Circulation and public life. Case of superblock in Barcelona

Most of the post-industrial cities are sharing the same organizational problems of the urban system. The strict hierarchy of the space became the main problem for developing public domain within a compact city. A few typologies can be found squeezed between private amenities and circulation space for pedestrians and cars. The new urban policy in Barcelona aims for improving lives of people from the definition of a new unit that enables new features to the public space. The new urban unit – Superblock, combines several regular blocks and establishes pedestrian priority in the internal streets changing the way of living in the city. From the architectural point of view, the decision to change crucial rule that was shaping our cities for decades is the opportunity to bring back human oriented design to the urban scale. It means to give more freedom in circulation, permeability of the ground floor, overlap activities, extend private domain to public. Therefore, the morphological transformation of the urban block is the way to adopt the city to the new situation. The well-known Eixample, famous for its architectural monuments and strong morphological identity, is planned to be reorganized to create a new urban model. The project explores possibilities to transform courtyard block typology, previously designed by Ildefons Cerdà in the end of XIX century, to adopt it for public and personal appropriation nowadays. The design aims to support historical outline of the block while changing behavioral identity. The project consists of two parts reflecting the position of the building on the border of the Superblock. The first one follows rational order aligned with the transportation system. The second one represents the new urban model with continuity of the urban experience as the main concept. Together they constitute the hybrid multifunctional building integrated into the context by high accessibility and functional content based on the local community demand and municipality requirements.