![]() ![]() In recognition of this collective effort, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) broke with tradition in 1999 and awarded the City of Barcelona – and not an individual or group of architects – the royal gold medal. In the space of two decades much was achieved. This translated into a focused programme of interventions that gave dignity to deprived neighbourhoods – such as the working-class district of Poble Nou – and made the dense inner-city districts more liveable, with pocket parks, markets, play areas and local amenities. ![]() “Monumentalise the periphery functionalise the centre” was Bohigas’ linguistically obtuse slogan for re-energising Barcelona. In 1999 the city was awarded the RIBA royal gold medal. Bohigas re-interpreted this model for the 20th century, upgrading the public realm, intensifying its local neighbourhoods and reuniting the city with its seafront on the Mediterranean.Īerial view of the maritime neighbourhoods of Barcelona, with the Olympic Village designed by Oriol Bohigas’s practice, MBM, in the foreground. With its tree-lined avenues and pedestrian friendly ramblas, generous public spaces and community parks, Cerdà’s Grid served the city well. He was committed to innovation through continuity rather than aggressive rupture and restructuring, and recognised that the public spaces of the city – the pavements, streets, squares, parks, beaches and waterways – should be at the heart of a democratic vision of the contemporary city.īohigas built on the canonical work of the father of modern urbanism, Ildefonso Cerdà, who in the mid-19th century had created a plan for the growing city with an elegant and functional diagonal grid known as the Eixample. Working closely with the first socialist mayors of the post-Franco era, Narcís Serra and Pasqual Maragall, Bohigas created the intellectual and spatial armature for its transformation. With the death of Franco in 1975, Barcelona had grasped the opportunity to democratise and modernise. ![]()
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