The image of a semi-pedestrianized street in any neighborhood in Barcelona is not far from those preserved in the archaeological site of Pompeii. The theoretical basis on which they are based is the same, although the needs twenty-one centuries later are different. Now shaded spaces are needed to face the intense heat waves derived from the climate emergency, bicycle lanes have appeared, public transport requires bus lanes, neighbors deserve recreational spaces... and at the same time, everything is not can have a place in the contested public space of a particularly dense city.
Given this finding, the chief architect of Barcelona City Council, Maria Buhigas, is working on the design of a new street model, as announced yesterday at the Barcelona Tribuna forum, organized by Amics del País, the Spanish Association of Managers and La Vanguardia. at the CaixaFòrum Macaya. It is about conceptualizing the street of the 21st century, adapted to new times, clearly defining basic standards.
“The time has come to recover the category of elements that any street must have,” Buhigas summarizes about this new street model that is still unknown what it will be like but that is already pointed out as one of the biggest challenges that will lie ahead. For now, he has created a working group to define this continuum of the city with the involvement of all the actors involved, from those in charge of design to maintenance. An example is the need for shade that prevails in summer, which at the same time must be compatible with the growing drought we face.
The resulting theoretical reflection will be part of the style book of the public space that Buhigas has committed to enlightening, thus recovering the old care of the socialist governments that became internationally famous for pampering each and every one of the elements that they put on the streets of the Catalan capital, from the traffic lights to the bins and the panots.
“The signature of the author of the public space of Barcelona must be put by the City Council,” Buhigas made clear yesterday during a conference that was a song in defense of the city in every way. Not only of Barcelona, but of the concept of a city as such, that place where more than half of the world's population lives and where “the challenges but also the solutions are evident,” according to the chief architect.
Maria Buhigas avoids setting many goals for the coming years. She limits it to two, although very ambitious: redefining urban quality – through the aforementioned – and adapting the built city. “We will play Tetris, we will adapt the pieces of the game that are already there and we will move them, we must be skillful to see what addition we can make to revitalize an area,” summarized Buhigas, who considers it essential to adapt urban planning to new needs.
That is, to overcome once and for all the General Metropolitan Plan (PGM) and be able to rely on the new Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDUM), which precisely the chief architect knows well from being involved in its drafting during the years she worked in the Barcelona Regional urban development agency. Buhigas equates the current situation at the urban level "as if we were operating with instruments from the 70s in the operating room instead of with the very sophisticated tools that already exist."
The metropolitan vision of the chief architect is also seen in her work plan for the city. The maps that were projected on the screen went beyond the administrative limits of the city and covered l'Hospitalet, Santa Coloma, Esplugues... The first concretion in this sense could be the Gran Via, which is now facing its final project in the central area of Glòries, but it is called to redefine itself as “a metropolitan avenue with the character of a civic road.”
As part of this objective, it also aims to give shape to the block interior recovery plan promised by Mayor Jaume Collboni, with the intention of going much further. Buhigas prefers to talk about an interior plan, simply, because he contemplates performing in many other places that are not exactly the classic interior spaces of the Eixample urban fabric. “There are spaces between blocks of buildings that do not have any urban quality, facilities that do not take advantage of their entire plot...,” said the chief architect, who is willing to work on different lines. The easiest will be the one that is limited to publicly owned spaces, but she is also willing to find imaginative formulas that improve wasted corners in private hands.
