Course: Description of the Course
Aims and Contents
THINKING THE CITY BORDER(S)
Foreword
Barcelona since the Olympics in 1992 has gone through an important renewal of its cityscape, becoming a reference for the urban development of consolidated towns. The different proposals and the way they have been carried out, as well as the areas that still have to be arranged, mostly at the city borders, provide a large range of opportunities to think upon urban space and civic life in the 21st century.
Barcelona has also changed its character; it has developed from provincial town to international city. People of all parts of the world share space and services, sorrows and joys.
The fact that the responsible of this master course (Prof. Karin Hofert) comes from Barcelona invites to use the town as case study and living laboratory. BCN offers us the opportunity to transform and improve some specific area by developing a plausible proposal from city until detail scale.
Aim
An approach to the complexity of the city
The workshop will introduce to the complexity of the city structure.
Working in successive approaches, from city scale to architectural scale, forth and back, will allow understanding the urban form and its determining aspects: the morphology of the territory, the incidence of climate, the pressure of infrastructure, the consistence of the soil, etc.; and of course the socio-economic aspects, related to human activity and its translation to space.
Barcelona is rich and complex, structured by all kind of patterns different in geometry, size, shape and contents. The working area is chosen strategically to give the opportunity to saw these contrasted realities; we will check in what amount the intervention on the site is capable to respond to this challenge.
The pedagogical aim is to get the skills and knowledge to be able to propose a piece of town; of course a simplified piece of town, but capable to support the discussion about its borders and about its relationship with the neighbour pieces, and capable to allow the reflection on diverse building typologies and their (physical) relations.
To achieve this aim special emphasis will be given to the understanding of space in its three dimensions. Sections, perspective drawing and models shall be used from the very beginning, understood as tools more then as result representations. The learning process, participative and experimental, will be taken very much in consideration. At the same time skills concerning the best way to explain aims and results will be trained.
Topic: proposal for a ‘Multiple sustainable city’
The specific theme of the course consists in the re-generation of an urban area along the seaside.
The design is called to re-qualify the area from a physical, social and cultural point of view (requalification of: the built, the void and the relationship with the existing urban landscape), according to different strategic decisions.
The themes to explore along the design process should be tightly connected with a ‘projective vision’ of the qualities of the place, in relation to new uses, social environment and sustainable development. Careful reading and understanding of the place identity will lead the design process to an integrated proposal.
Focusing the site itself special attention will be paid to public and open space. Understanding that public space is what makes a town be a town, by providing the space for socialisation, is a crucial point. Public space will work both in city scale and in local scale: a sea front boulevard will connect already existing shoreline promenade sections and become part of the large linear park that borders Barcelona to the southeast, while transversally it will conduct the town to the sea and work as extension to the adjacent buildings.
As for the program, a mixed use is proposed: working, housing, facilities. Hybridisation is the key to make towns alive.
As a transversal requirement the concept of sustainability will inform any decision taken. Non-sustainable architecture/urbanism is useless; infrastructure and buildings should achieve solvency and comfort by passive means as much as possible.
By working both multiscale and multiuse we pursue the integration of diverse components of our discipline: landscape, history, technology, art.
Interdisciplinary contributions
In coherence with the previous arguments the integration will be completed deepening in specific themes, such as: “Sociology of the environment” and “Agronomy and Food Science”. These topics will be developed in an integrated way by the assistant teachers. The work on these issues at the studio will be underlined by specific lectures and (collective) discussions.
Structure : A theoretical and practical itinerary
The course will be shaped as follows:
- Learning-oriented basic thematic lectures.
- Applicative experimental workshops supported by case studies.
- Mid-term evaluations, referring to the project’s different stages of evolution.
- Related activities such as seminars and exhibitions.
- Study-tour to Barcelona (Spain) with onsite visits and lectures.
These joint activities count with the presence of external professionals of national and international reputation.
The Site
Since the 80’s of last century Barcelona is redefining its waterfront. Until then the 17 km long south-east border of town was mostly occupied by the harbour -only accessible for the people working there- and by industrial zones. With the upcoming democracy in the late 70’s municipality took the chance and the responsibility to rethink the public space. Barcelona is a rather small but very dense city, with nearly no parks. So after a first policy of regaining town nooks by microsurgery in the city centre, attention was paid to the outer neighbourhoods and finally to the borders.
Barcelona is a rectangular plane sloping gently down to the Mediterranean Sea at its southeast border. On the opposite border the Collserola hill range protects it from the north winds. On both sides two rivers, draining the inland industry, flank the area. Step by step these border are being transformed into a “green” belt surrounding the city.
The first of the borders considered was the seashore. Starting from the inner part of the harbour that was converted in a marina and opened to the public, section by section the coastal line has been built up. Also the sea villages south and north to Barcelona have joined the project. But along this sort of linear promenade park there are still some segments to be arranged.
One of these segments is a former industrial plot close to the mouth of the northeast river, the Besòs. The area we will work on extends from the riverbank to the Marina of Badalona, and from the coastal train track to the sea, and measures ca. 1400m x 300m. On both ends it is already urbanized: on the river side some sport facilities are distributed in a little park, while at the marina side some residential blocks have been built. In the middle three huge chimneys rise to the sky. They are the witness of a former energy plant, and one of the landmarks of Barcelona. The neighbours decided by poll to keep them, as memory and heritage of their recent industrial past.
The clear definition of the working area with its sharp borders is revealing one of the features of the place: its isolation. (How) can we connect this piece of coast to the inland? Is it worth to “erase” the train track? In what way shall the land meet the water? What about the connection in the other direction, along the coast? How shall we deal with heritage? Is the territorial scale of a monument compatible with neighbour scale?
This is only a little sample of a large amount of questions that will arise.