PRECEDENT 2: LAS RAMBLAS

FIGURE 6.13. Image by Oh Barcelona on Wikimedia under Creative Commons License.

PRECEDENT 2: LAS RAMBLAS

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Las Ramblas is a pedestrian plaza surrounded by shops and lined with trees in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarters. The plaza starts at Barcelona’s main plaza, Plaza Catalunya, and spans 1.2km to the Christopher Columbus Monument in Port Vell. Las Ramblas is a meeting place for the residents and tourists of Barcelona due to its central location and 10m – 25m wide central pedestrian route. The main route reverses the ratio of humans and automobiles, resulting in a reverse of the typical relationship between pedestrians and vehicles. The trees that frame the pedestrian routes act as barriers to guide the pedestrians and protect them from vehicles.

According to Campbell (2002), the promenade is constantly in motion and has vibrancy due to the plaza being full of retail stalls, food kiosks, and arts and crafts exhibits drawing people

FIGURE 6.14. Las Ramblas Street view (Google Maps, 2021).

of various ages in from many walks of life. Ample seating and social spaces and permitted performances by local artists and musicians can also be found along the 1.2km promenade. These factors enable the promenade to be visually and culturally different every day.

Principles:

• The promenade is designed to the human scale, with pedestrians being prioritised over vehicles, encouraging movement and vibrancy. • The wide promenade allows spill out spaces for retail and restaurants to bleed into the social space. • The rows of trees act as the threshold between the inside spaces, the road and the promenade. • There is ample seating and breakaway spaces that create a congenial public space that allows a wide array of social activities to happen, depending on the social gradient of the activity. • The promenade is designed to be accessible and walkable.

FIGURE 6.16: Rain in Sydney Iconic Places. (Chandra, 2015).