Barcelona City Council is carrying out a pilot test in the Colònia Castells park of a new combination of natural and artificial grasses specially designed to address the hardships caused by this pressing drought.
For some time now, most of the city's well-green spaces have presented a disturbing brown hue. Secarrales abound in all neighborhoods of the city. Because the grass in many public corners was one of the first sacrificed due to the lack of rain. Then it was the turn of the bushes and hedges. That's why most of the flowerbeds in the Catalan capital have looked so desolate lately.
But the truth is that the grass of the new facility on this side of the Les Corts district, still under construction, already shines on the other side of the fences with an intensity that in these apocalyptic times seems completely unusual.
We are talking about more or less 800 square meters of natural grass and another 750 of artificial green arranged on a surface with a very high drainage capacity in order to recharge the aquifers and thus not waste rainwater. In addition, a good part of the rest of this park, which will total around 9,600 square meters, will have especially porous pavement. In this way the irrigation, which will obviously be carried out by drip and not by sprinkling, will not seem wasteful. This large green circle will be the side of the new Les Corts park that will feature more intense citizen use. Calisthenics will also be installed here.
Sources from the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni, however, are quick to emphasize that none of these measures is definitive, that the test of this system apparently of French origin in the Colònia Castells park will last a few months, and that after and Depending on its results, the City Council will decide whether to maintain it or not and also if it will be installed in other green spaces in the city. Municipal sources also indicate that the works on this equipment will not be completed until “in a few weeks.”
In recent months, the original project for the Colònia Castells park incorporated a few modifications that made it more expensive. The budget of the initiative went from 3.06 million euros to 3.64. “Also in response to the different neighborhood proposals – add the City Council sources – more trees will finally be planted than originally planned.” The City Council will also install a few more benches. In addition, the fountains highlight, the Colònia Castells park will include a unique play area of the type known as Nautilus, “many of them adapted and accessible.”
The modifications are largely the municipal response to the concerns of many residents of the neighborhood. In any case, the project still raises a few controversies. Many think that the new park will be too hard, and they are also very concerned about the future of the historical legacy of the old Colònica Castells. The people on this side of the city are very attentive to the transformation of that old working-class neighborhood of small houses built in the 1920s to accommodate so many workers who arrived from all over Spain.
