This summer of 2022, a transformation has begun that, if completed, will produce a historical trauma, irreparable damage to the city of Barcelona: the destruction of thePlan Cerdà,of the Eixample.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the nature of the capital of Catalonia, and the second city of Spain, has been invariably linked to that structure, which is also a model for other expansions in Catalonia, Spain and other places in the world.
Why is it so inextricably part of the city? Why is it the essence and sign of a certain way of understanding it and of understanding urbanism? Furthermore, why has it worked so well for more than a century and a half, despite the radical changes experienced? When Cerdà designed the Eixample, the automobile did not even exist as a means of transportation, nor the telephone as a communication instrument.
The answer is very precise, and it is what Colau is going to destroy: because it is the design that best expressesequality in urban space. It is one of the best material translations of the idea of making a citymore equal. In this lies its extraordinary importance, its essence, becauseThe road network is the first expression of the urban fact.
And this equality is precisely what goesto destroy the messy Eixample “Superblock” project, by Ada Colauand its two necessary collaborators, ERC and the socialist party.
The Cerdà Plan
Sow, conceive yourReform and Expansion Project of the city of Barcelona, approved by the Royal Order of June 7, 1859, under an orientationegalitarian and hygienist. What it seeks is to prevent the difference in social classes from translating into a social division of space, which reinforces inequality. Conceive the new city in such a way thatthere are no first or second category streets, nor areas that concentrate the lower-income population. They all mix in each building and in each street, and in any case the difference, which obviously exists, develops in the verticality of the property itself. Cerdà conceives the city to alleviate social inequality - as others try to do with the school - instead of multiplying it.
The basic principle of the Ensanche de Cerdà is to offer the same street width of 20 meters for the entire road network, with the exception of a few transcendental roads of 50 meters.Thus, some owners, some neighbors, were not favored more than others.The same width of sidewalks, roads, equal sunlight for all, even the orientation guaranteed that all buildings received the sun at some time of the day; even identical availability of trees every 20 meters.
““Superblock Colau” or the construction of inequality
Exactly the opposite of the Colau superblock, whichcreates a third of privileged streets, without traffic and with green drills, and dumps all the pollution and circulation on the remaining two-thirds of the streets. The works, which have now begun in a few places, are the prelude to evil. But in a city where more than 1,000 people live on the streets, and nighttime chaos is a daily occurrence, there cannot be first-class streets, and these streets dressed in green will be populated by the homeless for their nighttime refuge, and fueled by bottles and parties at dawn. There is no good life in Colau's empire, only trash.
If Colau wanted superapples, he himselfPla Cerdà offers us criteria and typesto establish them, without altering the system. There is the possibility of grouping two, three, four or six blocks, and also of forming other large singular spaces, thinking about the scale of the city as a whole, related to the large public squares, Glorias, Catalunya, Tetouan, Spain... but none of this has been addressed.
But the Colau superblock not only destroys the city of Barcelona, but is also acrazy project. The reason is obvious: you cannot simply eliminate - which is what they intend to do - a third of the Eixample road surface, without previously having a new and radically different mobility model, which does not exist. Without this, the removal of streets only leads to collapse, pollution and the loss of centrality of Barcelona in relation to its territory. In fact, it is already happening because of applied tactical urbanism, which is nothing in relation to what they intend to destroy.
And if that were not enough, there is a scandalousmockery of democracy. Those who have filled their mouths with participation refuse to endorse the superblock in a consultation. Even worse, because it is processed without guarantees, as if it were a question of reforming a sidewalk, when it is the rupture of the city model, with metropolitan repercussions. Despite this, theUrban Planning Commission of the Generalitat, another necessary collaborator of evil, maintains his gesture impassively. Does opposition to the superblock mean assuming the primacy of the car and pollution, as the municipal power intends to argue? Of course not. What it is precisely about is delving into the logic of the Pla de Cerdà to respond to today's threats and challenges.This is the alternative from Cerdà. It will be in fifteen days.
Source: La Vanguardia; JOSEP MIRÓ AND ARDÉVOL
