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This article covers topics related to Visionary Architecture, Concept Architecture, Concrete art, Hybrid Architecture, Planning Concept, Architectural Resolution. Hyperblock - Result Story

Rethinking Cerda's Legacy

Urbanization has led to cities being overcrowded and cramped. Barcelona, a city known for its unique planning is slowly becoming a victim of uncontrolled urbanization. It has always been a walled city since it was founded as ‘Barcino’. In the middle ages, with growing urbanization the city couldn’t contain its population so an order was passed to expand the walls. In 1854, to deal with the rapid growth of the city the Spanish government finally gave the order to take down the walls. As soon as the walls were demolished, plans began for the expansion of the city to promote the Ensanche Project (Eixample District) giving rise to the ‘City of Cerda’.

In 1855, Ildefons Cerda’s utopian plan was approved by the central Spanish government. The design envisioned a rationalized open city, with a grid of wide streets. What was unique about Cerda’s grid was the refusal to address hierarchies apart from few exceptions (diagonal avenues and the Gran Via). The goal was to combine rural living (green spaces, ventilation, fresh air, community) and urban living (commerce, facilities, culture) So what made the humanitarian marvel collapse?

Cerda imagined a garden city for Barcelona but with the growing demands of the population, the majority of the land was covered for construction. As a result, green spaces disappeared, roads became narrower, provision of sunlight and ventilation and therefore psychological well-being was compromised.

What was once a design to make Barcelona healthier, now has to be dramatically rethought for the same reasons.

A city like Barcelona is meant to attract people. As a result, it is one of the densest cities in Europe. Population density is deemed to grow in the coming years as more and more people are moving to cities in search of better opportunities. Is there an alternative design scheme to attain controlled urbanization?

Cerda 20 invites visionary ideas for redesigning the city with one of the most unique plans, set in the distant future, ‘2050’. The brief is set up to identify what should have been and what it can be in the future.

Brief: Musing over the culture and heritage of Barcelona, redesign Cerda blocks, recognizing the current and possible social and environmental challenges. Also plan pedestrian and vehicular movement around it.

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals, and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows:

Pepe Gascón, Principal, Pepe Gascón Arquitectura, Spain

JOAN ROIG DURAN, Architect / Founding Partner, Battle I Roig Arquitectura, Spain

Joaquín Alvado Bañón, Associated Proffesor / Architectural designer, Joaquín Alvado & Associates, Spain

Pere Buil, Principal, Vora, Spain

Team212020 12 24T12 41 56 579542

Some of the Best of competition projects as follows:

Winning Project: ProEixample_4.0

By: Paul Strobel, Jochen Schumacher & Max Blake

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Description: Taking inspiration from a previously implemented, gratification movement in Barcelona, and using the Superblock scheme as a basis for investigation, ProEixample_4.0 poses the following questions: What does one do with the leftover road-area in a "car-free" city? And how could this new area be used to greenify the urban realm?

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People’s Choice: Garden block

By: Дмитрий Цатуров, настя шкарупа, Irina Tormysheva & Vlad Vorontsov

Team212020 12 24T12 46 06 633837

Description: "Hyper-block" is a fractal composition that combines 9 historical blocks into one united space. The main idea is the transition from one block function to multifunctionality. New blocks can be universal and transform depending on the situation and specific historical value. By combining additional space appears between the blocks, for public needs.

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Editor’s Choice: Barcelonas vein

By: Veronika Felix

Team212020 12 24T12 42 47 067278

Description: This project reinterprets the work of Ildefons Cerda in a modern way and improves Barcelona's situation in terms of ventilation, noise pollution, and accessibility.

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Editor’s Choice: GREEN GRID

By: Nikolai Werner, Daniel Branchereau, Vassilissa Airaudo & Moritz Scharwaechter

Team212020 12 24T12 42 55 862051

Description: The concept is based on the GREEN GRID, a public open space, which creates a spacious passage in the planning area and defines points of contact with the surroundings. The GREEN GRID forms a balance to the built-up area, incorporates a variety of different social, urban climate, and mobility functions, and in this way the backbone of the concept is formed.

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Editor’s Choice: Manzana Morphosis

By: Ruben Andersen

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Description: Reshaping the blocks of Cerda as a future urban garden landscape - this project is a development and re-imagining of the manzanas and grid of Eixample - a future solution that can address and handle issues of sustainability and liveability.

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Editor’s Choice: COMMU[C]ITY

By: Florentina Anastasia

Team212020 12 24T12 43 17 455958

Description: Commu[C]ity aims to create integrated-compact urban infrastructures, restore nature in urban forms, reduce carbon emissions and vehicular footprints, and promote future mobility models. Commu[C]ity is an urban form of rethinking land use plan by providing Cerda Towers, a new way to live-work-play just in your next door.

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Editor’s Choice: An urban social network

By: Ivette Caveli

Team212020 12 24T12 43 27 557128

Description: Our proposal implies a way to design the city thinking of all population segments, from little kids that start to discover their neighborhood to senior citizens that hardly go out anymore because their needs have changed. We designed a main collective adaptable space for different programs accompanied by a series of niche public spaces within housing blocks.

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Editor’s Choice: HYPERBLOCK

By: Vicky Daroca

Team212020 12 24T12 44 16 265271