Form to Surface

The idea of a central garden or park for a city is not in any way new, but the qualities of this garden have developed new concepts from a form base to surface base design. In, Barcelona the Ciutadella Parka and Botanical Garden are the perfect demonstration of this because they share a duality with each other. Both were built on old military forts, and where also built for large expos. Plus the designs for these two parks use the different concepts. The Ciutadella park takes on form, where the Botanical garden takes on a surface. These two differences create different walking experiences.   

During time that the Ciutadella Park was built, the form of the garden was very import to the design. The park was base off of the French gardens, their designs come off more commanding, with use strong geometric shapes, and the agriculture on the same form, being perfectly trimmed. The new thought behind gardens today is shown in the Botanical Garden, of “landscape urbanism.” The use of territories defines the layout of the garden, and the plants are the focus behind the design. The plants are allowed to grow naturally, unlike in the Ciutadella park where the plants are forced to conform to the design. Ciutadella Park is organized a long a flat plan, which is broken up by the paths, compared to the Botanical Gardens which works on many different surfaces (organized the different territories); here the paths mark where the surfaces break. The play in surfaces creates a more dynamic feel while walking, where as the flat and form base design of the Ciutadella creates a more commanding feeling while walking.

Barcelona vs. Granada (Southern Spain)

            Our tour of Southern Spain took us thought many smaller cities such as Granada. These smaller cities have tiny streets that are not organized, and have not grown since the end of the 19^th century. This seems very different when compared with a city like Barcelona, which is larger and has wider streets that are laid out in a grid plan. It is clear to see why Barcelona was able to enter the 20^th century with its modern plan whereas Granada remains mostly historical since it has only an ancient city plan.

            The organized growth of Barcelona was because of Ildefons Cerda’s plan for the Eixample. This organization for the city allowed for infrastructure to be laid out, public transportation to be put in as well as other necessities that would be needed for a city in the 20^th century, which would be able to support a large population that would be working in factories, plants and shops. Granada’s city plan on the other hand, does not quite allow for such infrastructure. The streets grow in random directions because they were expanded when needed, this leads them to rarely be oriented in a straight line. This makes it very hard to build the infrastructure that would be needed for the city to grow, since they would have to tear down so much of the old city to build a new city.

            These two different city plans have thus given two different results. The organized city plan of Barcelona allows the city to develop past its ancient city plan into a modern layout whereas Granada’s ancient plan has kept the city on a much smaller scale.

Barcelona City 

Granada City