URBAN PERSPECTIVES
2021
DESIGN STUDIO_ETSAB
70,000M2
Urban Intervention _ Architecture, Theory and Criticism
Status: Academic Project
Tutors: Xavi Llobet and Eduard Bru
The Sagrada Familia is perhaps the most recognized building in Barcelona thanks to its particular style but mainly because its monumental scale that highlights over the smaller scale buildings in the octagonal bloc-ks of L’Eixample. However, as monumental as its ar-chitectural scale is, its not proportional with its urban scale, because unlike many of Europe’s most impor-tant religious buildings, the Sagrada Familia lacks a proper public space that effectively congregates all its visitors and this is because the building is “trapped” in its own block and surrounded by regular streets that block the connection between the church and the both plazas that are next to it. Gaudí’s original plan inten-ded to open the plaza by “cutting” some of the Cerda Blocks in diagonals so the building could be seen from all its best angles, but his intentions were clearly more visual and architectural than urban.
This project intends to provide a public space that co-rresponds the building’s scale, creates new perspecti-ve angles just as Gaudí intended, but also to operates as an urban activator by connecting the plaza to the most important flows near the site. The Avinguda Dia-gonal and the Avinguda de Gaudí are identified as the most concurred streets near the plaza, so the objective is to connect both flows to the plaza and making it an all-pedestrian area. By doing this, the Sagrada Familia is not “trapped” anymore because it has a proper con-gregation space and becomes visually and urbanisti-cally connected to the Sant Pau Recinto Modernista and the Parc de Pablo Neruda.
The former plazas that were on the sides of the sa-grada will be substituted with mixed-use buildings, that have open spaces on the interior of the block with green areas.
DIVERSITY > MASSIVE BLOCK
The city of Barcelona has a unique urban plot with its octagonal shaped blocks which are part of Cerda’s plan. These blocks are small in height to have more sensitivity to the human scale but are very dense be-cause they contain many small buildings on its peri-meter. The diversity that can be seen on the facades of each block is truly interesting and we can see a lot of contrasting styles from different epochs colliding within one block. This is something I consider part of the essence of the streets of L’Eixample and when contemplating the possibility of constructing new buil-dings, that diversity should be maintained rather than creating a monolithic building with a single façade that occupies a whole block and feels artificial to the re-sidents. In this case, this proposal intends to be an urban guideline of how the space should be configured while staying open for other architects to collaborate in the design of the buildings to promote the diversity fa-cades in a contemporary style. The collage on the left is not an actual design proposal but serves as an idea of how the diversity of the block is intended to feel.
On the other hand, the materials of the plaza intend to be more neutral, with two greyscale tones of cobbles-tones and some green areas that give life to the area whilst providing shadow and a more natural feeling to the new fully-pedestrian areas on the Sagrada square.