URBAN SUTURES: Urban Public Space as Connecting, Mending, and Negotiating Mediums

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

special thanks

Benjamin C. Howland Traveling Fellowship that UVA Barcelona Program teaching team: Manuel Josep Parcerisa, and Celia Marin Vega, who unpacked through their experiences and passion as Professor Beth Meyer, who introduced me to methods and document the power

Ariana Arenius, who lent me her Fuji x100 digital low-quality photo

Eden McCafferty and Amy Schulz - who accompany derful Barcelona April 5th,

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

thanks to:

that allows this research journey to happen.

Manuel Bailo, Giovanna Bartoleschi, Alvaro Clua, unpacked the beauty and depth of Barcelona as scholars, practitioners, and Catalans. methods and lenses that allows me to appreciate power of public space.

digital camera so I don't have to settle with the of my iPhone SE.

accompany me to walk 10+ miles per day in the wonBarcelona City.

5th, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

URBAN DESIGN HISTORY OVERVIEW OF BARCELONA

source: D’Historia De Barcelona, “Carta Històrica de Barcelona,” Carta Històrica de Barcelona, accessed April 1, 2023, http://ajuntament. barcelona.cat/museuhistoria/cartahistorica.

SITE LOCATIONS

encountering waters

enmeshing grounds

mending chasms

permeating boundaries

source: google earth, 2023

Barceloneta

Parc de la Creueta del

Jardins Laura Albèniz

Torre de les Aigües

Sant Felip Neri Square

Pg. de St. Joan

Passatge Permanyer

Bicivia 7

El parc de Joan Reventós

Jardins

Illa Anaïs

Parc

Parc

01

ENCOUNTERING WATERS

Barcelona’s history starts from the sea and the coast. Water carries ships and boats that arrive at the gentle gradient of the coastal bathymetry, helping the Romans land on the coastal plain.

Villages, towns, and the citadel, the historic old town of Barcelona grow contingent on the sea. However, the city has turned its back on the sea over time - industrial development and urbanization happened rapidly, and the coast become forgotten as the city expanded inward, heading toward the mountains. An arterial road is cut through between the coast and the city, making the coast even less accessible by foot.

This chapter explores how coastal neighborhoods reconnect the city with the sea and waterfront parallel to the horizon

neighborhoods

The 1975 democratization, the 1980s emerging ideal of a “vacation by the beach”, and the 1992 Olympics are pivotal moments in time when the city start to re-evaluate and reimagine the coast. A series of public space designs and constructions took place - using diverse suturing methods ranging from promenades, winding trails, bridges, plazas, stairways, etc. to stretch, patch, and re-claim the waterfront.

and public spaces and form a continuous walkable horizon of the Mediterranean sea.

THE PUBLIC WATERFRONT

SECTION STUDIESDESIGN STRATEGIES THAT SUTURE THE CITY AND THE COAST

BARCELONETA -

former fishermen village in the 18th century. The architecture’s massing and layout on the flat coastal plain create direct movement from the city to the water.

PARC DE LA NOVA ICÀRIA

the park uses wooden bridges to connect the city to the park and the waterfront.

PARC DEL POBLENOU

The park connects the city with the beach through pine groves, constructed dunes, and both a sinuous and straight path system.

SECTION STUDIESDESIGN STRATEGIES FOR SUTURING THE CITY AND THE COAST

PARC DIAGONAL MARwalks / retention ponds / contemporary sculptures curates a movement flowing from the city to the sea.

PARC DEL FÒRUMmega plazas / open spaces / and structures for large events. Absorbing the flow of people from the Diagnal and spread them out to the port.

PARC DE LA PAUusing series of steps / walls / balconies to connect the industrial districts to the beach.

BARCELONETA: HITTING THE WATER

designer: Juan Martín Cermeño (engineer)

year: 1754

description: Hitting the water with diagonal straight lines that are formed by the historic fishermen's village. The coastal plain topography creates little elevation change from the city to the sea.

Multiple boardwalks run parallel along the coast, integrating the plaza into the waterfront landscape. The plaza and boardwalks slope up to connect with the boardwalks closer to the Olympic village, constituting a continuous waterfront walk along the city.

Barceloneta neighborhood architecture forming straight paths that directly hits the water

Barceloneta has the busiest waterfront in the city

THE OLYMPIC VILLAGE DISTRICT

PARC DE LA NOVA ICÀRIA: BRIDGING THE WATER

designer: MBM Arquitectes

year: 1992

description: the park utilizes bridges that step across the arterial road in Barcelona, funneling the flow of pedestrians from the city to the waterfront. The park was one of the 1992 Olympic revitalization projects, and become a key site that foster the continuity of a walkable waterfront.

PARC DEL POBLENOU: RIPPLING TOWARDS THE WATER

designer: unable to find, part of The Seafront Development Plan year: 1992

description: Prior to intervention, the site was composed of a landfill, obsolete factories, and a goods station. Part of the 1992 Olympic Revitalization Plan, the park is connected to Parc de la Nova Icària, extending the walkable waterfront even further. The design uses inspiration from the natural Mediterranean coastal landscape: dunes and pine groves. The dunes and sporadic pine groves create a cadence of openness and enclosure, compression and release, and light and shadow. A sinuous path system ripples from the city towards the water, interjected by straight path systems that continue the grid pattern of the city. The edge of the park is a 1-Floor height wall, with a line of seating facing the water and wide stairways that direct pedestrian flow to the beach.

pine groves and constructed dunes

PARC DIAGONAL MAR: RIBBONING TOWARDS THE WATER

designer: Miralles Tagliabue EMBT

year: 2002

description: The park consists of a series of retention ponds, ribbon-like tube/sculptures, patches of plazas, vegetated grounds, and path systems. The park is a contemporary milestone in urban design, where the design team celebrates the fluidity of water and large irregular grounds as patchwork that suture between the city and the waterfront. The design shuttle between large-scale systematic thinking and meticulous detail design. The aesthetic of the design manifests Gaudi’s legacy in Catalonia culture, while Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue evolve from Gaudi’s lineage and create something innovative and transformative to the urban condition.

AVINGUDADIAGONAL

moments of lingering

PARC DEL FÒRUM: GRABBING THE WATER

designers: Elías Torres’ and José Antonio Martínez Lapeñas

year: 2004

description: The park/plaza is built for the Universal Forum of Cultures held in Barcelona in 2004. The design is a mega plaza and park that can accommodate large-scale events. The public space design is combined with massive infrastructure: solar panels held up by a multi-story height concrete pavilion, port infrastructure, and a museum, all covering the sewage water plant below ground. The design connects the arterial road that cut through the the city - Diagonal Avenue, and is capable of taking in a heavy traffic footprint.

AVINGUDADIAGONAL

massive infrastructure as public space. underground is the sewage water plant of the city.

movements across elevation change

PARC DE LA PAU: STEPPING THE TO SEA

INDUSTRIAL ZONE

designer: unable to find year: 2004, in sync with Parc del Fòrum description: The design is located in the industrial zone of Barcelona, using irregular patchwork to suture the city, the industrial factories, and the recreational beach. The park is connected by a footbridge with the Parc del Fòrum, extending a walkable waterfront all the way to Besos River. The park uses brick as the main material palette, and creates whimsical repetitive ground patterns that naturally guide the movement towards the beach. The focal point of the park is the large basin that supports all kinds of group activities and the grand stairway that steps down to the waterfront promenade. The tall walls also create seat-able balconies that overlook the sea.

INDUSTRIAL ZONE

palm tree and chimneys

overlapping materiality park - beach

overlapping experience production - recreation

02

ENMESHING GROUNDS

This chapter explores how public space existing terrain and creates public centers ferent neighborhoods to the once

Barcelona is a city that has its natural boundaries and constraints. As the settlements and city started their journey near the coast, the urban expansion hits a terrain barrier inland - the Collserola mountain range. At the edge where the city touches the foot of the mountain is a series of hilly landscapes that is occupied by both planned neighborhoods and informal settlements.

space design grounds itself in the centers that draw and connect difonce (near) inaccessible terrain.

Neighborhoods such as Sarria, Gracia, and Horta ground themselves within the undulating terrain, adapting their structures and roads to the crowded contour lines.

Public space and recreation centers also need to accommodate themselves to the dramatic elevation change, transforming topographic changes from obstacles into opportunities.

How are terrain mitigated, utilized, or perhaps amplified, is the focus of the following analyses.

designer: MBM Arquitectes

artist: Eduardo Chillida and Ellsworth Kelly year: 1992, part of the Olympic revitalization plan description: The park is located on one of the topographic high points of the hilly Gràcia neighborhood. The site was once a stone quarry, deeply carved into the ground, creating a flat bottom and steep surrounding arms that warps around the park. The park uses a main water feature and terraces to embrace the topography of the old quarry. On the other side of the mountain which is not impacted by quarrying activities, a network of trails circulates and connects to the park. The park and the trail design transform the terrain from an obstacle to a popular destination and gathering space, enlivening the neighborhood with the experience it curates and the activities it facilitates.

PARC DE LA CREUETA DEL COLL

CONTEXTCONTOURS LEADING THE GROWTH OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

SITETOPOGRAPHY AS OBSTACLES AND OPPORTUNITIES

THE TOPOGRAPHY QUARRY BECOMES FOR CRAFTING

TOPOGRAPHY OF AN OLD

BECOMES AN OPPORTUNITY CRAFTING EXPERIENCE

sections embracing the elevation change

DESIGNFOUND IMAGES AND PHOTOGRAPHY

source: “EUMiesAward,” accessed March 18, 2023, https://www.miesarch.com/work/1379.

left - close-up site plan and section upper right - site plan lower right - site photo

a park that manifests aesthetics and affect. sculpture: “Eulogy to Water” by Chillida

a park that manifests aesthetics and affect

1st tier

2nd tier

3rd tier

immersive view of the 2nd tier

2nd tier (view from 3rd tier)

view from the trail above the 3rd tier

stairs/steps/seats

clusters of gathering

trails that wrap around the park

PARC DE JOAN REVENTÓS

designer: BAGURSA (Barcelona Urban Management)

year: 2008

description: The park is located in the Sarrià neighborhood, a threshold where the city touches the Collserola mountain range. The park was once an abandoned forest and the catchment area of “Riera de les Monges”. The design embraces the sunken topography and uses a series of ramps and steps to connect urban fabrics that locate at very different elevations. The whole park is composed of flat lingering areas, a playground, and a series of accessible ramps that sinuates along the stormwater management system. The sinuous shape is stretched in a linear direction, forming comfortable and convenient shortcuts for pedestrians, bikers, and skaters. The park development kept the lush and rich vegetation of the once-forested area, creating an enclosed and tranquil public space to linger.

before, 2004an abandoned forest in a suken bowl

after, 2008a park with accessible paths and lingering zones

DESIGNWORKING WITH THE EXISTING TOPOGRAPHY

DESIGNCONNECTING NEIGHBORHOODS ON DIFFERENT ELEVATIONS

the park is in a sunken bowl

entrance switch-back ramps and stairs

enclosure and tranquility provided by the sunken topography, thick woods, and shrubs

stormwater management system

accessible ramps as desired walk/bike/skate paths

03

MENDING CHASMS

This chapter explores how urban public neighborhoods divided by

From the 1930s to the 1990s, Barcelona began its rapid eastward expansion towards the Besòs River. Urban developments, metro system growth, and the 1992 Olympics, all contributed to large-scale infrastructural implementations in the city. The infrastructural development forms new urban centers and accommodates more urban activities, but at the same time fragment the city with the chasms and the terrain vague (Solà-Morales, 1995) it creates.

As ideologies of walkable, sustainable, green healthy cities emerged at the end of the 20th century and still trending in the 21st century, urban park/recreational space projects that

function in infrastructural scale and scope are introduced to the city to bridge the existing gaps by interweaving itself between grey infrastructures.

These designs straddle the field of urban planning, urban design, landscape architecture, and urban furniture design simultaneously, shuttle between the city’s scale and the body scale.

Design strategies that foster body-scale space-making are particularly highlighted in the following analyses, documenting how design can establish in-situ experiences that is not engulfed by the massiveness of the site.

public space can suture fragmented by massive infrastructures.

BICIVIA 7

designer: batlleiroig (BIR) year: 2018

description: The linear park/bike lane/footpath is a project that establishes a new urban network that connects Barcelona city with the adjacent outskirt district. The design extends the end of Diagonal Avenue (the longest arterial road that cut through the city) and runs parallel with Highway B-23, threading the urban fabric by providing a 1km (0.55 miles) long, accessible walkways and bike lanes. The linear park is active with fluid movements and intermittent corners of lingering. Without any stairs, the design gently ramps up and down and interweaves itself among highways. The design demonstrates how by yielding 1-2 car lanes to pedestrians and bikers, the lived experience and public well-being can be significantly transformed.

ENTANGLING WITH EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE4-TIER STRATEGY

by yielding a width of less than 2 car lanes for pedestrians and bikers, the urban lived experience can be significantly improved.

intermittent lingering areas in the linear park

elevated from the highways, the park creates a safer environment for pedestrians and bikers and provides balcony views of the bustling traffic.

retaining walls and handrails run along the park, becoming significant design elements to demonstrate caring in detail.

intertwining with highway infrastructures.

vegetation buffers create a linear urban oasis in parallel with heavy vehicular traffic.

BesòsRiver

PARC DE LA TRINITAT

designer: batlleiroig (BIR) year: 1993

description: The park is situated between converging arterial roads, highways, and railroads. Aiming to transform the “terrain vague” (Solà-Morales, 1995) condition, the design extended the activity area of a neighborhood and stitched the park with the urban fabric to enliven the leftover space shaded under intertwining infrastructures. The Park uses multi-tier and multi-ring strategies to work with the elevation change of the existing neighborhood, different levels of highway infrastructure, and the metro station. There are several entrances on each tier, threading between the park and the neighborhood. Through ramps, stairs, and “doorways” created by highway overhangs, every tier hits the grade and provides fluid connections for commuting, leisure, and sport. The rings of the park support distinct activities, creating smaller pockets among the vastness of the park. The total area of the park is capable to hold large events (e.g. La Merce festival for kids), lightening up the space with laughter that echoes between massive concrete infrastructures.

A PARK WITHIN THE HIGHWAY SPAGHETTI

Trinitat Vella neighborhood

BesòsRiver

above: the park viewed from the road close to the highway infrastructure

below: highway infrastructure viewed from the park

vegetation design giving structure to the park

TIERS AND RINGS FORMED THROUGH TOPOGRAPHY

topography and vegetation curating experience

tiers 1-3 (low to high)

2nd tier

1-2 tier

2nd tier

3rd tier

tiers 1-3 (low to high)

3rd tier

1st tier

2nd tier

people moving from tier 1 to 3 (low to high)

ACTIVITES DIAGRAM

La Merce children’s festival

The inner ring of the park is composed of accessible paths

kids playing hide and seek, using trashcans to hide

bumpy tree trunk initiates a climbing competition between kids

event spaces formed by topography change and vegetation placements

a double allee of London Planes as the welcoming threshold between the neighborhood and the park

04

PERMEATING BOUNDARIES

Similar to other European cities, Barcelona experienced the rise of Bourgeoise, waves of liberal and rational thinking, the force of a competitive market, and the spiking need for housing in cities in the mid-19th century. Urban expansion became an unstoppable force led by middle-class people. Ildefons Cerdà, a Catalan civil engineer, proposed the Eixample (the expansion) as an urbanization strategy for the city in 1859. He carefully examined the city's topography and set rigorous rules for the Eixample grid: 133m-wide for each block (measured from road centerlines) with 65m-wide internal courtyards, 20m-wide streets, 8m intervals between street trees, and 45-degree corner cuts for traffic.

All the rules are aiming to increase the health of urban dwellers and the living condition of the city.

This chapter explores how urban spatial planning and design strategies, boundary of public

Cerdà's vision and legacy remain influential to this day for the vision he had for urban public space. He described the city as "vias and intervias" (street and non-street), envisioning an urban environment that germinates from how the public lives and uses the public space instead of architectural massings. Cerdà’s strict rules form an urban board game that allows flexibility and contemporary interpretation - carriages and pedestrian traffics in the 1800s, the emergence, and dominance of cars from the 19th-20th century, the metro system's construction and expansion since the 1920s, and the present ideologies of the walkable, smart, and green city - all find there a place in Cerdà’s grid, weaving layers of cultural and social significance on the urban fabric.

urban public space that emerge from strategies, can suture between the and private realms.

URBAN COURTYARDS BEFORE AND AFTER MODERNIZATION

Both in the historic old town and the 1859 Eixample district, urban courtyards play a significant role in shaping urban life. An urban typology that manifests how urban dwellers live and enlivens the city.

old town

10b.c.- 1859

Eixample district 1859~

PLAÇA DE SANT FELIP NERI

year: 1752

description: Located in the Gothic Quarter of the historic old town of Barcelona, the square is reachable by two allies among the labyrinth-like streets and is enclosed by 6 facades, forming a clear but asymmetrical spatial geometry. The school of Sant Felip Neri (elementary school) forms one of the facades. During break time, mobile barriers will be put at the end of the two allies, turning the public square into a temporary private playground. Three massive Jacarda trees form a well-covered ceiling in the square creating an ambiance with the dappled lights that glisten on the facade and the trickling fountain. The tranquil square has a traumatic past during Franco’s dictatorshiptwo bombs killed 42 people, most of them were kids from the school of Sant Felip Neri and the rescue crew who tries to move injured bodies after the first bomb. The trace of this tragic event remains on the facades of the square.

school of Sant Felip Neri

activity diagram - during the restaurant’s opening hours

activity diagram - during the school’ break

temporary fence temporary fence

break time of the school of Sant Felip Nerikids fighting for the ball stuck in the tree pit.

entering the square

entering the square

dappled light

restaurant (day)

restaurant (night)

marks of trauma - bombing in 1938

EIXAMPLE COURTYARDS

planner: Ildefons Cerdà designer: varies year: 1859~

description: While the original Eixample blocks each contain a courtyard within for public hygiene and health, urbanization and industrialization in the late 19th century to early 20th century had led to the sprawl of architecture vertically and horizontally into the open courtyard. Over time, the city had gradually lost its outdoor public space and was overcrowded with households and factories per Eixample block.

The end of Franco’s dictatorship becomes the beginning of democratization and set off the blooming of thoughts in spatial design strategies that transform the urban environment.

The General Metropolitan Plan was initiated in 1976 with the goal to recover the interior courtyards of Eixample blocks. In 1985, the first recovery is accomplished (Torre de les Aigües). Currently, there are 50+ urban courtyards that serve as part of the public space network and urban green patchwork that plays a key role in maintaining the physical and mental well-being of urban dwellers.

(reference: Journalist, “Miniature Paradises.”)

EIXAMPLE TYPOLOGYIN-BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

TORRE DE LES AIGÜES DE L’EIXAMPLE

trees trunks create playable space

canopies and walls create tranquil and enclosed corners

entering the interior courtyard

dogs wading in the pool and leaving traces on the sandy ground

moments of thrill and joy

moments of solitude

ILLA ANAÏS NAPOLEÓ

chatting group seating deployment

vibrant colors adding playfulness to the courtyard

entrance highlighted with vibrant yellow

JARDINS LAURA ALBÈNIZ

Saint Nicholas School

clusters of teenagers during break time

Saint Nicholas School back entrance

2 connected public access TYPOLOGY 4:

JARDINS DE LINA ÒDENA

through the courtyard

2 public entrances

there are 5 people+1dog+1 pigeon in this photo

TYPOLOGY 5:

multiple public access + semi-public + private access

JARDINS D’ALÍCIA DE LARROCHA

stores and offices on the 1st floor of residential buildings with glass facades that allows direct seethrough between the courtyard and the street

restaurant tables bleeding into public entrances

TYPOLOGY 6:

2 connected, highly visible public access

CARRETERA ANTIGA D’HORTA

the corridor widens up as it touches the streets on both ends

napping corners along the corridor

photos taken within 15min time span

Jardins de Margarida Comas

Jardins de Creu Casas

Jardins de Creu Casas

Jardins de Creu Casas

From Jardins de Mercè Plantada to Jardins d’Alícia de Larrocha

from Av. del Bogatell to Jardins de Creu Casas

PASSATGE PERMANYER

PASSEIG SANT JOAN

designer: Teresa Gali-Izard and Lola Domènech

year: 2012 (Phase I), 2016 (Phase II)

description: The project is a 1 km streetscape design connecting Arc de Triomf to the Avinguda Diagonal. The design creates generous walking and lingering space on Passeig Sant Joan. Restaurants’ outdoor seating blends with the deployment of public benches, creating fluid exchanges between public and private realms. The way the public benches interact with street trees and shrubs creates diverse types of living rooms that can accommodate various sizes of group clusters while making solitary individuals at ease in the streetscape. The bench is made with thick slabs of wood with nicely polished surfaces and steel armrests, removing the cheapness that is usually observed in public benches, serving whoever appropriates the bench with a sense of comfort and dignity. 133m

AvingudaDiagonal

a streetscape that accommodates pedestrian flow, lingering group/ individual, restaurant outdoor seating, and temporary parking.

PERMEATING BOUNDARIESTHE BALANCE AND OVERLAP OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

The vicinity and juxtaposition of public benches and private restaurant seating

The vicinity and juxtaposition of public benches and private restaurant seating

immersive view of restaurant seating from the public bench

BENCH ARRANGEMENT TYPOLOGYSPACE MAKING THROUGH TREES, SHRUBS, AND BENCHES

accommodating groups

vegetation creating enclosure (left) and openness (right)

playable bench (photo taken from the bus)

HIDE AND SEEKMOMENTS OF PRIVACY CREATED BY VEGETATION AND BENCH

BENCH ARRANGEMENT

moments of togehterness and solidtude

source: “Multimaterial Bench Sumo for Public Spaces | Escofet,” accessed April 5, 2023, https://www. escofet.com/en/products/urban-life/multimaterial-benches/sumo.

napping person’s clothes

claiming public space as a private bedroom

napping person

napping person

REFERENCES

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REFERENCES

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