Introduction

The city is perceived from the car, on foot, from the subway, the bus, the train or the tram. Some of these fluxes produce great collective areas which can communicate certain meanings and accommodate all sorts of activities. However, the exclusively functional design approach of most of these spaces hinders the emergence of new uses and accentuates their segregation. At the same time, transportation infrastructure is subject to the requirements of an increasingly efficient mobility. The relentless demand for better performances triggers the creation of new structures and the improvement of the existing ones. This can further aggravate conflicts, as the long planning and construction time spans creates provisional situations that may last for years, even decades. Meanwhile, the city carries on.

To explore the challenges that mobility poses to architects and planners, the workshop employs the Cinemetrics theory. This method, inspired by cinema’s visual treatment of matter-flux, offers an ethnographic approach of closely observing and documenting the movement, gestures and rhythms of everyday life. Students team up with counterparts from other schools of architecture to carefully observe and register the everyday life of these spaces. From the present conditions, they identify opportunities to enhance the urban potentialities of these great collective spaces. Their findings and reflections are the base for an intervention on a few selected sites.

The proposed explorations or localities cover different geographical and historical areas. The selection, which seeks to highlight the transitions and intermediate states, is based on four different temporal phases or situations: in progress, indeterminate, in operation and obsolete. Plaça de les Glòries illustrates the space under construction, the L9 stations serve as an example of uncertainty, the viaduct of the motorway C-31 in Sant Adrià embodies the fully operational structure, while Estació de França represents the out-of-date one. The background is the city of Barcelona, a singular and old city that stands out for its conscious relationship with its landscape.

Cinemetrics 02: In Operation _ C-31 viaduct

Lee Cheng Ju, Chen Yen Jung, Marta Bonet 
[ground floor base plan by Toni Vidal]

Cinemetrics 01: In Operation _ C-31 viaduct

Biagio Cardella, Ting-jia Zhang

Explorations: In Operation _ C-31 viaduct

The elevated sections of urban expressways can define great roofs for street activities. Under the viaduct of the motorway C-31 in Sant Adrià del Besòs, between the Besòs River and Badalona, near the old town of Sant Adria and its extension, takes place the Mercat del Encants de Sant Adrià, a twenty years old street market with over 900 stalls. In Badalona, next to the official market of Sant Adrià, pops up, like in many other flea markets, the so-called ‘misery market’, where spontaneous vendors exhibit second and third hand items. The space under the viaduct also accommodates a tram stop called Encants de Sant Adrià and functions every day as a public parking area, except Tuesdays morning. The workshop aims at intensifying the use of the space defined by the infrastructure. Students and professors will consider both the improvement of the existing activities and the introduction of new ones related to the neighborhoods around and/or the motorway itself.