E l Raval district, being one of the oldest parts of Barcelona, is one
of the densely populated areas where the majority are immigrants. Built in the middle ages as a community, it is rich in historic buildings; the oldest of which dates to the 12th century. In the wake of urbanization, the status of EL Raval has changed dramatically since the mid-19th century. From the political, industrial and financial centre of the City of Barcelona in the mid-19th century to the most deprived area in the 2019, EL Raval faces many challenges to transform itself to be part of the smart city development in Barcelona. Government action has concentrated upon improving infrastructure, municipal and district facilities, housing, employment, health, education, social services, sports facilities and restricting criminal and marginal activities.
01 BACKGROUND & LOCATION 02 URBAN ISSUE 03 SITE ANALYSIS 04 DESIGN STRATEGY & PROCESS 05 PROJECT
LOCATION
BACKGROUND & LOCATION
El Raval district, being one of the oldest parts of Barcelona, is one of the densely populated areas where the majority are immigrants. Built in the middle ages as a community, it is rich in historic buildings; the oldest of which dates to the 12th century. In the wake of urbanization, the status of EL Raval has changed dramatically since the mid-19th century. From the political, industrial and financial centre of the City of Barcelona in the mid-19th century to the most deprived area in the 2019, EL Raval faces many challenges to transform itself to be part of the smart city development in Barcelona. Government action has concentrated upon improving infrastructure, municipal and district facilities, housing, employment, health, education, social services, sports facilities and restricting criminal and marginal activities.
BARCELONA URBAN PLAN HISTORY Barcelona, the capital of autonomous community of Catalonia, is a city located in the coast of northeastern Spain. it is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, with 1.6 million inhabitants in the municipality of Barcelona (National Statistics Institute), and it has an increasing population of immigrants.
BC 218
1260
1359
1714
1859
1929
1975
2019
HISTOR
The history of Barcelona can date back to 15 BC when Romans settled in the area and established the city called “Barcino” which was surrounded by a 1.5km wall. In 1260, the walls are expended and El Raval was being developed into the industrial area and Barcino became the commercial centre. In 15th, because of the development of industry and population, a new high-density industrial district was built for workers. The war of the Spanish throne commenced in 1714, a fortress was built to monitor the old town of El Raval, and the city was prohibited from expanding across the wall. In the mid-19th century, the density of population in El Raval was the highest in Europe (856 people per hectare), compared to the same period in Paris there were 400 people. After the War of the Spanish Succession. The result was an intense densification of the city, which had 83,000 inhabitants in 1818, 140,000 in 1821, and 187,000 in 1850, in an area of not much over 2 million square metres. In 1854 permission was given for the walls to be demolished. In 1855, the engineer Ildefons Cerdà developed his urban planning which was implemented in 1859. Because of the successful design of the infrastructure in the city, Barcelona was able to host the World’s Fair in 1888, and this event promoted the improvement of sewage treatment system and brought various of new buildings. A new burst of urban growth was set off by the 1929 world exhibition, especially around the Plaçad’Espanya. This small urban boom brought an important influx of migrants, mainly from Aragón, Múrcia and Galicia. Since there was very limited housing infrastructure for these new inhabitants, many of them began to live in shanty towns on the central mountain of Montjuïc. After the civil war (1936-1939) Spain underwent an extended period of social, political and economic stagnation, and the 1940s and 50s are often called “the lost decades”. Ruled as a military dictatorship, there was heavy cultural censorship, and the official economic policy until the end of the 1950s was one of autarchic self-sufficiency. Furthermore, condemnation by the international community resulted in Spain’s exclusion from the Marshall Plan in the post war years, which put it at the margin of the general European economic recovery. However, after the dictator’s death in 1975, the country underwent an ultimately successful transition to democracy, which also entailed a relaxation of tight social control, and a progressive opening of the economy. In 1978 a political decentralization process was initiated, culminating in the creation of the 17autonomous regions into which Spain is divided, with local, directly elected governments with extensive fiscal autonomy, and extensive control of health, education, urban, social and environmental policy. It was finally a new opportunity in 1992, and Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games, which turned the city into a modern city for globalization and a popular tourist destination.
URBAN ISSUE
High Crime Rate The crime rate per 100 residents in Barcelona in 2016
The crime rate of this area is much higher than surrounding region, and residents and visitors feel insecure when they are working or enjoying the civic landscape here.
Low Income Old Town Family Economic Capacity Index by Censal Sections 1996
With low income level, people here, mostly foreign-born, endure poverty.
Low Education Level Ratio of residents with university degree to all other degrees
The education level of the residents in El Raval is much lower than that in other area, that is one of the causes of the low income and high crime rates.
Social issues including crime rate, inequity of political rights, low educational level and lowincome level of people in Ciutat Vella are affecting residents' daily life. The crime rate of this area is much higher than surrounding region, and residents and visitors feel insecure when they are working or enjoying the civic landscape here. With low income level, people here, mostly foreign-born, endure poverty, living joyless life for their family. There are five different forms of family in this area which reflect people's living state. About one third of residents are single people, and more a half of household are married while only 40 percent of them are couples with children. The same number of family choose have pets as company and rest of couples do not have children or pets. The number of single mothers is around 10%. Most Foreign residents here came from Ecuador, Morocco, Colombia, Peru, Pakistan and Dominica. They came to this country hoping for a better life for themselves and their children, but the truth is they have to dealing with long working hours to pay the rent and tax without the right to vote.
POPULATION / IMMIGRANTS
DIFFERENT ATTITUDES TO IMMIGRANTS AND TOURISTS
around 150,000 people in Barcelona marched to demand that the Spanish government allow more refugees into the country. Shortly afterwards, “Tourists go home, refugees welcome” started appearing on the city’s walls; soon the city was inundated with protestors marching behind the slogans “Barcelona is not for sale” and “We will not be driven out”.
Immigration has changed the city, but tourism is destabilising it – and even people in the industry agree that it can’t go on like this. In 1990 the city received 1.7 million tourists; last year the figure was 32 million – roughly 20 times the resident population. The sheer volume of visitors is driving up rents, pushing residents out of neighbourhoods, and overwhelming the public space.
SITE ANALYSIS RESEARCH METHOD Field work: walking tools, observation, sketches, photographs, records Conducting fieldwork is a primary source of research data, and it is often combined with other forms of research (Lucas, Ray 2016, p.69). Fieldwork as a method to collect the primary information started at October 2019, and visual data has been gathered by walking, observation, recording and interview. All the field notes, photos, videos, sketches will be edited and analyzed to have a deeper understanding of the El Raval in Barcelona.
Case Study The case study is one of the most appropriate methods of data collection for a researcher who is working alone on a project with a limited amount of time and resources. In brief, the case study approach is an in-depth investigation into a case and a case is simply the focus of our research. The purpose of the case study is to gather a great deal of detailed information about that one single case. (Best, S. 2012)
Data Collection: tables, diagrams, graphs “High-quality data collection is fundamental to the advancement of knowledge in the social sciences”(Axinn, W.G. & Pearce, L.D. 2006) “The researcher can make use of data transformation in which there is an attempt to integrate quantitative and qualitative data analysis, for example by comparing numerical quantitative scales with qualitative themes or changing qualitative themes into numerical scores ”(Best, S. 2012)The data we have collected are from a variety of sources, such as the history of Barcelona from the government official website, population, income and generation from the article of University College London. (Sonia Arbaci and Teresa Tapada-Berteli, 2012) The major part of data is from the site visits.
SITE LOCATION
LANDMARKS
LAND USE
TYPOLOGY
CULTURAL BUILDING
RESIDENTIAL
CULTURAL CENTRE
EDUCATION
RESTAURANT
MIDDLE SCHOOL
HOSPITAL
RETAIL
RESIDENTIAL BLOCK
TRANSPORTATION
SITE SECTION
OBSERVATION
DESIGN STRATEGY & PROCESS SITE STRATEGY
Ban the vehicles and the parking
Create the greenway around the site
Create the underground space
Keep the park and playground
PROGRAMME
Education: Workshop Classroom Library Dance hall lecture hall office Shop Union Exhibition
120 m2 50 m2 x 6 200 m2 100 m2 120 m2 40 m2 x 4 60 m2 120 m2 200 m2
Total
1380 m2
Health care centre: Lobby Doctor’s office Consult room Board room Meeting room
100 m2 40 m2 x 4 40 m2 x 8 60 m2 60 m2
Total
720 m2
Recreation: Projection hall Staffroom Children’s centre Café Fitness room
180 m2 40m2 x 2 360 m2 300 m2 200 m2
Total
1120 m2
Activity centre: Lobby Multipurpose room Staff room Projection room
200 m2 150 m2 x 3 60 m2 150 m2
Total
760 m2
INTRODUCTION The site is an important open space for the residents in El Raval, many young people paly skateboard and many old people relax themselves there, therefore the main concept of this project is to build a commuity centre which can solve the problems of residents and keep the open space at the sametime, that is the reason why it is an underground project. This multifunction community centre have four main functions, each function aims to solve different problems. The school can provide language supports to the immigrants who come from different countrys, they can also develop their hobbies in the school such as dance. the healthcare centre aims to deal with the problem of the lack of hospital at El Raval. the recreation area and activity centre can provide entertainment for residents and promote the cultural communication between the immigrants. In addition, the upground parts will be designed as skatepark and the openspace which can hold various activities such as exhibition.
PROCESS
SOLAR ANALYSIS April
7:00
9:00
11:00
15:00
17:00
19:00
7:00
9:00
11:00
15:00
17:00
19:00
September
SUNLIGHT COLLECTION IS QUITE IMPORTANT FOR UNDERGROUND PROJECTS, THEREFORE I DESIGNED THE VOLUME OF THIS PROJECT ACORRDING TO THE SOLAR ANALYSIS TO BRING MORE SUNLIGHT INTO THE BUILDING. THE SOLUTION IS TO CREATE A GAP CROSS THE SITE WHICH DIVIDES THE SITE INTO TWO PARTS, THEN ARRANGE THE FOUR FUNCTIONS AND EACH PART CONTAINS TWO MAIN FUNCTIONS. THE ORINTATION OF THE GAP DEPENDS ON THE ROUTE OF THE SUN, AND SOME IMPORTANT SPACE SUCH AS CLASSROOMS WILL BE PLACED AT THE AREA WHICH HAVE MORE SUNLIGH.
PROJECT
Create underground space
Create two platform as entrance
Create gap between two block accroding to the solar analysis
Four volumees have four main differentfunctions
A platform connect the two blocks at second floor
Two main entrance can lead the visitors into the building from different directions.
Increase the superficial area to bring more sunlight
Design the upground landscape to relate to the buildings around the site
SKATEPARK
OPENSPACE (OUTDOOR EXHIBITION, MARKET, STAGE)
PARK
EXHIBITION
CONSULT ROOM OFFICE BOARD ROOM MEETING ROOM
MULTIPURPOSE ROOF GARDEN PROJECTION HALL
MULTIPURPOSE STAFFROOM
SHOP WORKSHOP LECTURE HALL CLASSROOM UNION LIBRARY OFFICE DANCE HALL CLASSROOM
PROJECTION HALL CAFE LOBBY FITNESS ROOM CHILDREN CENTRE STAFFROOM
MASTER PLAN
SUBTERRANEAN LEVEL
2 层轴测
UPPER LEVEL
MAIN ENTRANCE ELEVATION
A - A SECTION
SHADE
POOL
GREEN ROOF PASSIVE DESIGN
MA ARCHITECTURE & URBANISUM