Barcelona is the steal-ideas city for the world’s best town planners who cannot believe how correctly it has expanded through a plan model built four centuries ago. From a vibrant walking culture, to integrated work-home-market spaces, it has cut down not only the 100 bus routes to a compact 26 but also managed to keep mobility of the local population to the minimum with a 30 per cent cut in car traffic. MEENAKSHI RAO walks around Barcelona to tell you how this model can be used to bring sanity back to Delhi
The best thing about Barcelona is not just its iconic football club and stadium. It is not even the rare opportunity of spotting one Mr lionel Messi walking casually down its most famous people’s street in the world – la Rambla. What is greater than the rich history, culture and vivacity of Barcelona is how its town planners have kept it small, straight and simple despite all the growing up that Barca has seen since the iconic town planner Iidefons Cerda devised a development plan for it in the 1800s.
Here’s one example. While all cities in the world are going upwards, into underground and onto extensive bus transport systems, Barcelona has been orchestrating an unbelievable revolution. Not only is it in the midst of cutting down its 100 bus feeder lines crisscrossing the city to a compact 26, but also watching how public mobility on its wide clean roads is reduced to the minimum.
Of course, this would be unimaginable for Delhi and its planners, what with some of its work force commuting distances upwards of 40 km one way to office (Greater Noida to Gurgaon or vice versa). You tell Barcelona’s chief town architect Vincente Guallart about this and he looks genuinely stunned. He, however, insists that the only route to go for Delhi still is to cut down on mass public mobility.
“Traditional town planners may find this an impossible argument but no amount of elevated roads, bus routes or even the metro can stand the test of an expanding city. It has to come alongside a clear vision of fighting all odds and devising a way to reduce local public mobility to the minimum,” he says.
And how does Barcelona do thatIJ For one, it has given up the official, commercial, residential segregation that is the norm the world over. “That entails a long haul for daily commuters, which clogs traffic eternally,” Vincente points out. Barcelona being a tourist city, has put the residential and office blocks together with localised marketplaces so that the working population has no need to take its cars out. To that, it has added a vibrant cycling culture which blooms on its wide-as-road cycle lanes.
Above all, with long awareness campaigns, inculcated in the manifestoes of all political dispensations for the past four centuries, Barcelona has determinedly changed the thinking of its populace, turning it into a walk-loving population. It has doggedly stuck to its original plan and has dedicated 50 per cent of street space to pedestrians and the other 50 per cent to the rest of all forms of traffic.
Guallart refuses to believe that the whole of Delhi refuses to walk. “There has to be a reason and that must lie in the absence of safe walking places and also the noise and vehicular pollution which can deter even bravehearts from taking that long stride,” he points out.
Perhaps, if Delhi had even one la Rambla, it would have loved to walk. This street shows how Cerda and his futuristic plan model made walking an irresistible affair. The five-km-long straight street sprawling across the heart of Barcelona is unique in many ways. As nowhere in the world, the two-road broad pedestrian way is right in the middle of this three-laned space with the two narrower motorable streets flanking it on either side, extending into quaint shopping walkways. You may talk of london’s Oxford Street, but la Rambla, sitting pretty on wide avenues and open boulevards, is nothing short of inspirational for all cities worldwide, especially those with a tourist economy. It has made “rambling” an essential do in Barcelona, which basically meaning walking around most of the city.
Barcelona’s uniqueness lies in the fact that it has consistently thought about the city not as a town planner but as a citizen with needs. Its legendary planner Cerda may have died a pauper in 1876, not paid by the Government for his elaborate plan blueprint that Barcelona follows even four centuries after him, but his theme of basing the city entirely on well-lived public life has made Barca the world’s most successful and inspirational city acclaimed globally for its innovative town planning. Such was this civil engineer-turned-architect’s democratic approach on developing all communities and areas into safe, clean and prosperous neighbourhoods that he was even accused of socialism by the rich and the famous, especially property owners.
But even today, Guallart an unabashed Cerda fan, tells you how not a single building, high on the rise or otherwise, can come up in Barcelona if it does not follow strictly specified parameters of length and width. It has to be built in a manner in which sunlight filters on every floor through every window and door! And, in any case, it cannot be more than nine stories, much like Cerda had planned.
If you compare Delhi to Barcelona, the latter indeed has advantages. “All the migration into the city, unlike Delhi, happened and ended in the 1960s. Intra-nation influx, thus, is no problem,” Guallart says. Other than that, there is no scope of any big boundary expansion of the city as it is flanked on all four sides with natural barriers. There is the Pyrennes mountain range on the north, the sea on the south and two rivers closing up the space on the east and the west.
So, for this Catalunyan gem of Spain to have expanded, adapted and changed to times so cleverly it is a feat in itself. Its 5 million tourists every year and its 1.5 million population will vouch for its cautiously built three lives over five centuries – the first which Cerda unfolded in 1859, the second when the Olympics reformed its old quarters and opened up the seafront a little bit in 1992 and the third, ongoing one which is coming up with its hitech zone and hyper community.
“But through all this, we will never forget our 520 street blocks and our initial garden city of 1859 and all expansions will be based on that module only,” Guallart says. For all the modernism Gaudi has given to Barcelona, it is stunning how it still has managed to stick to its basics and given its aam aadmi the centrestage of all considerations.
Now cowering to aggressive property dealers, no bowing down to expansionist complaints, no bias of benefits only to rich neighbourhoods, an eco-awareness and a walking culture, that’s all you need to build a true urban legend.
‘Delhi needs to localise public mobility’
VINCENTE GUAllART is Barcelona’s chief architect who has been working overtime to keep up the planning standards of his city which is a role model for big town developers all over the world. MEENAKSHI RAO met up with him in Barcelona to seek some answers for the traffic madness that is Delhi. Excerpts of the conversation:
Do you think for expanding cities like Delhi, metro rails, dedicated rapid bus corridors and other public transport systems is the right way to goIJ
A city is a complex system and should not grow in an unplanned or localised manner. The first question in a big city is whether you want to grow in the periphery or you want to promote other cities around you, like creating satellite cities which Paris did.
Cities that are too big to organize a good life for their citizen are unviable and unsafe cities. For cities like Delhi, which was built long back and has been incoherently expanding ever since, the way to go is to keep constantly upgrading itself. So to make new metro lines or bus corridors is a good strategy but there is also need to localise public mobility. The question of mobility in a city is related to where its people live and how far they are commuting to work.
If a city has a segregated functionality (residential areas away far from office areas), collapse is as good as guaranteed. So, the trick is – alongside developing a new transportation system, one should start to think about making neighbourhoods of mix use so that people move lesser and lesser to go to work.
What have you envisaged for Barcelona and what measures are you taking to keep the city away from traffic jamsIJ
Barcelona wants to reduce private mobility by 30 per cent in the next 20 years. So, the new public transportation system is based on the new bus grid, shared cars and even shared bikes are being promoted. Individual cars are still part of Barcelona’s industrial culture but we are at present engaged in developing a new ecological culture for our city which will go a long way in reducing traffic on our roads by increasing eco awareness among our citizens.
Do you think that it is always right for a city to grow upwards, like skyscrapersIJ
Growing upwards is a good strategy to densify the city in its central areas where train lines etc make it more accessible. But tall buildings should have a ground floor that should be very active. New York is a good example of a city with tall buildings and a lot of urban activity on the ground floor.
What are the revolutionary measures you are taking to shape up BarcelonaIJ
The most important step is to have a new mantra which defines what we want to be: We want to become a self-sufficient city organized with productive neighbourhood at human speed inside a hyper-connected zero emissions city. We want that industry comes back to the city, but in a new way related to digital fabrication. We want that all buildings produce the energy that they need. We want that green areas are in every part of the city.
We want to reduce 30 per cent of space for cars in the city. And we want that all parts of the city to be connected by good public transportation system based on good technologies.
What route do you think Delhi’s planners should take considering the megapolis is expanding by the minute and influx of migrants never stopsIJ Have you visited DelhiIJ If yes, do you think it can be brought back to sanityIJ
The world over, we need a new vision for big cities. We need to promote the neighbourhoods aggressively, in your case Noida, Gurgaon, and Faridabad. We cannot have cities with great centres and very poor areas in the periphery. We should make the best mix of slow cities (like eco-districts) with smart cities. The solution is to think of Delhi not just as Delhi but as a network of small cities.
Is there an innovative way to deal with planning issues of safety, traffic and ease of accessIJ
The first step for urbanity is a good street as it is the most used public place. You need to have good streets with infrastructures that are very clean and very efficient. Housing, is the second most crucial aspect of a well-planned city.
Your town planning ideas are out of the ordinary. Where did you get them from, especially about cutting down bus lines, not constructing metros and the likeIJ
Barcelona has a long tradition of its people thinking about the city and its future. So we are focussed on developing rational methods of urbanity. The School of Barcelona and the Institute of Advanced Architecture are two places where there is constant research on the future of our city. Basically, when future arrives, we are ready for it. And the other thing (and may be the most important) is that we have very strong politicians who have a clear vision of transforming our city in a way that the quality of life of our citizens is upgraded.
Barcelona is a city where every economic or social evolution is reflected in its public space. There are many cities where the benefits only accrue to the richest neighbourhoods. But we insist on a democratic approach which has worked wonders for us.
Since Barcelona is a role model in urban planning, we are constantly engaged in sharing our knowledge with other cities and our City Protocol preaches collective progress of all cities around the world. I think India is a great upcoming nation which should work hard at upgrading its cities in a manner that offers a better life to its citizens.
Is it possible to bring about the required changes in a fully developed city like DelhiIJ Will it not be impossible to reverse the thinking on infrastructure development when it has been already done in a certain mannerIJ
Yes, it’s possible. In periods of industrialisation, cities tend to increase the space for cars. In fact, many cities in Spain, Barcelona included, had elevated roads in the city, because the popular perception was that with more car space, the traffic would work better. But this is not true at all. More space for cars means more cars and then more collapse. This is the reason why we are pulling down all our elevated roads. The last one we will demolish will be the one in Plaza de la Glorias.
A city starts were the highways end. In New York City, for example, planners were thinking of building a highway in the 5th Avenue in the 50s but they stopped midway, for the same reasons I gave you above. If you want to improve the infrastructure of Delhi, you need to change the way the city works. You need to reduce what we call ‘the obligated mobility’. People should move less, so you should improve public transportation and reorganise the city’s activities.