Barcelona - Tuesday

We started the day by visiting parc Diagonal Mar by EMBT and Edaw with the twisting turning steel drawing you to the central lake. Due to the Olympic games in 1992 there was large investment and development to reconnect Barcelona to the coast, and parc Diagonal Mar was created on one of the last brown field sites in 1996. The park is at the centre of a 212 acre development. Parc Diagonal Mar is split in two by Taulat Street and because it is at the centre of the development that has offices, residential housing and a convention centre, it has to be enjoyable for all ages . There are three playgrounds one for the under 6's, another called the magic mountain and the basketball courts, and the rest of the park is covered by a lake, winding steel, grass levels and seating.


International Forums of cultures 2004 took place in Barcelona and that meant that Barcelona had an excuse to regenerate part of the city creating the Forum. The forum included the Forum Building, Photovoltaic sculpture and South-East Coastal Parc.

I've seen South-East Coastal parc by Teresa Gali in magazines and it looked really interesting with the dividing paths creating barriers out of hard materials. The parc Quote 'explores strategies that produce complex landscapes through artificially generated topographies via mediated integration of rigorously modelled spaces'. In reality though the park was disappointing due to the amount of disrepair, and the derelict nature means that the activities that are meant to be encouraged, like skate boarding and running, just can't happen because the slabs creating the paths were cracked and uneven and weeds were growing through the gaps. The planting had been neglected and was running riot. The good area of the site was the connection to the sea by creating areas of quiet water and access to the water. One area that did alarm me was the use of polished marble as people exited the water on the pontoons.



The Pavello by Mies Van Der Rohe was exceptional and something I've seen in books but have always wanted to see in really life.