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Urban Laboratory Urban Planning Plan
Introduction
The Cerdá Plan was a reform and expansion plan for the city of Barcelona in 1860 that followed criteria of the Hippodamic plan, with a grid, open and egalitarian structure. It was created by the civil engineer Ildefonso Cerdá and its approval was controversial because it was imposed by the Government of Spain against the plan by Antonio Rovira y Trías that had won a competition from the Barcelona City Council.
The expansion contemplated in the plan was spread over an immense surface that was free of construction as it was considered a strategic military zone. It proposed a continuous grid of blocks "Manzana (urbanismo)") of 113.3 meters from Besós to Montjuic "Montjuic (Barcelona)"), with streets of 20, 30 and 60 meters with a maximum construction height of 16 meters. The novelty in the application of the hypodamic plan was that the blocks had chamfers "Chamfer (architecture)") of 45° to allow better visibility.[1].
The development of the plan lasted almost a century. Throughout all this time, the plan has been transformed and many of its guidelines were not applied. The interests of the land owners and speculation finally distorted the Cerdá plan.
Ildefonso Cerdá inspired the Plan with the motto: "ruralize the city and urbanize the countryside."[2].
Historical context
Barcelona in the 19th century. Unhealthy and oppressed
Throughout the century and the first part of the century, the health and social situation of the population of Barcelona had become suffocating. The medieval wall") that had allowed the city to resist seven sieges between 1641 and 1714 now represented a brake on urban expansion. Demographic growth raised the population from 115,000 inhabitants in 1802 to 140,000 in 1821 and reached 187,000 in 1850. The 6 km of wall surrounded an area a little over 2 km², although 40% of the space was occupied by 7 barracks, 11 hospitals, 40 convents and 27 churches.[3].
Health conditions worsened as a result of the density and the lack of sanitary infrastructure such as sewage networks or running water. Burials in cemeteries in front of churches were sources of infections, groundwater contamination and epidemics. Despite the decision to carry out burials in the Pueblo Nuevo cemetery decreed in 1819 by Bishop Pablo de Sichar,[4] its operation was not consolidated until the middle of the century.[5] From this moment, and forced by military ordinances, the spaces of the cemeteries began to be recovered at the doors of churches such as San Justo "Basilica de los Santos Justo y Pastor (Barcelona)"), San Pedro de las Puellas or El Fossar. de les Moreres.[6].
Urban Laboratory Urban Planning Plan
Introduction
The Cerdá Plan was a reform and expansion plan for the city of Barcelona in 1860 that followed criteria of the Hippodamic plan, with a grid, open and egalitarian structure. It was created by the civil engineer Ildefonso Cerdá and its approval was controversial because it was imposed by the Government of Spain against the plan by Antonio Rovira y Trías that had won a competition from the Barcelona City Council.
The expansion contemplated in the plan was spread over an immense surface that was free of construction as it was considered a strategic military zone. It proposed a continuous grid of blocks "Manzana (urbanismo)") of 113.3 meters from Besós to Montjuic "Montjuic (Barcelona)"), with streets of 20, 30 and 60 meters with a maximum construction height of 16 meters. The novelty in the application of the hypodamic plan was that the blocks had chamfers "Chamfer (architecture)") of 45° to allow better visibility.[1].
The development of the plan lasted almost a century. Throughout all this time, the plan has been transformed and many of its guidelines were not applied. The interests of the land owners and speculation finally distorted the Cerdá plan.
Ildefonso Cerdá inspired the Plan with the motto: "ruralize the city and urbanize the countryside."[2].
Historical context
Barcelona in the 19th century. Unhealthy and oppressed
Throughout the century and the first part of the century, the health and social situation of the population of Barcelona had become suffocating. The medieval wall") that had allowed the city to resist seven sieges between 1641 and 1714 now represented a brake on urban expansion. Demographic growth raised the population from 115,000 inhabitants in 1802 to 140,000 in 1821 and reached 187,000 in 1850. The 6 km of wall surrounded an area a little over 2 km², although 40% of the space was occupied by 7 barracks, 11 hospitals, 40 convents and 27 churches.[3].
Under these circumstances, life expectancy stood at 36 years for the rich and 23 for the poor and day laborers.[3] Barcelona, like Catalonia, had been hit by the plague in the 2nd centuries, and suffered various epidemics throughout the 19th century.
The military consideration of Barcelona as a stronghold with the Citadel at its side conditioned urban life. Not only were the problems of citizens within the walls ignored, but the timid movements to expand outside the walls were repressed with the demolition of the buildings because they "impeded the defense of the city" as happened in 1813,[8] since the non aedificanda area was considered to be that included up to the distance of a cannon shot, which corresponded approximately to the "jardinets of Gracia".[9].
The voices against it not only came from the citizens, but from the Barcelona City Council itself, which, through the Junta de Ornato and in harmony with the Captain General Baron de Meer, in 1838 requested a modification of the wall between the door of the Studios (the Rambla) and the Jonqueres bastion (Plaza Urquinaona) to achieve a small extension.[10].
Down the walls
In 1841 the Barcelona City Council held a competition to promote the development of the city. On September 11, 1841, the award was decided in favor of Dr. Pedro Felipe Monlau, doctor and hygienist, author of the work Down with the walls, Memoir about the advantages that the demolition of the walls that surround the city would bring to Barcelona and especially to its industry, in which an expansion from the Llobregat river to the Besós is demanded.
The wide dissemination of the project and the popular impulse caused confrontations such as the one on October 26, 1842 in which the Demolition Board was going to demolish part of the Citadel, a fact that caused General Espartero to bomb Barcelona from Montjuic Castle on December 3 and order its reconstruction with an expense of 12 million reais at the expense of the city.[11].
In 1844, Jaime Balmes joined, from the pages of La Sociedad, the protests contradicting the theories of military strategic value defended by General Narváez.
More than ten years passed until the Barcelona City Council approved a project prepared by its secretary Manuel Durán y Bas, which he sent to the government of Madrid on May 23, 1853 with the unanimous signature of the council with its mayor, Josep Beltran i Ros) in charge. The report received the support of the Catalan deputies and especially Pascual Madoz, deputy for Lérida and a key person in the demolition of the walls. Madoz became civil governor of Barcelona during barely seventy-five days before he became Minister of Finance of the progressive government, from where he urged the confiscation and promulgated a royal order that would put an end to the confrontations between the City Council and the Ministry of War.[11] The order to demolish the walls of August 9, 1854 specified that the sea wall, Montjuic Castle and the Citadel must be maintained.[12].
The expansion project
The need for expansion
The need to grow outside the walls was obvious, but we must also keep in mind the speculative effect that the development of 1,100 hectares of land entailed. With the competition opened by the city council in December 1840 and won by Monlau's "Down with the Walls" project, the period of transformation of the city began. In 1844, Miquel Garriga i Roca offered himself to Barcelona City Council as municipal architect to plan the expansion, with a proposal focused on ornamental beautification operations. In 1846 Antonio Rovira y Trías published in the Encyclopedic Bulletin of Noble Arts a proposal for the formation of a geometric plan of Barcelona.[13].
The gestation of the Ensanche Project
In 1853, a year before demolishing the walls, the city council began to prepare for the next stage by creating the Barcelona Corporations Commission. Later converted into the Ensanche Commission; It had representatives of the industry, the architects Josep Vila Francisco Daniel Molina, Josep Oriol Mestres, José Fontseré Doménech"), Joan Soler i Mestres"), and representatives of the press: Jaume Badia, Antonio Brusi y Ferrer, Tomás Barraquer and Antonio Gayolá.[14].
In 1855, the Ministry of Public Works commissioned Cerdá to survey the topographic plan of the Llano de Barcelona, which was the extensive undeveloped area for military reasons between Barcelona and Gracia and from Sants to San Andrés de Palomar. A person very sensitive to hygienist currents, he applied his knowledge to develop, on his own, a Monography of the working class (1856), a complete and in-depth statistical analysis of the living conditions within the walls based on social, economic and nutritional aspects. The diagnosis was clear: the city was not suitable for "the new civilization, characterized by the application of steam energy in industry and the improvement of mobility[15] and communicativeness" (the optical telegraph was the other relevant invention).[16].
Aware of this lack, Cerdá began without any assignment to structure his thought, systematically exposed many years later (1867) in his great work: General Theory of Urbanization. One of the most important features of Cerdá's proposal, which makes it stand out in the history of urban planning, is the search for coherence to account for the contradictory requirements of a complex agglomeration. It overcomes partial visions (utopian, cultural, monumental, rationalist city...) and dedicates itself in search of an integral city.[17].
The year 1859 is the definitive year of the expansion. On February 2, Cerdá received the order from the central government to verify the study for the expansion within a period of twelve months. The city council reacted immediately by calling a public tender on April 15 on plans for the expansion with a deadline of July 31, although it was postponed to August 15. Meanwhile, Cerdá wasted no time, he finished his project and dedicated himself to showing it - to gain support in Madrid - to Madoz, Laureano Figuerola and the general director of Public Works, the Marquis of Corvera.
But June 9, 1859 is the date on which the central government, through a royal order, definitively approved the expansion plan designed by Cerdá. From that moment on, technical, political and economic disputes took place between the central and municipal governments. With respect to the municipal competition, thirteen projects were presented, with Antonio Rovira y Trías being the unanimous winner on October 10, 1859. Following a royal order of December 17, all of them plus Cerdá's were presented indicating the qualification deserved, with the City Council abstaining from evaluating Cerdá's.
The issue was definitively resolved on July 8, 1860, when the ministry ordered the execution of the Cerdá Plan.[18].
The municipal contest
The projects submitted to the Barcelona City Council competition to design an extension for the city focused, in most cases, their solution on the "road from Barcelona to Gràcia" which for some time had been being consolidated urbanistically as Passeig de Gràcia and which conditioned the possible solutions. These plans, unlike the one proposed by Cerdá, occupied a smaller area and were intended to accommodate fewer people, which is logical if we think that they obeyed the bourgeoisie's objectives of reinforcing social segregation. Thus, the winning plan of the expansion competition, presented by Rovira i Trias, corresponds to the motto that headed it: "the layout of a city is more the work of time than of the architect"; and Rovira himself stated that the proletarians could not live in what "will properly have to be called the city of Barcelona."[19].
The projects were presented under a pseudonym and the plaques of those not awarded were destroyed, which is why part of the documentation has been lost.[20].
Antoni Rovira's project
The winning project, according to the municipal council, was a proposal by Antoni Rovira based on a circular mesh that wrapped around the walled city and grew radially, harmoniously integrating the surrounding towns. It was presented with the motto: "Le trace d'une ville est oeuvre du temps, plutôt que d'architecte".[22] The phrase is original by Léonce Reynaud"), an architectural reference in Rovira.
It was structured in three areas where the different sectors of the population were combined with social activities with a logic of neighborhoods and hierarchization of space and public services. Based on a circular proposal to replace the wall, a mesh formed by rectangular blocks with a central patio and a height of 19 meters was deployed. A few main streets served as a connection between blocks of blocks with a hypodamian structure to readjust the square profile to the semicircle that surrounded the city. Rovira proposes his solution with a clear center located in Plaza de Cataluña, while Cerdá moved the centrality to Plaza de la Glorias. The plan provided a solution for the Plaza de Cataluña, something that the Cerdá plan did not foresee.[23].
The plot of Rovira responds to a contemporary and residential expansion model such as the "ring" in Vienna or the Haussmann project in Paris. This model was more aligned with the future capitalist "Großstadt" that the Renaixença and the Lliga would claim.[24].
The Cerdá Plan
Contenido
Después de la aprobación inapelable del gobierno central, el 4 de septiembre de 1860 la reina Isabel II colocaba la primera piedra del Ensanche en la actual plaza de Cataluña. El crecimiento de la ciudad fuera de murallas no fue rápido por la falta de infraestructuras y la distancia con el núcleo urbano.
La década de 1870 se produjo un progreso notable ya que los inversores vieron una gran oportunidad de negocio. El retorno de los indianos con el final de las colonias aportaba capitales importantes que se tenían que invertir y encontraron en el ensanche su mejor destino. Empieza la llamada fiebre de oro. Pero el gran interés acabó siendo perjudicial para el plan inicial, y la fiebre constructora contribuyó a la progresiva reducción de los espacios verdes y de los equipamientos. Finalmente se construyeron los cuatro lados de las manzanas.
La Exposición Universal del año 1888 significó un nuevo impulso que permitió la renovación de algunas zonas y la creación de servicios públicos. Pero sería el gran desarrollo de finales del siglo XIX con el Modernismo apoyado por la burguesía que invertía en edificios para dedicarlos a alquiler, lo que haría crecer el Ensanche de tal manera que en el año 1897 Barcelona integró los municipios de Sants, Las Corts, San Gervasio de Cassolas, Gracia, San Andrés de Palomar y San Martín de Provensals.[25].
Cerdá's new language
The plan provided the primary classification of the territory: the "vias" and the "intervías" spaces. The former constitute the public space for mobility, meeting, support for service networks (water, sanitation, gas...), trees (more than 100,000 trees on the street), lighting and street furniture. The "intervías" (island, block, block or block) are the spaces of private life, where multi-family buildings meet in two rows around an interior patio through which all homes (without exception) receive the sun, natural light, ventilation and joie de vivre, as requested by the hygienist movements.
Cerdá defended the balance between urban values and rural advantages. «Ruralize that which is urban, urbanize that which is rural» is the message launched at the beginning of his General Theory of Urbanization.
In other words, its purpose was to prioritize “content” (people) over “container” (stones or gardens). Form, such an obsessive theme in most plans, is nothing more than an instrument, although of utmost importance, but often too decisive and sometimes overbearing. The magic of Cerdá consists of generating the city from the home.
The privacy of the home is considered an absolute priority and, in a time of large families (three generations), making freedom possible for all members could be considered utopian.
Cerdá believes that the ideal home is isolated, rural. However, the enormous advantages of the city force us to compact, the essence of the urban fact, and to design a home that allows it to fit into a high-rise multi-family building, and enjoy, thanks to a careful distribution, double ventilation from the street and from the interior part of the "block". The caress of the sun is assured in all cases.[16].
Structure of the Cerdá Plan
In the plan proposed by Cerdá for the city, the optimism and unlimited forecast of growth stand out, the programmed absence of a privileged center, its mathematical, geometric and scientific vision. atmosphere.[26] Along the same lines, he assigned a key role to the parks and interior gardens of the blocks, although subsequent speculation greatly altered this plan. He fixed the location of the trees on the streets (1 every 8 meters) and chose the shade plane to populate the city after analyzing which species would be the most suitable to live in the city.
In addition to the hygienic aspects, Cerdá was concerned about mobility. He defined an absolutely unusual width of streets, partly to escape the inhuman density that the city experienced, but also thinking about a motorized future with its own spaces separated from those for social coexistence that were reserved for them in the interior areas.[27].
He incorporated the layout of railway lines that had influenced his vision of the future when he visited France, although he is aware that these have to go underground, and he was concerned that each neighborhood would have an area dedicated to public buildings.[17] In this sense he includes the advances within his progressive ideology when he stated:[26].
The most notable formal solution of the project was the incorporation of the block "Manzana (urbanismo)"); Its crucial and absolutely unique shape compared to other European cities is marked by its square structure of 113.33 meters with 45° chamfers[17].
Ensanche Geometry
Cerdá's hypodamian grid provided for streets of 20, 30 and 60 meters wide. The blocks had construction on only two of the four sides, which gave a density of 800,000 people. With the original design, the Ensanche would have been completely occupied by 1900,[28] although both Cerdá himself and, later, some speculative actions, densified it substantially.
Cerdà proposed "Unlimited Ensanche" a regular and imperturbable grid along the entire urban layout. Unlike other proposals that broke their repetitive rhythm to add green spaces or services, Cerdà's proposal encompasses them internally and allowed a continuous repetition to be established in the plan with the ability to alter it when appropriate.[29].
The egalitarian principle that Cerdà wanted to imprint in his urban planning justifies this homogeneity in search of equality, not only between social classes, but also for the convenience of the traffic of people and vehicles, since whether one circulates on a road or its transversal ones, the intersections between them are at the same distance, and as there are no roads that are more comfortable than others, the value of the habitats will tend to equalize.[1].
The engineer's vision was of growth and modernity; His genius allowed him to anticipate future urban traffic conflicts, 30 years before inventing the automobile.[26].
Regarding the orientation, the roads run parallel to the sea, some, and perpendicular, the others, this means that the orientation of the vertices of the squares coincides with the cardinal points and therefore all their sides have direct sunlight throughout the day, denoting once again the importance that the designer attaches to the solar phenomenon.
Cerdá deployed the layout on the spine that is the Gran Vía. He works with modules of 10 x 10 "blocks" (which Cerdá considered a district) and that correspond to the main intersections (Plaza de la Glorias Catalanas; Plaza Tetuán; Plaza Universidad), with a wider street every 5 (Calle Marina; Vía Layetana that would cross the old city 50 years later; Calle Urgel). With these proportions, as well as the resulting size of the "block", Cerdá managed to locate one of the wide streets that go down from the mountain to the sea on each side of the old city (Urgel and San Juan) with 15 blocks in between.
The streets generally have a width of 20 meters, of which currently the central 10 meters are used as roads and 5 meters on each side are used as sidewalks. The width of the streets, as in Haussmann's Parisian model, is associated with a military vision of being able to more easily repress internal uprisings. We remember that Cerdá had experienced firsthand the workers' revolts of 1855. The praise that the plan received from his contemporaries was that they considered the rectilinear format as advantageous for artillery fire.[30].
The unlimited expansion presented little sensitivity with the integration of the urban fabrics of the peripheral towns. The links with these centers were not planned, except for San Andrés de Palomar bordered by Meridiana Avenue and the channels of human tradition were ignored. In 1907 the City Council approved the Jaussely Plan, a link plan to solve these shortcomings. Some of the criteria included in this plan and the maintenance of use of some roads during the development of the Cerdá plan have prevented their disappearance. Calle de Pere IV (old road to France), Avenida Mistral (old road to Sants and which linked to Calle del Carmen in the walled city), Avenida de Roma (old road to Las Corts) or Travesera de Gracia (old Roman road), are some examples.[30].
The terrible acceptance and rejection of the Cerdá Plan
Ya antes de su aprobación contó con la oposición municipalista más por aquello que representaba (la imposición desde Madrid), que por su contenido. Las élites de Barcelona actuaron en contra del plan de la misma manera que lo estaban haciendo contra las crecientes protestas populares. El carácter antiautoritario, antijerárquico, igualitario y racionalista del plan topaba directamente con la visión de la burguesía que prefería tener como referente de nueva ciudad París o Washington con una arquitectura de carácter más particularista.[33] La figura de Cerdá también generaba antipatías entre los arquitectos que no le podían perdonar la afronta que había supuesto adjudicar una responsabilidad urbanística a un ingeniero. Cerdá sufrió una campaña de desprestigio personal llena de leyendas y mentiras. De nada sirvió que fuera de una familia catalana originaria del siglo , ni que hubiera proclamado la república federal catalana desde el balcón de la Generalidad de Cataluña, para que se difundiera que "no era catalán". Domènech i Montaner aseguraba que la anchura de las calles produciría unas corrientes de aire que impedirían una vida confortable. Como afronta, distribuyó los pabellones de su Hospital de San Pablo en dirección contraria a la alineación de la calle.[34].
En 1905, 50 años después de la aprobación del plan, Prat de la Riba manifestaba una profunda indignación "contra los gobiernos que nos impusieron la monótona y vergonzosa cuadrícula" en vez del sistema que él soñaba de ciudad irradiada a partir de la vieja capital histórica.[33].
Uno de los máximos exponentes de este rechazo, menosprecio y olvido colectivo de la figura de Cerdá fue que, sorprendentemente, ante el elevado número de calles y espacios públicos de nueva creación que conllevó la urbanización de su plan, ninguno de los sucesivos ayuntamientos de la ciudad en el tiempo, de distinto color, cariz y régimen, le reservó lugar alguno. Todavía más si tenemos en cuenta que las bases del concurso municipal para la elección del proyecto establecían que al ganador se le asignaría una de las principales vías del nuevo entramado. Y tuvieron que pasar cien años de la aprobación de su Plan para que se le dedicara un espacio, al menos fuera del Ensanche, en otro punto de la ciudad.[35].
The battered Ildefonso Cerdá square and an ephemeral monument
At the initiative of the economist Fabián Estapé, the main supporter of the restoration and almost the only biographer of his figure; Very late, in the second half of the century, Mayor José María de Porcioles, coinciding with the centenary of the approval of his plan, decided to repair the grievance. He dedicated the Plaza de Ildefonso Cerdá, commonly known as Plaza Cerdá, to him. He inaugurated it on November 4, 1959, located at the intersection of the Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas, the Paseo de la Zona Franca and the, yet to be built, First Ronda Beltway, currently known as Ronda del Mig, in its section of Rambla Brasil, at one end of the city, bordering Hospitalet de Llobregat. In the same place and date, a monument in the form of a modular composition, designed by Antonio María Riera Clavillé, was also inaugurated in his memory.[36][37][35].
From there, its location, relegated outside the extensive network that it had devised, the closest of its blocks is almost two kilometers away, 1,700 meters, the one between Llansá, Diputación, Tarragona and Gran Vía streets; together with its characteristics and vicissitudes of destiny make space a historical compendium of paradoxes, ironies and absurdities. He thought of hippodamic plans, grids, octagons, chamfers and angles, a circular space is dedicated to him.[38].
Very few years after its inauguration, a complex and intricate junction was built, a network of crossing and overlapping of three levels of tracks, popularly known as the scalextric, opened in 1971, to accommodate the then known as the first ring road. Cerdá sought simplicity, rationality and straightness in the trajectory and flow of the roads. This transformation means the practical disappearance, by engulfing the space, in addition, for its construction, its monument was removed, it was not placed again there or anywhere else in the city, its existence being very ephemeral.[38] [39][40].
As a note, comment that Porcioles, the only mayor who has paid tribute to him in public space, naming a square after him and erecting a temporary monument. However, at the same time, he was the one who distorted the last existing remnants of the initial inspiration of the plan, handing over the Ensanche to speculative private interests as discussed in the following section.[41].
Subsequently, in 1999, the remodeling of the entire space was inaugurated, dismantling the scalextric and transforming it into a single-level roundabout. As a result of this change, serious flooding problems arose for a long time due to the slightest rain, causing traffic chaos due to the passage of relevant communication routes, when he conceived innovative and ingenious systems for the orderly collection of rainwater; after all, he was an engineer and urban planner. He envisioned an urban planning where green areas and pedestrians had a great role; At first, and even more so with the construction of the scalextric, the space, in its entirety, was reserved for road traffic. In the current roundabout, there is a circular grass bed in the central part, although as it is surrounded by the vehicle road, there is no way to access it and for citizens to use it.[38][42][43].
As usual, metro, train or other means of public transport stations are named after the road or public space on which they are located. This was the case of the Ildefonso Cerdá station of the Ferrocarriles de la Generalidad de Catalunya (FGC), located in the vicinity of the square, being inaugurated on March 2, 1987, by the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol. The fact that the square is located right on one of the territorial limits of Barcelona, meant that, by chance or not, the Railway station was administratively located in the municipality of Hospitalet de Llobregat and not in that of the Catalan capital. Once again, recognition within the city of Barcelona was elusive for Cerdá.[44][45].
The alteration and speculative distortion of the Cerdá Plan
Build the inside and four sides of the apples
The opposition to Cerdá and his Plan by the people of Barcelona facilitated the emergence of speculative activities and arguments that tried to achieve greater built space both in height and width.
The first of them was that if the streets were 20 meters wide, the depth of the buildings could well be increased by this same measure. The central area of the blocks was subsequently occupied with ground-floor buildings, intended in most cases for small and medium-sized businesses, thus disappearing the large central public green areas with free access. The next step was to build the two sides that remained free, joining the two already built, with the result of completely closing the blocks by building along their entire perimeter, cutting off direct public access to their interior. In short, the interiors of blocks or patios were constituted, interiors d'Illa, in Catalan, these being of a particular nature, having undergone a privatization process.[46].
The application of these alterations caused the loss of these decentralized and scattered green areas, in each of the blocks, designed by Cerdá and being one of the main and differential pillars of his approach that sought that every citizen had very close access to this type of spaces, at the foot of their home, and that sponged the population density, keeping its levels low. The ventilation and hygiene measures pursued at the beginning were also diminished, to a lesser extent.
From the approach established by Cerdá of building only 50% of the surface of the block and the other half for green areas and gardens, 90% of the area was finally reached.[47].
Increase the buildable height and the elevations on the roofs
It seemed that at this point the speculative process ended, but a new logic appeared: if the streets were 20 meters wide, there should be no problem with the buildings having a height of 20 meters instead of the projected 16 meters, since the increase in height, with the Sun at 45°, illuminates any building in its entirety without any neighboring buildings casting a shadow; This argument, together with the construction of lower ceilings, resulted in two stories of height being gained.[48][46].
Finally, taking into account the previous theory and adding a principle of setback, if one more floor is built, but with the façade removed towards the interior of the building by the same measure as the height of this floor, the built space is increased without the shadow of the building affecting the neighboring buildings if the Sun is at 45°; Thus, the penthouse "Penthouse (dwelling)") was born. By extension of the same reasoning, the attic was devised: removing the façade back again by the same measure as the height of this new floor. The setback of the two upper floors meant that they had less surface area than the lower ones, although they gained large terraces. [48][46].
When these additional floors were added to the roofs of buildings already built, they were known as remotas, (remuntes, in Catalan), popularly nicknamed hats, (barrets, in Catalan), it was commonly said that many houses in the expansion had been given the hat.[49].
Furthermore, the widespread use of elevators, which allowed quick and comfortable access to the highest parts, exponentially revalued the upper floors, once relegated to service; goalkeepers; to a lower rental or sale income; or even to a warehouse, laundry rooms or studios. They also benefited from being less exposed to the noise of increasing vehicle traffic or other activities on public roads, that is, there was greater peace of mind. At the same time, it benefits from more natural light, greater privacy as it is less visible to third parties, without neglecting the advances in heating and cooling systems and construction techniques, providing greater thermal insulation capacity, allowing, all of this, to modulate the greater cold and heat inherent to being under the roof.[50].
Consequently, a process occurred, especially in new buildings, in which the floors of greatest consideration and appreciation were displaced from the bottom to the top, in short: from the main floor to the attic.[50].
The excessive comebacks during the mayoralty of José María Porcioles
During the Franco regime and, especially, with José María de Porcioles, as mayor during the years between 1957 and 1973, coinciding with the stage of the dictatorship known as developmentalism, there was an imperative desire to obtain, by any means possible, new spaces that would allow expanding the buildable meters vertically, in the already more than saturated Barcelona expansion. Provoking the excessive proliferation of roof repairs, above any other criteria such as aesthetics, seeking to reduce construction costs and time, or population density. In many cases, not even respecting the approaches, starting from the height, angles and setbacks previously exposed, obtaining, consequently, even more built surface, but losing the penetration of the sun to the lowest floors. On the other hand, the ground floor buildings erected in the center and interior of the blocks were allowed to have an additional floor above them.[41].
All of this led to the emergence, popularly, of two proverbs that, based on the figures of the two municipal architects with urban planning responsibilities, José Soteras and Emilio Bordoy, very sardonically, illustrated the established speculation:[51][52][53].
There was still a third, who referred to Alfredo Briales Velasco"), son-in-law of Mayor Porcioles, without a direct position in the municipal corporation, but with evident ties of influence who also said:[54][53].
Population densification process
As it could not be otherwise, the application of all the previous measures in pursuit of greater buildability translated into an exponential increase in the population density of the Barcelona expansion. To put figures that allow us to gauge the extent of the discrepancy between the initial idea of sponging the population throughout the territory by Cerdá and the final result, we can see how currently the density is approximately 36,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, more than doubling the rate of the city as a whole. Being, therefore, significantly high, especially in terms of Spain and Europe, being even above that of Hospitalet de Llobregat, the municipality with the highest density in Catalonia, or other international levels such as those of Calcutta or Manhattan, already considered high.[55][56].
Recovery of block interiors as green areas (interiors d'illa)
With the restoration of democracy, in the eighties of the century the first municipal governments from the polls, led by mayors Narcís Serra and, later, Pasqual Margall, sought, as far as possible, to reverse the previous pernicious dynamic, to try to recover something of the initial essence of the Cerdá Plan.
One of the measures, although of limited and testimonial scope, was the recovery, slowly and progressively, of private interiors of blocks as public green areas with direct access from the street, known as interiors d'Illa, in Catalan, being rescued for the citizens. Together, in many cases, with the construction of public facilities such as clinics (CAP), libraries or cultural centers. The first case carried out was, in 1987, with the opening of the Torre de les Aigües Gardens, located at Calle Roger de Lluria, 56, remodeled in 2023. That same year, there were a total of 45 interiors open to the public, with the ultimate objective that the inhabitants of Ensanche have, less than 200 meters from home, a green area. However, it is far from Cerdá's initial intention that each block would have a green area, given that, in the entire network, there are a total of 420 blocks. With the figures for 2023, those recovered represent only 10% of the total. [57][58].
The relationship of public transport with the Cerdá Plan
A radial model with the Plaza de Catalunya in the center
One of the great contributions of the Cerdá Plan was that its hypodamic layout facilitated, simplified and expedited mobility in any direction, highlighting the transversality from north to south. Paradoxically, over the years, as different means of public transportation were implemented, both on the surface, trams, trolleybuses and buses; as underground, the case of the metro, "Metro (transport)") was not taken into account when establishing its routes. The reference point was the center of the city, established in the Plaza de Cataluña and, by extension, the nearby squares of the University "Plaza de la Universidad (Barcelona)") and Urquinaona, producing a convergence and meeting towards that triangular point; making transversal mobility extremely difficult. In such a way that the neighborhoods in the north, center and northeast of Barcelona, those with the greatest coverage; However, the northwest, west and south sector, a reduced offer. In other words, he opted for a radial scheme model, turning his back on Cerdá's grid, being one of the greatest practical examples of the rejection of his plan. However, as the decades pass, steps will be taken to amend this. [59][60].
Buses
Even at the beginning of the century, the network of daytime buses practically did not respond to any overall rationality, beyond taking into account the urban center, with the routes being inherited, in many cases, from the old trams that had disappeared. This meant that there was a high degree of duplication, as different lines coincided in parts of the route, while other areas were left unattended. From there, the routes were modified or new ones created according to the needs of the moment, resulting in a very intricate map. At the same time, the correspondence between buses or other means of public transport was not well resolved.[59].
For this reason, at the beginning of the 1910s, Barcelona City Council and Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona (TMB) decided that it was time, once and for all, for daytime buses to break with the existing radial scheme and start from the base of the framework proposed by Cerdá. As the existing routes had little relationship with it, it was not feasible to make small modifications to them, it was decided to do a large, very ambitious rethinking, starting from scratch in some cases. Initially, the project was conceived in 2010 by Mayor Jordi Hereu, to be modified, expanded and put into practice by his successor, Xavier Trias.
Finally, the organizational system had the official name of the Orthogonal Bus Network, establishing a total of 28 lines. Of them, 17 vertical, with the nomenclature V and the color green, which run along the roads perpendicular to the sea; 8 horizontal ones, with the H and the color blue, which are parallel to the sea; and 3 diagonals, with D and the color lilac, for which they run obliquely in the framework. The nomenclature V, H or D is followed, in each case, by a numbering, to the V the odd numbers are reserved, ascending from south to north; to the H, the pairs, ascending from west to east; and to D, the numbers multiples of 10***,*** being ascending from south to north***.***.
Its implementation was progressive in phases, the first of them came into service in October 2012 and the last in November 2018. At the same time, other existing lines were preserved, in some cases with modifications, and were not included in said system, especially those that provided coverage in parts of the city outside the grid.
These changes, together with others applied, made it possible to optimize existing resources, reducing frequency and journey times, increasing circulation speed and improving intercommunication between bus lines and other means of public transport. Likewise, the routes were simplified and easier to understand. In short, a model that recovers the reticular essence of the Cerdá Plan.
Although there were isolated precedents of bus lines that provided service at night, it was not until 1959 that we can speak of the existence, with substance, of a network of night buses in Barcelona. Following historical tradition, the different lines establish radial pattern routes, with the Plaza de Catalunya, again, as the epicenter. The current network, known as Nitbus, continues to be governed, almost absolutely, by this criterion. In fact, of all the lines, sixteen have a stop at Plaza de Cataluña, and only one of them, the N0, avoids traffic through this point in the city.[60][61].
Metro
The vast majority of metro lines in the city are also governed by the radial system, traveling through the center of the city, being the case of lines 1 "Line 1 (Barcelona Metro)"), 2 "Line 2 (Barcelona Metro)"), 3 "Line 3 (Barcelona Metro)"), 4 "Line 4 (Barcelona Metro)"), 6 "Line 6 (Barcelona Metro)") and 7; "Line 7 (Barcelona Metro)") together with 11 "Line 11 (Barcelona Metro)") and 12 "Line 12 (Barcelona Metro)"), which, specifying, are an extension of 4 and 6, respectively. 1 and 3 being the first to be built in the city.
The only one that escapes from such a scheme is Line 5 "Line 5 (Barcelona Metro)"), which uses as its central axis the Streets of Rossellón "Calle del Rosellón (Barcelona)") and Provenza "Calle de Provenza (Barcelona)"), running through the city transversally at mid-height, being progressively inaugurated in the sixties and seventies of the century, during the mayoralty of José María de Porcioles, when the first lines were already They had been in service for several decades. And Line 8 "Line 8 (Barcelona Metro)"), which departs from the Plaza de España "Plaza de España (Barcelona)") towards Hospitalet de Llobregat, only having 2 stops in Barcelona territory.
In turn, to alleviate this deficit, at the end of the nineties of the century, the government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, chaired by Jordi Pujol, planned that a new metro would cross the entire upper part of the city, that is, the west side, taking the Ronda del Mig as a reference, taking shape in Lines 9 and 10 "Lines 9 and 10 (Barcelona Metro)"). The works began in September 2003, to this day they remain incomplete, still under eternal construction, with only part of the route in circulation in its unconnected North and South branches, at each end of the city.
Tram
At the beginning of the century, the reinstatement, in 2004, of the tram in Barcelona arose from the idea of connecting the city, through a set of lines, that united it, on the one hand, with Hospitalet de Llobregat and several towns in the Bajo Llobregat region, carrying the name of Trambaix; and, on the other hand, with the municipalities of San Adrián de Besós and Badalona, those lines under the name of Trambesòs. In both cases, the route that runs through Barcelona was decided to follow the main routes designed by Cerdá, for the Trambaix, the Diagonal to the Plaza de Francesc Macià; and for the Trambesòs, the Diagonal, the Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas and the Avenida Meridiana, converging on the Plaza de la Glorias.
Subsequently, a controversial and bitter debate began, with strong defenders and detractors, as to whether both systems had to be joined by the Diagonal. The Trambesòs route to Plaza de Verdaguer is scheduled to come into service in 2024; the pending part continues at the expense of lively debate.
[4] ↑ El cementerio de Pueblo Nuevo había sido construido por el obispo Climent en 1719, si bien no tuvo éxito a causa de la lejanía de la ciudad, siendo finalmente destruido en la guerra del francés. Fue a partir de su reconstrucción, en 1819, cuando empieza a funcionar con una progresiva normalidad.
[5] ↑ Revista Icària. Ed. Archivo histórico de Pueblo Nuevo. Num.13 (2008). Pág. 13-18.
[6] ↑ Huertas, pág. 13.
[7] ↑ Eixample, 150 años, pág. 19.
[8] ↑ Garcia Espuche, Albert. «Una ciudad estancada». Espacio y Sociedad en la Barcelona preindustrial.
[17] ↑ a b c d Montaner, Josep Maria. Ildefonso Cerda y la Barcelona Moderna. Revista Catalonia Cultura. Núm.3, 1978. pàg 44-45.
[18] ↑ Antoni Rovira, pàg. 72-73.
[19] ↑ Torrent, Joaquim, Geógrafo. Ildefons Cerdà, un gran visionario y precursor. NacioDigital.cat. 7 de Junio 2007.
[20] ↑ Gimeno, Eva. La gestación del eixample de Barcelona: el concurso municipal de proyectos de 1859. El año Cerdá-2009.: http://www.anycerda.org/web/arxiu-cerda
[21] ↑ Antoni Rovira, pág. 76-83.
[22] ↑ La traza de una ciudad es obra del tiempo más que del arquitecto.
[23] ↑ Antoni Rovira, pág. 85-89.
[24] ↑ Manuel de Solà-Morales. Los Ensanches (1). Laboratorio de Urbanismo. Escuela Superior Técnica de Arquitectura de Barcelona.
Health conditions worsened as a result of the density and the lack of sanitary infrastructure such as sewage networks or running water. Burials in cemeteries in front of churches were sources of infections, groundwater contamination and epidemics. Despite the decision to carry out burials in the Pueblo Nuevo cemetery decreed in 1819 by Bishop Pablo de Sichar,[4] its operation was not consolidated until the middle of the century.[5] From this moment, and forced by military ordinances, the spaces of the cemeteries began to be recovered at the doors of churches such as San Justo "Basilica de los Santos Justo y Pastor (Barcelona)"), San Pedro de las Puellas or El Fossar. de les Moreres.[6].
Under these circumstances, life expectancy stood at 36 years for the rich and 23 for the poor and day laborers.[3] Barcelona, like Catalonia, had been hit by the plague in the 2nd centuries, and suffered various epidemics throughout the 19th century.
The military consideration of Barcelona as a stronghold with the Citadel at its side conditioned urban life. Not only were the problems of citizens within the walls ignored, but the timid movements to expand outside the walls were repressed with the demolition of the buildings because they "impeded the defense of the city" as happened in 1813,[8] since the non aedificanda area was considered to be that included up to the distance of a cannon shot, which corresponded approximately to the "jardinets of Gracia".[9].
The voices against it not only came from the citizens, but from the Barcelona City Council itself, which, through the Junta de Ornato and in harmony with the Captain General Baron de Meer, in 1838 requested a modification of the wall between the door of the Studios (the Rambla) and the Jonqueres bastion (Plaza Urquinaona) to achieve a small extension.[10].
Down the walls
In 1841 the Barcelona City Council held a competition to promote the development of the city. On September 11, 1841, the award was decided in favor of Dr. Pedro Felipe Monlau, doctor and hygienist, author of the work Down with the walls, Memoir about the advantages that the demolition of the walls that surround the city would bring to Barcelona and especially to its industry, in which an expansion from the Llobregat river to the Besós is demanded.
The wide dissemination of the project and the popular impulse caused confrontations such as the one on October 26, 1842 in which the Demolition Board was going to demolish part of the Citadel, a fact that caused General Espartero to bomb Barcelona from Montjuic Castle on December 3 and order its reconstruction with an expense of 12 million reais at the expense of the city.[11].
In 1844, Jaime Balmes joined, from the pages of La Sociedad, the protests contradicting the theories of military strategic value defended by General Narváez.
More than ten years passed until the Barcelona City Council approved a project prepared by its secretary Manuel Durán y Bas, which he sent to the government of Madrid on May 23, 1853 with the unanimous signature of the council with its mayor, Josep Beltran i Ros) in charge. The report received the support of the Catalan deputies and especially Pascual Madoz, deputy for Lérida and a key person in the demolition of the walls. Madoz became civil governor of Barcelona during barely seventy-five days before he became Minister of Finance of the progressive government, from where he urged the confiscation and promulgated a royal order that would put an end to the confrontations between the City Council and the Ministry of War.[11] The order to demolish the walls of August 9, 1854 specified that the sea wall, Montjuic Castle and the Citadel must be maintained.[12].
The expansion project
The need for expansion
The need to grow outside the walls was obvious, but we must also keep in mind the speculative effect that the development of 1,100 hectares of land entailed. With the competition opened by the city council in December 1840 and won by Monlau's "Down with the Walls" project, the period of transformation of the city began. In 1844, Miquel Garriga i Roca offered himself to Barcelona City Council as municipal architect to plan the expansion, with a proposal focused on ornamental beautification operations. In 1846 Antonio Rovira y Trías published in the Encyclopedic Bulletin of Noble Arts a proposal for the formation of a geometric plan of Barcelona.[13].
The gestation of the Ensanche Project
In 1853, a year before demolishing the walls, the city council began to prepare for the next stage by creating the Barcelona Corporations Commission. Later converted into the Ensanche Commission; It had representatives of the industry, the architects Josep Vila Francisco Daniel Molina, Josep Oriol Mestres, José Fontseré Doménech"), Joan Soler i Mestres"), and representatives of the press: Jaume Badia, Antonio Brusi y Ferrer, Tomás Barraquer and Antonio Gayolá.[14].
In 1855, the Ministry of Public Works commissioned Cerdá to survey the topographic plan of the Llano de Barcelona, which was the extensive undeveloped area for military reasons between Barcelona and Gracia and from Sants to San Andrés de Palomar. A person very sensitive to hygienist currents, he applied his knowledge to develop, on his own, a Monography of the working class (1856), a complete and in-depth statistical analysis of the living conditions within the walls based on social, economic and nutritional aspects. The diagnosis was clear: the city was not suitable for "the new civilization, characterized by the application of steam energy in industry and the improvement of mobility[15] and communicativeness" (the optical telegraph was the other relevant invention).[16].
Aware of this lack, Cerdá began without any assignment to structure his thought, systematically exposed many years later (1867) in his great work: General Theory of Urbanization. One of the most important features of Cerdá's proposal, which makes it stand out in the history of urban planning, is the search for coherence to account for the contradictory requirements of a complex agglomeration. It overcomes partial visions (utopian, cultural, monumental, rationalist city...) and dedicates itself in search of an integral city.[17].
The year 1859 is the definitive year of the expansion. On February 2, Cerdá received the order from the central government to verify the study for the expansion within a period of twelve months. The city council reacted immediately by calling a public tender on April 15 on plans for the expansion with a deadline of July 31, although it was postponed to August 15. Meanwhile, Cerdá wasted no time, he finished his project and dedicated himself to showing it - to gain support in Madrid - to Madoz, Laureano Figuerola and the general director of Public Works, the Marquis of Corvera.
But June 9, 1859 is the date on which the central government, through a royal order, definitively approved the expansion plan designed by Cerdá. From that moment on, technical, political and economic disputes took place between the central and municipal governments. With respect to the municipal competition, thirteen projects were presented, with Antonio Rovira y Trías being the unanimous winner on October 10, 1859. Following a royal order of December 17, all of them plus Cerdá's were presented indicating the qualification deserved, with the City Council abstaining from evaluating Cerdá's.
The issue was definitively resolved on July 8, 1860, when the ministry ordered the execution of the Cerdá Plan.[18].
The municipal contest
The projects submitted to the Barcelona City Council competition to design an extension for the city focused, in most cases, their solution on the "road from Barcelona to Gràcia" which for some time had been being consolidated urbanistically as Passeig de Gràcia and which conditioned the possible solutions. These plans, unlike the one proposed by Cerdá, occupied a smaller area and were intended to accommodate fewer people, which is logical if we think that they obeyed the bourgeoisie's objectives of reinforcing social segregation. Thus, the winning plan of the expansion competition, presented by Rovira i Trias, corresponds to the motto that headed it: "the layout of a city is more the work of time than of the architect"; and Rovira himself stated that the proletarians could not live in what "will properly have to be called the city of Barcelona."[19].
The projects were presented under a pseudonym and the plaques of those not awarded were destroyed, which is why part of the documentation has been lost.[20].
Antoni Rovira's project
The winning project, according to the municipal council, was a proposal by Antoni Rovira based on a circular mesh that wrapped around the walled city and grew radially, harmoniously integrating the surrounding towns. It was presented with the motto: "Le trace d'une ville est oeuvre du temps, plutôt que d'architecte".[22] The phrase is original by Léonce Reynaud"), an architectural reference in Rovira.
It was structured in three areas where the different sectors of the population were combined with social activities with a logic of neighborhoods and hierarchization of space and public services. Based on a circular proposal to replace the wall, a mesh formed by rectangular blocks with a central patio and a height of 19 meters was deployed. A few main streets served as a connection between blocks of blocks with a hypodamian structure to readjust the square profile to the semicircle that surrounded the city. Rovira proposes his solution with a clear center located in Plaza de Cataluña, while Cerdá moved the centrality to Plaza de la Glorias. The plan provided a solution for the Plaza de Cataluña, something that the Cerdá plan did not foresee.[23].
The plot of Rovira responds to a contemporary and residential expansion model such as the "ring" in Vienna or the Haussmann project in Paris. This model was more aligned with the future capitalist "Großstadt" that the Renaixença and the Lliga would claim.[24].
The Cerdá Plan
Contenido
Después de la aprobación inapelable del gobierno central, el 4 de septiembre de 1860 la reina Isabel II colocaba la primera piedra del Ensanche en la actual plaza de Cataluña. El crecimiento de la ciudad fuera de murallas no fue rápido por la falta de infraestructuras y la distancia con el núcleo urbano.
La década de 1870 se produjo un progreso notable ya que los inversores vieron una gran oportunidad de negocio. El retorno de los indianos con el final de las colonias aportaba capitales importantes que se tenían que invertir y encontraron en el ensanche su mejor destino. Empieza la llamada fiebre de oro. Pero el gran interés acabó siendo perjudicial para el plan inicial, y la fiebre constructora contribuyó a la progresiva reducción de los espacios verdes y de los equipamientos. Finalmente se construyeron los cuatro lados de las manzanas.
La Exposición Universal del año 1888 significó un nuevo impulso que permitió la renovación de algunas zonas y la creación de servicios públicos. Pero sería el gran desarrollo de finales del siglo XIX con el Modernismo apoyado por la burguesía que invertía en edificios para dedicarlos a alquiler, lo que haría crecer el Ensanche de tal manera que en el año 1897 Barcelona integró los municipios de Sants, Las Corts, San Gervasio de Cassolas, Gracia, San Andrés de Palomar y San Martín de Provensals.[25].
Cerdá's new language
The plan provided the primary classification of the territory: the "vias" and the "intervías" spaces. The former constitute the public space for mobility, meeting, support for service networks (water, sanitation, gas...), trees (more than 100,000 trees on the street), lighting and street furniture. The "intervías" (island, block, block or block) are the spaces of private life, where multi-family buildings meet in two rows around an interior patio through which all homes (without exception) receive the sun, natural light, ventilation and joie de vivre, as requested by the hygienist movements.
Cerdá defended the balance between urban values and rural advantages. «Ruralize that which is urban, urbanize that which is rural» is the message launched at the beginning of his General Theory of Urbanization.
In other words, its purpose was to prioritize “content” (people) over “container” (stones or gardens). Form, such an obsessive theme in most plans, is nothing more than an instrument, although of utmost importance, but often too decisive and sometimes overbearing. The magic of Cerdá consists of generating the city from the home.
The privacy of the home is considered an absolute priority and, in a time of large families (three generations), making freedom possible for all members could be considered utopian.
Cerdá believes that the ideal home is isolated, rural. However, the enormous advantages of the city force us to compact, the essence of the urban fact, and to design a home that allows it to fit into a high-rise multi-family building, and enjoy, thanks to a careful distribution, double ventilation from the street and from the interior part of the "block". The caress of the sun is assured in all cases.[16].
Structure of the Cerdá Plan
In the plan proposed by Cerdá for the city, the optimism and unlimited forecast of growth stand out, the programmed absence of a privileged center, its mathematical, geometric and scientific vision. atmosphere.[26] Along the same lines, he assigned a key role to the parks and interior gardens of the blocks, although subsequent speculation greatly altered this plan. He fixed the location of the trees on the streets (1 every 8 meters) and chose the shade plane to populate the city after analyzing which species would be the most suitable to live in the city.
In addition to the hygienic aspects, Cerdá was concerned about mobility. He defined an absolutely unusual width of streets, partly to escape the inhuman density that the city experienced, but also thinking about a motorized future with its own spaces separated from those for social coexistence that were reserved for them in the interior areas.[27].
He incorporated the layout of railway lines that had influenced his vision of the future when he visited France, although he is aware that these have to go underground, and he was concerned that each neighborhood would have an area dedicated to public buildings.[17] In this sense he includes the advances within his progressive ideology when he stated:[26].
The most notable formal solution of the project was the incorporation of the block "Manzana (urbanismo)"); Its crucial and absolutely unique shape compared to other European cities is marked by its square structure of 113.33 meters with 45° chamfers[17].
Ensanche Geometry
Cerdá's hypodamian grid provided for streets of 20, 30 and 60 meters wide. The blocks had construction on only two of the four sides, which gave a density of 800,000 people. With the original design, the Ensanche would have been completely occupied by 1900,[28] although both Cerdá himself and, later, some speculative actions, densified it substantially.
Cerdà proposed "Unlimited Ensanche" a regular and imperturbable grid along the entire urban layout. Unlike other proposals that broke their repetitive rhythm to add green spaces or services, Cerdà's proposal encompasses them internally and allowed a continuous repetition to be established in the plan with the ability to alter it when appropriate.[29].
The egalitarian principle that Cerdà wanted to imprint in his urban planning justifies this homogeneity in search of equality, not only between social classes, but also for the convenience of the traffic of people and vehicles, since whether one circulates on a road or its transversal ones, the intersections between them are at the same distance, and as there are no roads that are more comfortable than others, the value of the habitats will tend to equalize.[1].
The engineer's vision was of growth and modernity; His genius allowed him to anticipate future urban traffic conflicts, 30 years before inventing the automobile.[26].
Regarding the orientation, the roads run parallel to the sea, some, and perpendicular, the others, this means that the orientation of the vertices of the squares coincides with the cardinal points and therefore all their sides have direct sunlight throughout the day, denoting once again the importance that the designer attaches to the solar phenomenon.
Cerdá deployed the layout on the spine that is the Gran Vía. He works with modules of 10 x 10 "blocks" (which Cerdá considered a district) and that correspond to the main intersections (Plaza de la Glorias Catalanas; Plaza Tetuán; Plaza Universidad), with a wider street every 5 (Calle Marina; Vía Layetana that would cross the old city 50 years later; Calle Urgel). With these proportions, as well as the resulting size of the "block", Cerdá managed to locate one of the wide streets that go down from the mountain to the sea on each side of the old city (Urgel and San Juan) with 15 blocks in between.
The streets generally have a width of 20 meters, of which currently the central 10 meters are used as roads and 5 meters on each side are used as sidewalks. The width of the streets, as in Haussmann's Parisian model, is associated with a military vision of being able to more easily repress internal uprisings. We remember that Cerdá had experienced firsthand the workers' revolts of 1855. The praise that the plan received from his contemporaries was that they considered the rectilinear format as advantageous for artillery fire.[30].
The unlimited expansion presented little sensitivity with the integration of the urban fabrics of the peripheral towns. The links with these centers were not planned, except for San Andrés de Palomar bordered by Meridiana Avenue and the channels of human tradition were ignored. In 1907 the City Council approved the Jaussely Plan, a link plan to solve these shortcomings. Some of the criteria included in this plan and the maintenance of use of some roads during the development of the Cerdá plan have prevented their disappearance. Calle de Pere IV (old road to France), Avenida Mistral (old road to Sants and which linked to Calle del Carmen in the walled city), Avenida de Roma (old road to Las Corts) or Travesera de Gracia (old Roman road), are some examples.[30].
The terrible acceptance and rejection of the Cerdá Plan
Ya antes de su aprobación contó con la oposición municipalista más por aquello que representaba (la imposición desde Madrid), que por su contenido. Las élites de Barcelona actuaron en contra del plan de la misma manera que lo estaban haciendo contra las crecientes protestas populares. El carácter antiautoritario, antijerárquico, igualitario y racionalista del plan topaba directamente con la visión de la burguesía que prefería tener como referente de nueva ciudad París o Washington con una arquitectura de carácter más particularista.[33] La figura de Cerdá también generaba antipatías entre los arquitectos que no le podían perdonar la afronta que había supuesto adjudicar una responsabilidad urbanística a un ingeniero. Cerdá sufrió una campaña de desprestigio personal llena de leyendas y mentiras. De nada sirvió que fuera de una familia catalana originaria del siglo , ni que hubiera proclamado la república federal catalana desde el balcón de la Generalidad de Cataluña, para que se difundiera que "no era catalán". Domènech i Montaner aseguraba que la anchura de las calles produciría unas corrientes de aire que impedirían una vida confortable. Como afronta, distribuyó los pabellones de su Hospital de San Pablo en dirección contraria a la alineación de la calle.[34].
En 1905, 50 años después de la aprobación del plan, Prat de la Riba manifestaba una profunda indignación "contra los gobiernos que nos impusieron la monótona y vergonzosa cuadrícula" en vez del sistema que él soñaba de ciudad irradiada a partir de la vieja capital histórica.[33].
Uno de los máximos exponentes de este rechazo, menosprecio y olvido colectivo de la figura de Cerdá fue que, sorprendentemente, ante el elevado número de calles y espacios públicos de nueva creación que conllevó la urbanización de su plan, ninguno de los sucesivos ayuntamientos de la ciudad en el tiempo, de distinto color, cariz y régimen, le reservó lugar alguno. Todavía más si tenemos en cuenta que las bases del concurso municipal para la elección del proyecto establecían que al ganador se le asignaría una de las principales vías del nuevo entramado. Y tuvieron que pasar cien años de la aprobación de su Plan para que se le dedicara un espacio, al menos fuera del Ensanche, en otro punto de la ciudad.[35].
The battered Ildefonso Cerdá square and an ephemeral monument
At the initiative of the economist Fabián Estapé, the main supporter of the restoration and almost the only biographer of his figure; Very late, in the second half of the century, Mayor José María de Porcioles, coinciding with the centenary of the approval of his plan, decided to repair the grievance. He dedicated the Plaza de Ildefonso Cerdá, commonly known as Plaza Cerdá, to him. He inaugurated it on November 4, 1959, located at the intersection of the Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas, the Paseo de la Zona Franca and the, yet to be built, First Ronda Beltway, currently known as Ronda del Mig, in its section of Rambla Brasil, at one end of the city, bordering Hospitalet de Llobregat. In the same place and date, a monument in the form of a modular composition, designed by Antonio María Riera Clavillé, was also inaugurated in his memory.[36][37][35].
From there, its location, relegated outside the extensive network that it had devised, the closest of its blocks is almost two kilometers away, 1,700 meters, the one between Llansá, Diputación, Tarragona and Gran Vía streets; together with its characteristics and vicissitudes of destiny make space a historical compendium of paradoxes, ironies and absurdities. He thought of hippodamic plans, grids, octagons, chamfers and angles, a circular space is dedicated to him.[38].
Very few years after its inauguration, a complex and intricate junction was built, a network of crossing and overlapping of three levels of tracks, popularly known as the scalextric, opened in 1971, to accommodate the then known as the first ring road. Cerdá sought simplicity, rationality and straightness in the trajectory and flow of the roads. This transformation means the practical disappearance, by engulfing the space, in addition, for its construction, its monument was removed, it was not placed again there or anywhere else in the city, its existence being very ephemeral.[38] [39][40].
As a note, comment that Porcioles, the only mayor who has paid tribute to him in public space, naming a square after him and erecting a temporary monument. However, at the same time, he was the one who distorted the last existing remnants of the initial inspiration of the plan, handing over the Ensanche to speculative private interests as discussed in the following section.[41].
Subsequently, in 1999, the remodeling of the entire space was inaugurated, dismantling the scalextric and transforming it into a single-level roundabout. As a result of this change, serious flooding problems arose for a long time due to the slightest rain, causing traffic chaos due to the passage of relevant communication routes, when he conceived innovative and ingenious systems for the orderly collection of rainwater; after all, he was an engineer and urban planner. He envisioned an urban planning where green areas and pedestrians had a great role; At first, and even more so with the construction of the scalextric, the space, in its entirety, was reserved for road traffic. In the current roundabout, there is a circular grass bed in the central part, although as it is surrounded by the vehicle road, there is no way to access it and for citizens to use it.[38][42][43].
As usual, metro, train or other means of public transport stations are named after the road or public space on which they are located. This was the case of the Ildefonso Cerdá station of the Ferrocarriles de la Generalidad de Catalunya (FGC), located in the vicinity of the square, being inaugurated on March 2, 1987, by the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol. The fact that the square is located right on one of the territorial limits of Barcelona, meant that, by chance or not, the Railway station was administratively located in the municipality of Hospitalet de Llobregat and not in that of the Catalan capital. Once again, recognition within the city of Barcelona was elusive for Cerdá.[44][45].
The alteration and speculative distortion of the Cerdá Plan
Build the inside and four sides of the apples
The opposition to Cerdá and his Plan by the people of Barcelona facilitated the emergence of speculative activities and arguments that tried to achieve greater built space both in height and width.
The first of them was that if the streets were 20 meters wide, the depth of the buildings could well be increased by this same measure. The central area of the blocks was subsequently occupied with ground-floor buildings, intended in most cases for small and medium-sized businesses, thus disappearing the large central public green areas with free access. The next step was to build the two sides that remained free, joining the two already built, with the result of completely closing the blocks by building along their entire perimeter, cutting off direct public access to their interior. In short, the interiors of blocks or patios were constituted, interiors d'Illa, in Catalan, these being of a particular nature, having undergone a privatization process.[46].
The application of these alterations caused the loss of these decentralized and scattered green areas, in each of the blocks, designed by Cerdá and being one of the main and differential pillars of his approach that sought that every citizen had very close access to this type of spaces, at the foot of their home, and that sponged the population density, keeping its levels low. The ventilation and hygiene measures pursued at the beginning were also diminished, to a lesser extent.
From the approach established by Cerdá of building only 50% of the surface of the block and the other half for green areas and gardens, 90% of the area was finally reached.[47].
Increase the buildable height and the elevations on the roofs
It seemed that at this point the speculative process ended, but a new logic appeared: if the streets were 20 meters wide, there should be no problem with the buildings having a height of 20 meters instead of the projected 16 meters, since the increase in height, with the Sun at 45°, illuminates any building in its entirety without any neighboring buildings casting a shadow; This argument, together with the construction of lower ceilings, resulted in two stories of height being gained.[48][46].
Finally, taking into account the previous theory and adding a principle of setback, if one more floor is built, but with the façade removed towards the interior of the building by the same measure as the height of this floor, the built space is increased without the shadow of the building affecting the neighboring buildings if the Sun is at 45°; Thus, the penthouse "Penthouse (dwelling)") was born. By extension of the same reasoning, the attic was devised: removing the façade back again by the same measure as the height of this new floor. The setback of the two upper floors meant that they had less surface area than the lower ones, although they gained large terraces. [48][46].
When these additional floors were added to the roofs of buildings already built, they were known as remotas, (remuntes, in Catalan), popularly nicknamed hats, (barrets, in Catalan), it was commonly said that many houses in the expansion had been given the hat.[49].
Furthermore, the widespread use of elevators, which allowed quick and comfortable access to the highest parts, exponentially revalued the upper floors, once relegated to service; goalkeepers; to a lower rental or sale income; or even to a warehouse, laundry rooms or studios. They also benefited from being less exposed to the noise of increasing vehicle traffic or other activities on public roads, that is, there was greater peace of mind. At the same time, it benefits from more natural light, greater privacy as it is less visible to third parties, without neglecting the advances in heating and cooling systems and construction techniques, providing greater thermal insulation capacity, allowing, all of this, to modulate the greater cold and heat inherent to being under the roof.[50].
Consequently, a process occurred, especially in new buildings, in which the floors of greatest consideration and appreciation were displaced from the bottom to the top, in short: from the main floor to the attic.[50].
The excessive comebacks during the mayoralty of José María Porcioles
During the Franco regime and, especially, with José María de Porcioles, as mayor during the years between 1957 and 1973, coinciding with the stage of the dictatorship known as developmentalism, there was an imperative desire to obtain, by any means possible, new spaces that would allow expanding the buildable meters vertically, in the already more than saturated Barcelona expansion. Provoking the excessive proliferation of roof repairs, above any other criteria such as aesthetics, seeking to reduce construction costs and time, or population density. In many cases, not even respecting the approaches, starting from the height, angles and setbacks previously exposed, obtaining, consequently, even more built surface, but losing the penetration of the sun to the lowest floors. On the other hand, the ground floor buildings erected in the center and interior of the blocks were allowed to have an additional floor above them.[41].
All of this led to the emergence, popularly, of two proverbs that, based on the figures of the two municipal architects with urban planning responsibilities, José Soteras and Emilio Bordoy, very sardonically, illustrated the established speculation:[51][52][53].
There was still a third, who referred to Alfredo Briales Velasco"), son-in-law of Mayor Porcioles, without a direct position in the municipal corporation, but with evident ties of influence who also said:[54][53].
Population densification process
As it could not be otherwise, the application of all the previous measures in pursuit of greater buildability translated into an exponential increase in the population density of the Barcelona expansion. To put figures that allow us to gauge the extent of the discrepancy between the initial idea of sponging the population throughout the territory by Cerdá and the final result, we can see how currently the density is approximately 36,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, more than doubling the rate of the city as a whole. Being, therefore, significantly high, especially in terms of Spain and Europe, being even above that of Hospitalet de Llobregat, the municipality with the highest density in Catalonia, or other international levels such as those of Calcutta or Manhattan, already considered high.[55][56].
Recovery of block interiors as green areas (interiors d'illa)
With the restoration of democracy, in the eighties of the century the first municipal governments from the polls, led by mayors Narcís Serra and, later, Pasqual Margall, sought, as far as possible, to reverse the previous pernicious dynamic, to try to recover something of the initial essence of the Cerdá Plan.
One of the measures, although of limited and testimonial scope, was the recovery, slowly and progressively, of private interiors of blocks as public green areas with direct access from the street, known as interiors d'Illa, in Catalan, being rescued for the citizens. Together, in many cases, with the construction of public facilities such as clinics (CAP), libraries or cultural centers. The first case carried out was, in 1987, with the opening of the Torre de les Aigües Gardens, located at Calle Roger de Lluria, 56, remodeled in 2023. That same year, there were a total of 45 interiors open to the public, with the ultimate objective that the inhabitants of Ensanche have, less than 200 meters from home, a green area. However, it is far from Cerdá's initial intention that each block would have a green area, given that, in the entire network, there are a total of 420 blocks. With the figures for 2023, those recovered represent only 10% of the total. [57][58].
The relationship of public transport with the Cerdá Plan
A radial model with the Plaza de Catalunya in the center
One of the great contributions of the Cerdá Plan was that its hypodamic layout facilitated, simplified and expedited mobility in any direction, highlighting the transversality from north to south. Paradoxically, over the years, as different means of public transportation were implemented, both on the surface, trams, trolleybuses and buses; as underground, the case of the metro, "Metro (transport)") was not taken into account when establishing its routes. The reference point was the center of the city, established in the Plaza de Cataluña and, by extension, the nearby squares of the University "Plaza de la Universidad (Barcelona)") and Urquinaona, producing a convergence and meeting towards that triangular point; making transversal mobility extremely difficult. In such a way that the neighborhoods in the north, center and northeast of Barcelona, those with the greatest coverage; However, the northwest, west and south sector, a reduced offer. In other words, he opted for a radial scheme model, turning his back on Cerdá's grid, being one of the greatest practical examples of the rejection of his plan. However, as the decades pass, steps will be taken to amend this. [59][60].
Buses
Even at the beginning of the century, the network of daytime buses practically did not respond to any overall rationality, beyond taking into account the urban center, with the routes being inherited, in many cases, from the old trams that had disappeared. This meant that there was a high degree of duplication, as different lines coincided in parts of the route, while other areas were left unattended. From there, the routes were modified or new ones created according to the needs of the moment, resulting in a very intricate map. At the same time, the correspondence between buses or other means of public transport was not well resolved.[59].
For this reason, at the beginning of the 1910s, Barcelona City Council and Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona (TMB) decided that it was time, once and for all, for daytime buses to break with the existing radial scheme and start from the base of the framework proposed by Cerdá. As the existing routes had little relationship with it, it was not feasible to make small modifications to them, it was decided to do a large, very ambitious rethinking, starting from scratch in some cases. Initially, the project was conceived in 2010 by Mayor Jordi Hereu, to be modified, expanded and put into practice by his successor, Xavier Trias.
Finally, the organizational system had the official name of the Orthogonal Bus Network, establishing a total of 28 lines. Of them, 17 vertical, with the nomenclature V and the color green, which run along the roads perpendicular to the sea; 8 horizontal ones, with the H and the color blue, which are parallel to the sea; and 3 diagonals, with D and the color lilac, for which they run obliquely in the framework. The nomenclature V, H or D is followed, in each case, by a numbering, to the V the odd numbers are reserved, ascending from south to north; to the H, the pairs, ascending from west to east; and to D, the numbers multiples of 10***,*** being ascending from south to north***.***.
Its implementation was progressive in phases, the first of them came into service in October 2012 and the last in November 2018. At the same time, other existing lines were preserved, in some cases with modifications, and were not included in said system, especially those that provided coverage in parts of the city outside the grid.
These changes, together with others applied, made it possible to optimize existing resources, reducing frequency and journey times, increasing circulation speed and improving intercommunication between bus lines and other means of public transport. Likewise, the routes were simplified and easier to understand. In short, a model that recovers the reticular essence of the Cerdá Plan.
Although there were isolated precedents of bus lines that provided service at night, it was not until 1959 that we can speak of the existence, with substance, of a network of night buses in Barcelona. Following historical tradition, the different lines establish radial pattern routes, with the Plaza de Catalunya, again, as the epicenter. The current network, known as Nitbus, continues to be governed, almost absolutely, by this criterion. In fact, of all the lines, sixteen have a stop at Plaza de Cataluña, and only one of them, the N0, avoids traffic through this point in the city.[60][61].
Metro
The vast majority of metro lines in the city are also governed by the radial system, traveling through the center of the city, being the case of lines 1 "Line 1 (Barcelona Metro)"), 2 "Line 2 (Barcelona Metro)"), 3 "Line 3 (Barcelona Metro)"), 4 "Line 4 (Barcelona Metro)"), 6 "Line 6 (Barcelona Metro)") and 7; "Line 7 (Barcelona Metro)") together with 11 "Line 11 (Barcelona Metro)") and 12 "Line 12 (Barcelona Metro)"), which, specifying, are an extension of 4 and 6, respectively. 1 and 3 being the first to be built in the city.
The only one that escapes from such a scheme is Line 5 "Line 5 (Barcelona Metro)"), which uses as its central axis the Streets of Rossellón "Calle del Rosellón (Barcelona)") and Provenza "Calle de Provenza (Barcelona)"), running through the city transversally at mid-height, being progressively inaugurated in the sixties and seventies of the century, during the mayoralty of José María de Porcioles, when the first lines were already They had been in service for several decades. And Line 8 "Line 8 (Barcelona Metro)"), which departs from the Plaza de España "Plaza de España (Barcelona)") towards Hospitalet de Llobregat, only having 2 stops in Barcelona territory.
In turn, to alleviate this deficit, at the end of the nineties of the century, the government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, chaired by Jordi Pujol, planned that a new metro would cross the entire upper part of the city, that is, the west side, taking the Ronda del Mig as a reference, taking shape in Lines 9 and 10 "Lines 9 and 10 (Barcelona Metro)"). The works began in September 2003, to this day they remain incomplete, still under eternal construction, with only part of the route in circulation in its unconnected North and South branches, at each end of the city.
Tram
At the beginning of the century, the reinstatement, in 2004, of the tram in Barcelona arose from the idea of connecting the city, through a set of lines, that united it, on the one hand, with Hospitalet de Llobregat and several towns in the Bajo Llobregat region, carrying the name of Trambaix; and, on the other hand, with the municipalities of San Adrián de Besós and Badalona, those lines under the name of Trambesòs. In both cases, the route that runs through Barcelona was decided to follow the main routes designed by Cerdá, for the Trambaix, the Diagonal to the Plaza de Francesc Macià; and for the Trambesòs, the Diagonal, the Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas and the Avenida Meridiana, converging on the Plaza de la Glorias.
Subsequently, a controversial and bitter debate began, with strong defenders and detractors, as to whether both systems had to be joined by the Diagonal. The Trambesòs route to Plaza de Verdaguer is scheduled to come into service in 2024; the pending part continues at the expense of lively debate.
[4] ↑ El cementerio de Pueblo Nuevo había sido construido por el obispo Climent en 1719, si bien no tuvo éxito a causa de la lejanía de la ciudad, siendo finalmente destruido en la guerra del francés. Fue a partir de su reconstrucción, en 1819, cuando empieza a funcionar con una progresiva normalidad.
[5] ↑ Revista Icària. Ed. Archivo histórico de Pueblo Nuevo. Num.13 (2008). Pág. 13-18.
[6] ↑ Huertas, pág. 13.
[7] ↑ Eixample, 150 años, pág. 19.
[8] ↑ Garcia Espuche, Albert. «Una ciudad estancada». Espacio y Sociedad en la Barcelona preindustrial.
[17] ↑ a b c d Montaner, Josep Maria. Ildefonso Cerda y la Barcelona Moderna. Revista Catalonia Cultura. Núm.3, 1978. pàg 44-45.
[18] ↑ Antoni Rovira, pàg. 72-73.
[19] ↑ Torrent, Joaquim, Geógrafo. Ildefons Cerdà, un gran visionario y precursor. NacioDigital.cat. 7 de Junio 2007.
[20] ↑ Gimeno, Eva. La gestación del eixample de Barcelona: el concurso municipal de proyectos de 1859. El año Cerdá-2009.: http://www.anycerda.org/web/arxiu-cerda
[21] ↑ Antoni Rovira, pág. 76-83.
[22] ↑ La traza de una ciudad es obra del tiempo más que del arquitecto.
[23] ↑ Antoni Rovira, pág. 85-89.
[24] ↑ Manuel de Solà-Morales. Los Ensanches (1). Laboratorio de Urbanismo. Escuela Superior Técnica de Arquitectura de Barcelona.
Special mention deserves the design of the Paseo de Gracia and the Rambla de Cataluña, where in order to respect the old Camino de Gracia and the natural slope of the waters, hence the name rambla, Cerdá laid out only two consecutive roads of special width where in reality, taking into account the layout of 113.3 m there would have to be three streets, in addition the Paseo de Gracia to respect the old layout, is not exactly parallel in the rest of the streets, which makes the Existing blocks between the two mentioned roads, although they are orthogonal in design with chamfers, present irregularities that give them the shape of trapezoids.
To all this we must add the presence of some of a special nature that do not follow the reticular layout but rather cross it diagonally, such as Diagonal Avenue itself, Meridiana Avenue, Parallel, and others that were laid out respecting the existence of old communication routes with neighboring towns.
The dimensions of the blocks are given by the aforementioned distances between the longitudinal axes of the streets and the same width of these roads, so that by establishing a standard width of the roads at 20 meters, the blocks are formed by quadrilaterals of 113.3 meters, their vertices truncated in the form of a chamfer of 15 meters, which gives a block area of 1.24 hectares, contrary to the popular belief of which have an exact area of 1 hectare. The figure of 113.3 meters has had various justifications. Manuel de Solà-Morales considers that the 5 blocks between the old Tallers bastion (current Plaza Universidad) and Jonqueres (current Plaza Urquinaona) are those that mark the factor from which the rest is built.[31].
Cerdà justified the chamfer "Chamfer (architecture)") of the vertices of the blocks from the point of view of the visibility that this gives to road traffic and in a vision of the future in which he was only wrong in the term used to define the vehicle, he spoke of the particular locomotives that would one day circulate through the streets and of the need to create a larger space at each intersection to facilitate the stopping of these locomotives.
The first generalization of the use of the chamfer or ochava occurred throughout Argentina as a result of the decree of the Minister of Government and later President Bernardino Rivadavia "Buildings and streets of cities and towns", of December 14, 1821. Almost 4 decades later it was generalized for the first time in Spain thanks to Ildefonso Cerdá, who had studied the case of Buenos Aires and its chamfers for the writing of his work "Theory of the construction of cities, vol. 1". Barcelona, 1859[32] and replicates it in his planimetric design for Barcelona (1856), known as Plan Cerdá, where the chamfers are as long as the conventional streets are wide (20 meters), to allow the non-pronounced turn of vehicles, as they go from having to turn at a right angle to doing so at an obtuse angle. In addition, it allowed better visibility of adjacent roads, and had the additional advantage of relieving traffic at intersections by giving them additional surface. The chamfer was copied by other Spanish urban expansions, becoming widespread in the Iberian Peninsula.
The design of some wider roads, without disturbing the regular grid of 113.3 m, makes it possible to adequately reduce the dimensions of the blocks affected by the widening of the roads, as is the case on the Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas, under which the metro and the train circulate, Aragón Street along which for many years the railway ran in the open air until it was finally buried, Urgel Street and others.
Within the space of each block, Cerdá conceived two basic shapes to locate the buildings, one presented two parallel blocks located on opposite sides, leaving inside a large rectangular space intended for a garden and the other presented two blocks joined in the shape of an "L" located on two contiguous sides of the block, leaving in the rest a large square space also intended for a garden.
The succession of blocks of the first type resulted in a large longitudinal garden that crossed the streets and the grouping of 4 blocks of the second type, conveniently arranged, formed a large built square crossed by two perpendicular streets and with its four gardens united into one.
Special mention deserves the design of the Paseo de Gracia and the Rambla de Cataluña, where in order to respect the old Camino de Gracia and the natural slope of the waters, hence the name rambla, Cerdá laid out only two consecutive roads of special width where in reality, taking into account the layout of 113.3 m there would have to be three streets, in addition the Paseo de Gracia to respect the old layout, is not exactly parallel in the rest of the streets, which makes the Existing blocks between the two mentioned roads, although they are orthogonal in design with chamfers, present irregularities that give them the shape of trapezoids.
To all this we must add the presence of some of a special nature that do not follow the reticular layout but rather cross it diagonally, such as Diagonal Avenue itself, Meridiana Avenue, Parallel, and others that were laid out respecting the existence of old communication routes with neighboring towns.
The dimensions of the blocks are given by the aforementioned distances between the longitudinal axes of the streets and the same width of these roads, so that by establishing a standard width of the roads at 20 meters, the blocks are formed by quadrilaterals of 113.3 meters, their vertices truncated in the form of a chamfer of 15 meters, which gives a block area of 1.24 hectares, contrary to the popular belief of which have an exact area of 1 hectare. The figure of 113.3 meters has had various justifications. Manuel de Solà-Morales considers that the 5 blocks between the old Tallers bastion (current Plaza Universidad) and Jonqueres (current Plaza Urquinaona) are those that mark the factor from which the rest is built.[31].
Cerdà justified the chamfer "Chamfer (architecture)") of the vertices of the blocks from the point of view of the visibility that this gives to road traffic and in a vision of the future in which he was only wrong in the term used to define the vehicle, he spoke of the particular locomotives that would one day circulate through the streets and of the need to create a larger space at each intersection to facilitate the stopping of these locomotives.
The first generalization of the use of the chamfer or ochava occurred throughout Argentina as a result of the decree of the Minister of Government and later President Bernardino Rivadavia "Buildings and streets of cities and towns", of December 14, 1821. Almost 4 decades later it was generalized for the first time in Spain thanks to Ildefonso Cerdá, who had studied the case of Buenos Aires and its chamfers for the writing of his work "Theory of the construction of cities, vol. 1". Barcelona, 1859[32] and replicates it in his planimetric design for Barcelona (1856), known as Plan Cerdá, where the chamfers are as long as the conventional streets are wide (20 meters), to allow the non-pronounced turn of vehicles, as they go from having to turn at a right angle to doing so at an obtuse angle. In addition, it allowed better visibility of adjacent roads, and had the additional advantage of relieving traffic at intersections by giving them additional surface. The chamfer was copied by other Spanish urban expansions, becoming widespread in the Iberian Peninsula.
The design of some wider roads, without disturbing the regular grid of 113.3 m, makes it possible to adequately reduce the dimensions of the blocks affected by the widening of the roads, as is the case on the Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas, under which the metro and the train circulate, Aragón Street along which for many years the railway ran in the open air until it was finally buried, Urgel Street and others.
Within the space of each block, Cerdá conceived two basic shapes to locate the buildings, one presented two parallel blocks located on opposite sides, leaving inside a large rectangular space intended for a garden and the other presented two blocks joined in the shape of an "L" located on two contiguous sides of the block, leaving in the rest a large square space also intended for a garden.
The succession of blocks of the first type resulted in a large longitudinal garden that crossed the streets and the grouping of 4 blocks of the second type, conveniently arranged, formed a large built square crossed by two perpendicular streets and with its four gardens united into one.