Day 2 Thursday 4th April 2013

Activity One: City Quarters- The Barcelona Model and New Urbanism

Group: Iggy, Padraig and Fiona

 

Visited: Sants and Barceloneta

 

On visiting Sants today we exited the metro onto a ‘node’ called Place del pagos Catalans. This had six roads meeting and crossing here as well as a bus station and a railway. We sat in a large open space outside the train/bus station to plan how we were going to analyse this area. The buildings were old and new mixed, some ultra-modern and others old, mundane and aged. There was a high population density but seemed to be a commuter area. Heavy traffic, taxi’s everywhere, very few tourists within sight and many people dressed professionally. The buildings were mostly offices, banks and very business orientated more so than tourist aimed. We walked through Sants and got to a public park called “Jardins de Can Mantega” which was mainly elderly people in this area which could be called a social node. Most amenities within ten minutes’ walk hairdressers, schools, and shops etc., lovely and quiet area with footpaths for easy walking. No diversity in this area, all Spanish, many Catalonian flags hanging from Balconies. There was a church, library, pharmacy, market, parking all available. Very good transport system in place.
Below you can see the bus/train station.

 

Barceloneta is a completely different area which is good we got to visit both so we could compare and contrast. It is made up of small narrow streets in the core surrounded by large pedestrian and tourist orientated streets surrounding. There was a high population and a missed range of age in the people seen both in the centre of the area as well as around it by the tourist hotspots. The core of Barceloneta was made up of traditional style buildings in block dimensions and seemed more of a residential area. It was made up of narrow busy streets with pedestrians, cars, bicycles, mopeds etc. With many shops, hairdressers and pharmacies mainly aimed towards locals. We felt very out of place in the residential area as we stood out as tourists from a distance, yet we blended in with many other tourists out on the outskirts. Around the outer edges were mainly tourist based and you could see many restaurants and gift shops open a long beach front. The beach was man made which shows huge urban regeneration as a beach is a huge attraction to a city.

 

When we returned to the hotel we then made a model out of cardboard to show the physical differences between each area.