Sculpture as Playground: Barcelona

While I was in Barcelona for the landscape Biennial this past month I found a quirky neighborhood called V---. While I was there I asked some local residents if there were any more interesting neighborhoods like this. One girl sent me to an area near the Sants station. While exploring I found this amazing park called Parc de l'Espanya Industrial (Park of Spanish Industry... no wonder I liked it!)

It had a large lake, tall cylindrical towers, the use of which were unclear to me, and a large modern sculpture. Well I thought it was just a sculpture until I got closer and saw that it was a playground! You could climb through the mouth of a dragon and slide down the tail. There are also multiple other slides going in different directions. One slide is actually closed from the top and can only be accessed from the bottom as a skate ramp. Afterwards I went walking through the neighborhood and found a nice plaza. But on my way back to the metro I was amazed to see the variety of activity in the rest of the park. There were women dancing in traditional Catalan dress, people playing soccer, paddle, and roller skating. It was exactly what you want to see in a park, multiple user groups and activities all at once! 

from a distance it looks like a sculpture in a plaza

entry through the dragon's mouth

and the structure looked different from every angle 
















sculpture as skate ramp

the tail as slide goes over the water

The street design was very pedestrian oriented. Most had one lane of traffic, one lane of parking and palms all down one side. And when the street met the plaza the parking stopped and the sidewalk bumped out to fill that space with additional palms and benches. The street also ramped up for an on-grade pedestrian crossing. 

Then I went to Placa d'Osca nearby which was really very nice. It has rows of trees that were not entirely regular that you could tell have been replaced over time (some are very old and some younger). There was space for cafes to have tables outside and some open space where young children were riding bikes and playing ball. I sat at a cafe for awhile and watched. It was a simple space but well proportioned and used. The plaza had some great graffiti (above) and waitresses with really amazing dreadlocks. It was an interesting way to end my trip to Barcelona

Disappointment and Discovery in Barcelona: Part 1

So this past week I had the opportunity to attend the European Landscape Biennial in Barcelona to represent Landscape Architecture Magazine. I was in the conference most of the trip but had a free day to finally see the design mecca of Barcelona. My first experience on the way to my hotel was a walk from Cataluyna Plaza along the famed Las Ramblas. And I'm sure this happens with many things that are long awaited and held up on a pedestal, I was disappointed. There I was finally standing in the perfect public space of my undergraduate dreams and this is what I saw.

Sorry for the fuzzy photo but it was nighttime and raining. It was a sea of tourists and tacky souvenir shops. During the day it was lined with human statues and the men selling those annoying squeaky mouthpieces and glowing slingshot helicopter toys just like in Madrid. In the daytime there were some traces of the flower shops that used to line it (the exotic animal sellers have disappeared). And I was told that locals still go there on Sundays and to the Boqueria market. 

It had all been built up too much in my mind. The scale of pedestrian space and canopy of London Planes was still nice but not so different compared to what I have seen in some other European cities. In the US this is more rare and may have been more impressive if I had come to Barcelona ten years ago. Now it is lined with casinos, sex shops, hostels, and overpriced restaurants. Just a few blocks west into Raval and you are out of the fray and everything costs half as much. But like New York, locals don't go to Times Square, the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty unless visitors are in town.

All that to say that most often I am disappointed by the things I have planned to see and totally blown away by the things that I didn't know existed. But this is the way of life isn't it? So here are the things I didn't expect but made my trip amazing.

I was headed to the Vallcarca metro stop near Park Guell and saw this amazing graffiti in a random residential neighborhood (same name as metro stop).

There was a community garden in an empty lot

 as well as a homemade bocce ball court.

A great little place painted lime green! The neighborhood was only a few blocks in total but I met some nice girls and they told me that many of the buildings were very old and they had been torn down to accommodate new development. But the crisis hit and the lots remained empty so they were used for other interesting things by the creative neighborhood residents. The girls also pointed me to another interesting neighborhood but I'll save that for Part 2!