the coastal plain where the massif breaks away and slopes down to the Mediterranean: the New City, a repetitive carpet of squares with chamfered corners, slit by larger avenues, all laid out on paper in 1859 and mostly filled in by 1910. Then, inside that, where the grid meets the bay, you see the regular march of units break up, bunch into confusion, and become an irregular cell cluster from which older-looking protrusions rise: old square towers, Gothic peaks. This is the Old City, the Barri GĂČtic, or Gothic Quarter. (Hughes 1992: 3-4)
These categories translate neatly into concepts of energy consumption. The three cities, regardless of current energy consumption, were designed and equipped for different kinds of energy and mobility systems - evident to this day; these will be further explored in Chapter 4. The three cities now consist of 1) the original low energy city developed during the Roman and Medieval periods which once survived with little solid fuel, followed by the 2) new energy city defined by CerdĂ âs Exiample and the agglomerated surrounding townships which have been adapted since the early days of electricity, and most recently 3) the high-energy city located on the periphery with sprawling industrial belts and pockets of monofunctional worker, commuter settlements and recent reformations.
combustion engines were being installed in small, typically family run factories throughout the city and adjoining settlements, the small cramped fortified city was not equipped for the dramatic industrial growth it would experience in the late 19th and 20th centuries (De SolĂ -Morales 2008). One of Barcelonaâs most famous urban interventions was Ildefons CerdĂ âs 1859 city extension plan. CerdĂ âs new Barcelona is considered a work of great genius through its simple resolution of the many competing and complex demands of an urban environment. Not only did this plan Figure 3/03b: Cerdaâs Barcelona - the new energy city, plan by Ricard Alsina Amils 1899 (ICC archive, accessed 21/12/2011)
New energy, new city
In 1848, the train arrived in Barcelona, connecting the city to the wider world of transport and technology. While 34 3 Barcelona