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Barcelona Parks
Barcelona, with its mild weather and dense medieval center, is renowned for its parks and open spaces. Besides the beaches, the Rambles and Parc Güell are the most famous of these. See above for a description of the Rambles. See separate article on Parc Güell (1914), the large fantastical park designed by Antoni Gaudí for a housing estate and opened to the public in 1922.
The site of the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929 and 1930, the Parque de Montjuïc was laid out by engineer Jean C. N. Forestier and architect Nicolas M. Rubio Tuduri. It is chiefly notable now for the cultural institutions that use the former palaces and exposition buildings. The German Pavilion, a landmark of modern architecture designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for this Exhibition was exhaustively reconstructed on its original site in 1986. Montjuïc Stadium was renovated and expanded by Vittorio Gregotti for the 1992 Olympic Games.
In 1983 the Plaça dels Països Catalans in front of the Sants railway station was redesigned by Helio Piñon Pallares and Albert Vaiplana Vea in pink granite paving with an undulating metal pergola and various hard furnishings that have become popular with skateboarders. At the same time, the neighboring Vapor Neu factory, was converted into the Parque de la España Industrial for public recreation. This park, designed by Luis Peña Ganchegui and Fancesc Rius Camps and completed in 1985 integrated the industrial shapes of the site with a dominant water feature and displays of sculpture.
Since 1983 a formal program of park creation has been carried out by the Mancomunitat de Municipis de l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. The purpose of this program has been to reclaim space for the public which is threatened either by neglect or overdevelopment. Typically these new parks are carefully designed by architects, planners and landscape architects concerned not just with functional elements, but also with the unique characteristics of the site and its position in a layered understanding of the city. Though the budgets may be small, the level of ingenuity and care in design and implementation is often very high. Some examples (note that many are not in Barcelona per se but on its metro area):
Carrer Brasil, 1996, Olga Tarraso and Jordi Hernrich. A ramble built over parking spaces.
Parc del Torrent Ballesters (Viladecans), 1997, Arturo Frediani/SOB Associates. The design recaptures the pattern of agricultural use using beds of flowering plants. Trees and a pool strengthen the sensual escape from the surrounding city.
Parc de Canserra (Barberà del Vallès), 1996, Studio BCQ
Parc de Torrent Congost (Granollers), 1996, Enric Battle and Joan Roig. A narrow linear park defined by hedge walls and a grid of trees on the bank of the Congost River.
Upgrading of Parc de Torreblanca, the historical site of an urban farm.
Fontsana, Sant Joan Despi on the site of a former refuse dump.
Parc del Besós, La Mina housing estate
Parc de les Planes, located at the boundary of three districts.
Parc del Litoral, at the mouth of the River Besos
Parc de la Creueta del Coil, 1987, Oriol Bohigas, Josep Martorell, David Mackay, architects.
Parc Nou del Prat, on the Llobregat delta, adjoining Sant Cosme and the airport
This program of planned parks is often among the civic improvements for which the city actively seeks international events as spurs for redevelopment. For example, the upgrades to Montjuïc and the seaside industrial areas for the 1992 Olympic Games were accompanied by the building of recreational facilities in other parts of the city lacking development. One notable site is the Vall d'Hebron, a deep ravine in the foothills of the Collserola range north of the city. The urban design by Eduard Bru created a terraced sequence of belvedere-like platforms with views of the city.
Extract from Wikipedia
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