Pol Casellas: "From here I look at the sea as if it were a diorama"

What could be an architect's favorite place? A spectacular natural space? A construction visited by millions of people every year? Pol Casellas, architect and cultural communicator, is very clear about it: the Bogatell breakwater in Barcelona: “It's close to me and I go there often. It's not idyllic, but for me it's special, I've always been very connected to the sea, and I feel that breakwaters give me a lot of calm”.

The Bogatell one is the closest to home and his favorite. He doesn't remember the first time he went there, surely because he has always lived in the Olympic Village and it has been a place for walks. He likes to go there to do nothing. “I look at the sea as if it were a diorama, contemplating the people bathing, the ships coming and going, or the planes arriving in the city. It's a place of relaxation”.

What makes this breakwater special compared to others is that it has disordered concrete blocks. “It's an informal place, which doesn't even have a specific name, and which in principle you can't go to, although if so many people go there, perhaps it shouldn't be prohibited,” he suggests. He also likes the fact that it is a quiet, unceremonious space, with a very simple railing, something that contrasts with the multitude of regulations, railings, and special pavements we find everywhere. “It has a certain charm that in the city, where everything must be in order to function, there are more ambiguous and unofficial places”. I wouldn't change anything about it because if it were accessible, everyone would go there. That's the charm, it's a space that apparently cannot be accessed, but at the same time, whoever wants to bend the rules can go there.Casellas acknowledges that in an effort to protect beaches, breakwaters denature the coast, they destroy the natural dynamics of marine currents and sand, but at the same time they are a transition point between land and sea. "If we think of a built city, this space where you can move from one medium to another is special". As an architect, in addition to valuing buildings, he is interested in how intermediate spaces are distributed and regulated. He explains that in cities, in addition to constructions, there is emptiness, an element that plays a quite important role in the distribution of volumes: “The jetty would be in this void, it has a structural function, but it has no use beyond protecting another space, it does not have a second layer of space where people go to sunbathe or a kiosk is placed, the jetty remains more secluded, it is a more residual space”. Outside of Catalonia he also has a similar favorite place that can remind him of jetties: “It's the Kastrup baths on the outskirts of Copenhagen. A wooden pier that combines informality and the possibility of enjoying the sea”.