We didn't miss the opportunity of the PDUM
Barcelona is an expensive city. It's hot, and it will get much hotter. There are countless people on the sidewalks, on the subway platforms, on the beach, on La Rambla, in the shopping centers. And yet, it's a city that captivates. The city forges bonds as deep as a landscape or a farmhouse. And precisely because this sense of belonging exists, it's important to connect the past we've inherited with the future we're going to build. the metropolitan urban master plan The fact that (PDUM) has received more than 5,000 comments is indicative of how much the city matters to us.
What everyone agrees on are the usual principles of urban planning in contemporary Europe: more nature is needed, and uncontrolled growth must be avoided; prioritizing metropolitan avenues seems like a good idea; much more affordable housing is necessary; and it's better to have several attractive centers than a single one concentrated in Ciutat Vella and the Eixample district. And in principle, if there are ideas, the money will appear: both public and private, because businesses also benefit from knowing where the metropolis is headed in the coming years. Just look at how Plaça de les Glòries has been transformed into a new metropolitan center with major amenities, a green park, and housing (affordable and, soon, high-end), where in the 1970s there was only a major traffic interchange leading out of the city.
What's not so easy is agreeing on where the new metropolitan centers will be located. This can be seen in the urban development plans and, to a large extent, is linked to major hospital and university facilities: the new Clínic, Can Ruti, the Autònoma, the Castelldefels university campus, and the Sant Cugat General Hospital. The Tres Chimeneas (Three Chimneys) area, the Parc del Alba, the Vallès Technology Park, the new Biopol, and the Plaça Europa and Fira complex are also slated to become metropolitan centers.
It will be more difficult to revitalize existing but soulless areas: in Badalona, the Eix Port - Ciutat Bàsquet and Montigalà; in Badía del Vallés, the area around Baricentro; in Cornellà, the area around El Corte Inglés - Can Mercader and La Plana del Galet; La Vailet in Sant Vicenç dels Horts and El Atrium in Sant Andreu de la Barca, among others. A few years ago, shopping centers were built in more or less peripheral neighborhoods as a way to attract people without incurring too much cost for the public sector: the large global operators made the investment, and the city reaped the benefits of the increased tourism. Making the city polycentric meant scattering large clusters of franchised stores across the outskirts. This worked on Isla Diagonal and, to a lesser extent, in La Maquinista. But in many other places, it has only resulted in bland and decaying urban areas over time.
By cardinal points, the Llobregat region is poised to concentrate "innovation, research, and advanced services," with up to 25% more affordable housing. Along the Besòs River, the Tres Chimeneas area and former industrial parks in the north will be transformed into new spaces of economic activity: it is known that Inditex will relocate from Tordera; what is less clear is what will fill the void this will create in the Maresme region. The consolidation of Industry 5.0 in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Pallejà, Molins de Rei, and Sant Andreu de la Barca is even more uncertain, as it depends on the opportunities that automation and digital manufacturing companies identify. Meanwhile, the Ordal mountains are expected to improve the existing dispersed housing developments. Since the Metropolitan Urban Development Master Plan has been in the works for so many years (I was pregnant with my first daughter when I first heard about it, and she's a teenager now!), along the way master plans have been approved in some of these places —which should be developed more quickly than the others—, which already allow us to see the resulting appearance in concrete terms.
The challenge is to create new places that foster as much connection as the old ones. Places of transit where businesses want to establish an office, where children join sports clubs, where it's worthwhile to get lost on Sant Jordi's Day, and where all of this happens in a truly shared public space. The word "place of transit" does not appear in the PDUM's report. architectureHowever, attention to the formal realization of all these new sites will be fundamental. We would be incredibly foolish if, after so many years of drafting, we let the opportunity presented by the PDUM slip by. But, once the strategic ideas have been identified, it is now necessary to move forward and publish concrete images of the projects we intend to promote. It is in the realization of the facades, the porches, the plazas, the windows, the canopies that we will understand the ambition of the document and whether, truly, what we are going to build lives up to the heritage bequeathed to us by the architects of the past.
