Sunteți pe pagina 1din 11

Mercedes Delgado Martnez

A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

I am of the opinion that architecture should coexist quietly with nature, never
opposing it. I am positive that a choice between these alternatives no longer
applies. Architecture and nature should be integrated. Both should be part of our
daily life. Yasuhiro Yamashita. Having said that it would be good to know why
this concept of nature and architecture are so important when talking about any
city, but especially about Barcelona. This city was planned in the modern era as a
garden city. Through this essay the development of Barcelona as we know it will be
explained, how it all began from a small fortified roman city which ended up being
one of Europes most iconic and important cities.

Barcelonas aerial view, in the image can be seen Cerds grid as well as the old
Medieval area which is located to the south.
Having said that it is important to know that Barcelona is the capital and
most populous city of Catalunya, and the second largest city in Spain. It has an
area of 101 km and a population of 1.6 million people. It is located on the

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

Mediterranean coast; constrained by the Collserola Hills between the mouths of the
rivers, Llobregat and Bess in the northeast part of Spain. Like many other
European cities Barcelona is surrounded by some smaller jurisdictions that in this
case is known as the province of Barcelona. The province is divided into
comarques Barcelona being the main one.
Barcelona has many features of the north-west European city, it has a large
tertiary sector, tourism and nowadays multinational investment has become
increasingly important. Because it is in constant grow Barcelona suffers from
serious traffic congestion and has the unenviable reputation as being the second
most noisy city in Europe after Sofia.
I.

The foundation and the fortified city


Stone Age tribes that descended from the Pyrenees Mountains nearly

70,000 years ago initially inhabited the area in which Barcelona is now settled. The
earliest recorded signs of inhabitation are found atop Montjuic, now located in the
southwest part of the city. Around the 7th Century BC and the 1st century AC the
Celts, Greeks and Carthaginians inhabited the land in that order; until the end of
the 1st century when it became Roman territory.
The new Roman colony, known as Barcino; was built like a typical Roman
city, with a major east-west and north-south axis. Fortified walls for protection
surrounded the city. The intersection of these routes was in what is now known as
the Placa Sant Jaume, where important public buildings were located. Through the
4th and 5th centuries, development outside the original walls was necessary so
new suburbs were established to the east and west. In order to protect this new
development a new Wall was constructed in 1230, this new Wall lined whats now
known as La Rambla.

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

The city continued its development and by 1365 there were several
developing hamlets such as: Gracia, Sant Andreu and Sarria growing on the plains
surrounding the main city. But it wasnt until 1359 that a third set of city walls were
built to enclose the suburbs to the west, this area became known as El Raval.
Through the 13th and 14th centuries the Rambla slowly became the main artery of
the city splitting it into half. The eastern part of the city continued to develop
through the 15th and 16th centuries and it came to be the citys merchant area.
The 18th century rolled in and the city had an estimated population of
40,000 people living within its city walls, having the highest population density in
Spain, and one of the highest in Europe. This was around the time of the War for
the Spanish Succession; the walls turned the city into a fort, which was done under
the order of Philip V in an attempt to supress Catalunyas nationalism. The walls
stopped any further civic and industrial development in Barcelona; any attempt at
urban planning around the walls was forbidden; therefore many town-planning
ideas did not come to terms. Barcelona suffered from extremely high density, a bad
water supply, and a poor sewer system. Due to this and the populations expansion
three story buildings were erected to substitute most of the old Roman buildings.
Barcelona experienced its growth explosion during the 19th century, which
was accompanied by an industrial revolution. This period was a difficult transition in
the citys history. At the beginning of the century the growth of the city, was still being suffocated by the third set of city walls, factories were being located outside
them amongst farms and residential areas leading to a terrible quality of life. This
area was located in El Raval, which is now known as the site of La Rambla.
II: The demolition of the walls, the first step towards urban planning.

As the 19th century grew the things became better legally speaking and
finally in the 1850s the walls were demolished; this process took about 12 years to
complete but at least they were gone. In order to avoid chaos and unexpected
3

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

growth Catalan civil engineer, Illdefons Cerd became the designer of the
expansion plan for the city; this was the first time urban planning was thought of.
Cerds plan, which is known as IEixample, was a garden city expansion that was
going to be extended to cover 520 street blocks.

Cerds plan in 1855, which was to suffer some changes in the following years.
The l'Eixample was planned using a grid-iron pattern, focusing not only on
the urban part but also on hygiene as well as ease of mobility and transportation.
Everything was planned out to increase hygiene; in order to accomplish this each
block had to be 113.3 mts by 113.3 mts to optimize the living standards. To
optimize mobility and transportation each corner of the block had to be cut in a
rounded, or chamfer, he planned large streets with widths of 35 m and also big
avenues from up to 50-80 m wide on the most important areas of the city.

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

A IEixample map showing the most important avenues in Barcelona.


The engineer also wanted to increase green space and gardens on every
block thats why buildings could only use less than 50% of the blocks surface,
there was also a limit in height being set at 20 meters, as well as a 15-20 meter on
depth limit. The streets were divided in two, one part for vehicles and one part for
pedestrians.
Though interesting Cerds plan had many critics, one of them coming from
Antonio Rovira; an architect. Rovira wanted to develop the extension in a
concentric way to promote class separation, being Passeig de Grcia the main
5

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

axis. Also the width of the streets was excesive, they had to be 10-15 m wide at the
most. Cerd wanted to create a new city whereas Rovira wanted a radial
expansion of the city. Property owners and the government feared that everything
would grow out of their control, so they favored Roviras modifications.

Antonio Roviras plan, which altered Cerds plan later on.


With this in mind Cerd had to modify his and unveiled the new plan in 1859
where he reduced the width of the street size to 30 to 20 m, extended the depth of
buildings to 20 m, and made the regular distribution of parks and public facilities
non mandatory. As a result, the Royal Decree of 1860 approved Cerds layout of
the city. Yet, the construction of buildings took place at a slow rate. In the first
twenty years after the approval of the plan, only 100 hectares were built. It took
almost fifty years for just one of Cerds main avenues to be built. Due to lack of
regulations the 1859 plan suffered many changes trough the process: blocks
dedicated for parks, gardens, markets, schools, and social centers were ignored
and used for housing, industry, and commercial buildings instead, this due to the

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

fact that Passeig de Grcia became an upper class location which changed the
speed of development only around that area.

Cerds modified plan of 1859.


It wasnt all that bad though, one of the main achievements of Cerds plan
was the construction of one of the three big avenues: the Via Laietana, which
connected the port and the gates of the city and is still one of its main
avenues. Even though Cerds plan did not reach his intended level of completion,
evidence of his plan can be seen today in Barcelona through the existence of the
numerous trees along the sidewalks, the chamfers at each end of the building
blocks, and the wide streets.
III.

The Twentieth Century and the Olympic Rebirth

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with increasing population
pressure and the need for car parking, most of the open areas that were left were
developed and filled. The majority of the blocks were increased in height to a
uniform eight story by the developers intent to maximize their income. Also in the
north part on the slopes of the coastal hills, a number of large villas were built.
Between 1920 and 1930 the city was growing by 25,000 immigrants per
year but with the advent of the Spanish Civil War Barcelona entered a period of
decay, with unplanned developments continuing outward. The period following the
war the country was devastated, both morally and economically. Between the
years 1940 and 1975 there were 26 new districts added to the city, many of which
lacked necessary infrastructure, including paved roads. Yet in 1953 another urban
plan was launched: The Plan Comarcal.

Plan Comarcal in 1953.


This plan was the first urban plan since Cerds plan of 1859, it was the initial effort
of planning the city and its metropolitan area. The objective of the plan was to
encourage the growth of suburbs because there was a serious need for housing as

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

well as to develop the growth of garden cities in the area. The plan was approved
in 1957 but it didnt really achieve its goals and only 300,000 units were built. The
Comarcal was soon replaced by 1968s provincial plan which main attempt was to
create a balanced development by redistributing industry and population. These
plans didnt really follow through and between these years and the 70s urban
development of the city was a major chaos, the working class blocks lacked basic
infrastructure and/or public services.
In 1976 a new plan was applied, the Metropolitan General Plan; created by
Albert Serratosa, Joan Antoni Solans and Miquel Roca Junyent. The plan was
achievable because of the economic crisis of the 70s, The government was able to
buy land and dedicated it to public spaces. That was because the main goal of the
plan was to reduce the densities of the population and to reclaim land for public
use by increasing the creation of parks, plazas, and schools.
The development of public space became Barcelonas planning base in the
80s, and nine of its most important projects were built between 1984 and 1992;
being Las Ramblas one of them. Las Ramblas is about 1.5 kilometers long,
consisting of a sixty feet wide central walk way lined with five to seven story
buildings and it includes cafes, shops and markets on the open Street.
Even though these plans changed the city the major overhaul came in with
the preparation for the 1992 Olympics, which were going to be celebrated in the
city. Major infrastructural projects and inner city problems were solved during this
period. Hotels, museums, restaurants and ever bars were created; the Olympic
Village was developed in an old industrial area; Poblenou, which brought new life
back again. The Raval district; one of the oldest ones in the city, held the
Contemporary art Museum and it completely transformed the area socially and
economically. The beaches were cleaned up and the port renewed, Montjuic
revitalized became the site for the Olympic stadium.

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

The renewal of the city hasnt stopped since, the city is nowadays one
the most developed cities in Europe and also one of the most visited by tourists.
Barcelona has also had an incredible economic growth as it has one of the biggest
and most active industrial areas in Spain. Architecturally speaking it has been
transformed in the past few years, it holds numerous modern buildings, as well as
old ones, which makes Barcelona unique.
All things considered it can be seen that no matter how many things happen
at the beginning of the story of a city all things can be changed, yet it is important o
note that urban planning is necessary to do so because things do not happen
magically. This is observed in the period after Cerds plan was applied things
were there but the restrictions were not followed and after this happened the period
of uncertainty began.
Also the use of public space is something that has to be taken into account,
this was one of the things that stuck because since the original plan this was a
primary necessity and it wasnt taken into consideration until 1976 when the new
GMP was developed. As it can be seen public space is one of the things that make
Barcelona the city that it is now, not only because it has many many trees and
parks, but because public space is where life in the city happens, people walking
down the streets, drinking coffee outside the bars, kids playing in the parks, most
of the social interactions happen in these spaces and those are the places that
make up a city. Above all it is important to note that a city must keep on evolving,
historical buildings must coexist with the new ones to give the city an identity or as
Barcelonas major in 1982; Pasqual Maragall said: No one can survive merely by
conservation. If there is no new construction, the city cannot stand: not even the
old will endure. Each city must find its own formula for combining existing symbols
with new ones. Without the latter, antiquity becomes more repetition.
Bibliography:

10

Mercedes Delgado Martnez


A00568186
Urban Theories
Urban Evolution of Barcelona

Josep Bernis. The Cerd extension of Barcelona: urban structure, identity and civic
values. 05/02/2015 , de Planum Magazine Sitio web:
http://www.planum.net/cultural-identities-barcelona-spain
Barcelona Field Studies Centre . (2013 ). Barcelona Urban development and
change . 05/02/2015 , de Barcelona Field Studies Centre Sitio web:
http://geographyfieldwork.com/BarcelonaUrbanDetail.htm
Barcelona Field Studies Centre . (2013 ). Urban Studies in Barcelona. 05/02/2015 ,
de Barcelona Field Studies Centre Sitio web:
http://geographyfieldwork.com/barcelona.htm
Robert Dizal. (2010). Barcelona city plan . 05/02/2015 , de Landscape architecture
city tour Sitio web: http://people.umass.edu/latour/Spain/bdizel/

Nelson, P. (n.d.). Barcelona, Spain. Retrieved February 05, 2015, from


http://depts.washington.edu/open2100/Resources/1_OpenSpaceSystems/Open_S
pace_Systems/BarcelonaCaseStudy.pdf
Wynn, M. (1979). Barcelona: Planning and Change 1854-1977. The Town
Planning Review,50(2), 185-203. Retrieved February 05, 2015, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40103366

11

S-ar putea să vă placă și