To Paraphrase...A Tale of Two Parks

Parc Diagonal Mar, by EMBT Architects

Open spaces are the foundations of redevelopment strategies in Barcelona.  We've visited and studied two large and contrasting parks, each with their attributes and shortcomings. The youngest of the two is Parc Diagonal Mar (2002) which centers a Corbusian landscape of residential towers. The park's metaphorical tentacles connect the district to the nearby seafront. Highlights within the park included tubular lights & misters. Suspended planters incorporated Barcelona ceramics, where upon close inspection, actually was of crushed bottles, cans and the designers' initials.  The older of the two is Parc Clot (1986), which is in the midst of a blue-collar neighborhood. Built to replace obsolete railyards and warehouses, the park includes traditional hard and softscapes. Central to Clot was the retention of industrial architectural fragments to provide focal points at the park edges. One warehouse arched masonry wall was converted into the illusion of it being an aquaduct spilling out into a pond. Both parks illustrate a design intention for high usage at night, when nearby residents spill out into park for the evening promenade.

Parc El Clot by Freixas & Miranda, 1986