Elena Fernández | Associate Professor of Design, Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) www.dur.upc.edu
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the public spaces that most interest me are those where the design is least apparent, like Siena’s Piazza del Campo or Venice’s Piazza San Marco. What should be done with the Rambla now? Perhaps they ought to design different segments and place a limit on contiguous sidewalk cafes. As far as wheeled traffic goes, I understand the importance of keeping the two lateral lanes open to cars because without them, many connections among the cross streets would be eliminated. But we must preserve its unique character, which is to say its uses. I should add that if that happens through better design that would be better for the city. We are living through a moment in Barcelona in which the image of the theme park is supplanting many of the city’s core activities. Whether or not we should remove the birdcages or the flower stands, design newsstands… By all means, let’s argue about that and let’s do it, but always with the same rigorous design sense that has come to define this city and that we’ve exported for many years.
ESPECIAL LES RAMBLES
We might say that the Rambla is a space where complexity and simplicity coexist. How can that be? Its complexity is rooted in its use and the social mixture that it invites, and its simplicity comes from its form, a form that proceeds naturally from the path of Barcelona’s water runoff. These geographic conditions led to the construction of a second city wall on the site, after which its extramural character brought about the steady incorporation of activities in search of escape from government regulation. This latent quality obtains even today. Given the combined weight of these various factors I take it that in this space the uses are more important than the form, and thus the arguments arising over whether or not we should redesign it in a particular way seem to me beside the point. In fact,
02-2011
I think of the Rambla as a public space that works because it fosters activity and interaction at the same time that it also serves as a conduit for contemporary flows. As such, it offers a portrait of our times, reflecting Barcelona’s tensions and translating its most iconic periods. As a passerby, the Rambla’s social intensity draws you in, it grabs your attention.