treated in consonance with the building types. The section as a link to the open spaces, and the addition of new activities as objects to enhance the revitalization or new locations, which lead us to reflections on new residential uses related to the inhabitants new needs.

Diagnosis: Mono functional buildings, dormitory town, homogeneous housing units (60m2). Poor quality construction. Accessibility problems such as no elevators in the buildings, and steep slopes making the spatial relationship between housing types and the connectivity between them impossible.

Proposals: Typological mix and adaptation to current community needs to solve the technical problems related to the existing poor quality housing.

1. Rehabilitation of residential blocks to: (1) improve the accessibility, the climate conditions, and the quality of the interior spaces, (2) diversify the residential units to lodge different family patterns, (3) introduce new activities for the community in terms of employment and leisure activities.

4. Urban balance, creating a new centrality.

The position of Ciutat Meridiana, occupying a space embedded in the natural mountain of Collserola and on the territorial limits of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, claim for rethinking its strategic position as a ‘doorway to nature’, or productive activity, which limit with the suburban developments of the northern border of the city. The lack of activities capable of adopting this centrality role (linked to nature or productivity) is the challenge to explore.

Diagnosis: The lack of centrality adjusted to a spatial array configuration.

Currently the centrality focuses on a few points where the topography is flatter and with easier access.

Proposals: Create a more balanced neighborhood, with services and facilities that will meet the current demands of the population. The projects propose new structural patterns, a more poly nuclear system, enabling the ability to reuse part of the existing buildings.

Figure 3 - Urban Balance Model Figure 4 - Urban Balance Model Figure 5 - UIC Jury 10

An intuitive conclusion.

Architecture and urban architecture proposals come to terms with complex realities as those of Ciutat Meridiana at the end of a long process, which starts from the initial and almost intuitive ideas, to their materialization. Their main objective is to transform the reality in which they are embedded; and better it.

The methodological approach which bridges the architectural and urbanism scales, in our opinion, extends the opportunities and solutions due to their transversal approach, which stimulates the process of ideas. The interaction of these diverse perspectives side by side and back and forth, enrich the process in which the building becomes a part of a bigger strategy; and where the strategy becomes a building.

12

References

Ajuntament de Barcelona. (1983). Plans i projectes per a Barcelona. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Ajuntament de Barcelona. (1987). Urbanisme a Barcelona: Plans cap al 92.

Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Ajuntament de Barcelona. (1996). Barcelona: La segona renovaci贸. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Bohigas, O. (1985). Reconstrucci贸 de Barcelona. Barcelona: Edicions 62.

Busquets, J. (2004). Barcelona la construcci贸n urban铆stica de una ciudad compacta. Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal.

Mendoza-Arroyo, C. and Vall-Casas, P. (2014). Urban neighborhood

Copyright Š 2014 Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia All rights Reserved.

IAAC BITS

IAAC

DIRECTOR:

IAAC SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:

Manuel Gausa, IaaC Dean

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Jordi Vivaldi, IaaC bits Editorial Coordinator

EDITORIAL TEAM Manuel Gausa, IaaC Dean Mathilde Marengo, Communication & Publication Jordi Vivaldi, IaaC bits Editorial Coordinator

ADVISORY BOARD: Areti Markopoulou, IaaC Academic Director Tomas Diez, Fab Lab Bcn Director Silvia Brandi, Academic Coordinator Ricardo Devesa, Advanced Theory Concepts Maite Bravo, Advanced Theory Concepts

DESIGN: Ramon Prat, ACTAR Editions

IAAC BIT FIELDS: 1. Theory for Advanced Knowledge 2. Advanced Cities and Territories 3. Advanced Architecture 4. Digital Design and Fabrication 5. Interactive Societies and Technologies 6. Self-Sufficient Lands

Nader Tehrani, Architect, Director MIT School Architecture, Boston Juan Herreros, Architect, Professor ETSAM, Madrid Neil Gershenfeld, Physic, Director CBA MIT, Boston Hanif Kara, Engineer, Director AKT, London Vicente Guallart, Architect, Chief City Arquitect of Barcelona Willy Muller, Director of Barcelona Regional Aaron Betsky, Architect & Art Critic, Director Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Hugh Whitehead, Engineer, Director Foster+ Partners technology, London Nikos A. Salingaros, Professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio Salvador Rueda, Ecologist, Director Agencia Ecologia Urbana, Barcelona Artur Serra, Anthropologist, Director I2CAT, Barcelona

PUBLISHED BY: Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia ISSN 2339 - 8647 CONTACT COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLICATIONS OFFICE: communication@iaac.net

Institut for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia Barcelona

14

Pujades 102 08005 Barcelona, Spain T +34 933 209 520 F +34 933 004 333 ana.martinez@coac.net www.iaac.net