Barcelona (ES)

Urban City Strategy

We propose a reflection to complexify the industrial activity by hosting new residential uses. In the Torrent de l’Estadella we find a case of urban recycling. Breaking with the ghetto effect of a monothematic neighborhood will be the priority objective of a transformation that determines a process of actions where answers can be found. A second objective will be to establish a debate between urbanism and contemporary habitat. We hope to generate a renovating landscape where we can find economic opportunities, synergies and offer value-added services. At the same time it exemplifies some urban codes that help us define a more livable city.

Site Definition

Torrent de l’Estadella is an industrial estate located north of Barcelona. The space to be projected has a rectangular shape and the subdivision comes from an old agricultural area. Tangentially to the site there are two important railway lines. One of them (Sant Andreu - La Sagrera) is in transformation and represents a new centrality. Regarding mobility, it is a place with good accessibility and easy connectivity with the surroundings, the city and the metropolitan area. The architecture of the site in the project area does not have heritage elements, although some factories can be remodeled and reused. In the surroundings we find a great diversity in the buildings: newly built houses, more industrial estates, historical center of Sant Andreu and various valuable buildings. Regarding the public spaces, two areas should be highlighted: in the center of the site, an old torrent, which gives the place its name and physically structures it, and the new linear park of Rec Comtal, under construction, on the train tracks. It is important to maintain production, and therefore the industrial activity must be maintained; however we find it interesting to concentrate the transformation actions within its limits, especially in the north of Carrer de Sant Adrià and in front of the new park.

How Must Metabolism and Inclusivity Be Developed and Connected?

Understanding that work on the city has to be done with new tools is essential today to be successful. Metabolism as a set of physical reactions must ensure that the essentials of the territory are maintained and include what is necessary to create a new habitat. All this, while maintaining the structures that respond to their morphology. With this we can overcome closed enclaves and bring the city closer to new, more sustainable ways. This open framework facilitates a systemic analysis of the improvement of urban ecology, economic competitiveness and quality of life. This approach is based on the idea of incorporating urban structures such as telecommunications, matter, water, energy, mobility and nature to the redesign of the cultural models of the city. Inclusive dynamics, and especially equitable ones, bring us closer to a social justice that articulates the territory. We will confront inequalities by optimizing the functioning of the city and facilitating access to rights as a common good. Understanding urban renewal and finding solution spaces to change the rules of the game will define the project. This has to plan both the present and future actions and guarantee the continuity of the regeneration results to which constant transformations will be added. Projecting a process represents an architectural challenge, but also a social, economic and ecological one. We have to find a way to organize the proposal to meet the needs and express a new potential that survives over time while generating a shared ecosystem and affecting all levels of urban organization from architecture to people. So we have to define new and diverse scales of action.