CityMakers, The Global Community of Architects Learning from Model Cities and Their Makers is working with Archdaily to publish a series of articles about Barcelona, Medellin, and Rotterdam. The authors are the architects, urban planners, and/or strategists behind the projects that have transformed these three cities and are known in the "Schools of Cities" and "Documentary Courses" made by CityMakers.
There is currently a broad consensus on the importance of public space in the city. Although it may seem quite logical, its significance is not as old as human settlements, which have existed for millennia. The Athens Charter, written just 91 years ago, did not speak so much about the city as a place to live but as a functional machine. Almost a century later, the paradigm has shifted: the city is, above all, its public space. But what happens when public space is threatened by car proliferation, insecurity, or even water?
Citymaking and Public Space
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Barcelona, Joy and Order: The Natural and Artificial Endowments of an Exemplary CityCitymaking is, by definition, the ability of a city to improve its physical environment to offer its citizens better living conditions, specifically in public spaces. A city hall may have limited influence on a residential building, but it can do a lot in its immediate public surroundings. Therefore, citymaking primarily involves creating, renovating, revitalizing, and reclaiming public space. However, threats are looming around this commendable mission: car proliferation and its resulting noise and air pollution, insecurity, and, of course, the climate emergency.
Three exemplary cases offer valuable insights applicable to many cities. They teach us how a city can be transformed in a relatively short time (two decades or even less): in Barcelona, a city constrained by mountains on one side and the sea on the other, little public space was reserved for cars; in Medellin (Colombia), the scarce public space was so insecure that it remained empty and, as such, lifeless; and in Rotterdam, rising sea levels threatened not only public space but the city's survival itself.
Barcelona, A Dense City Generating Public Space Inward Without Demolishing Anything
In citymaking, Barcelona is an emblematic case. The Eixample District's blocks are an ode to order and, why not, the maximum utilization of urban square meters. However, Ildefons Cerdà (Centellas, 1815), who designed this urban layout in the mid-19th century, thought that his plan would not only respond to order or density but also to open space (though it did not necessarily have a public space vocation, it did have a green space one). We should imagine many Eixample blocks not as an "O", but as a "U," an "L," a "T," or even an "I." The result, almost a century and a half later, is a district of over 400 blocks, and almost all of them are shaped like "O"s. So, what does a city do that has no chance to expand and whose land is occupied by blocks leaving minimal opportunity to create public space?
The Superblocks, the Hidden Gardens in City Block Interiors, and The Green Axes are three projects that Barcelona has adopted as models for generating public space and are currently being replicated throughout the city. Thus, more than projects, they are models.
Firstly, Superblocks are urban cells that group several blocks. The streets inside them are pacified, and the corners become small squares, as cars cannot cross them. Secondly, The Hidden Gardens in City Block Interiors, as the name suggests, are block interiors that were once private but are now public with street access. They are hidden gardens within the "O" blocks; to date, out of 400 blocks, 77 have been recovered. Lastly, Green Axes are pacified streets with a significant naturalization component. As the Eixample is a district that occupies a large part of the urban land, its axes traverse almost the entire city from one side to the other; the recently built Consell de Cent stands out. These three model projects have provided public space to a city that seemed to have no place to generate it. Simply put, its streets, corners, and block interiors now have a renewed purpose.
Medellin, The City Once Fragmented by Geography and Violence
Like Barcelona, Medellin stands out in the field of citymaking. Just three decades ago, it had a homicide rate of almost 400 per 100,000 inhabitants; today, it does not exceed 10. While this may seem irrelevant in urban planning, urban planning has played a significant role in this remarkable decline.
Social urbanism is the concept that has guided the citymaking of this South American city in recent years. It involves giving a high social value to public space and action on the city's physical environment, meaning an integrative, participatory, and highly pacifying character. It is urbanism because it acts on the physical realm and social because it integrates previously ghettoized communities and involves them in city construction. Social urbanism aims to bring quality public space, facilities, and urban services to previously marginalized neighborhoods. Now, how did Medellin generate new forms of public space in areas with highly informal morphologies?
Integral Urban Projects (PUIs, by its Spanish acronym), Articulated Life Units (UVAs, by its Spanish acronym), and River Parks are projects developed in Medellin, also in a model manner, meaning they not only intervene in one part of the city but are replicated in almost its entire territory.
Firstly, Integral Urban Projects are operations in a large part of the so-called "Comunas" or slums. They intervene in the natural matrix, their connection with the city, and their built space. They operate on the banks of streams, creating the so-called "linear parks"; they bring public transportation, usually in the form of cablecars due to these neighborhoods are situated on the mountain, and at their stations, squares are generated; "library parks" are built, and hospitals and sports facilities are also brought in, generating public space in their immediate surroundings.
Secondly, Articulated Life Units are former public water tanks numbering in the dozens, now transformed into large parks. Finally, when a river divides the city in two, the city must be stitched back together. This is the premise behind the River Parks project, which has initially stitched together the administrative center with a highly residential area. This area was divided not only by the river but also by a major highway in both directions. The highway has been buried, and the ground level is now a large park. Medellin is, therefore, a noteworthy case when it comes to generating public space and stitching the city together.
Rotterdam, a City that Does Not Fight Against Water But Adapts To It
Rotterdam is a city defined by water: it is located between the Maas and Rhine rivers, with direct access to the North Sea and, consequently, the Atlantic Ocean. What may seem like an undeniable advantage may not be so since 90% of its surface is below sea level, and amid the climate emergency, this is a condition that threatens the city's survival. Added to this are heavy rainfall and the risk of flooding that comes with being situated on a delta, creating an unfavorable context for creating public space.
Contrary to what might be a city threatened by water, water is allowing Rotterdam to create new forms of the city and, therefore, public space. Water is not the question for Rotterdam; it is the answer.
Most of the projects that this city develops involve not only water management but also its optimal utilization. For example, the Dakpark (Dutch for "roof park") is a commercial mall with a green cover over 1 km long. It is, therefore, a public park. Its climatic function includes acting as a barrier against storms affecting a highly residential area, in addition to intelligently collecting rainwater. On the other hand, the "Benthemplein Water Plaza," which functions as a recreational space when dry, also serves as a large reservoir that collects rainwater for redistribution and irrigation, among other things.
Rotterdam also proposes floating surfaces in several areas of its jurisdiction that adapt extraordinarily well to water, such as the Floating Farm or Floating Offices. Although not public, they help us understand the resilient approach that this city has toward water.
In conclusion, Rotterdam does not want to fight against water; it wants to adapt to it and use it to its advantage. It is undoubtedly a case worth emulating in terms of climate action and public space creation.
The New Forms of Public Space
Barcelona, Medellin, and Rotterdam are cities with interesting similarities in citymaking. The recent public space projects developed by each city have primarily contributed to stitching them together. Dead, marginal, and potentially dangerous areas are now integrated spaces in the city and its systems.
These cities seemed to have everything against them to generate new public space. However, their creative capacity has allowed them to develop it in new forms, whether by giving streets or block interiors a new purpose, converting what were once giant water tanks, or burying roads to connect two areas previously divided by a major river and a highway, or by making parks and squares places that do not avoid water but integrate it and, in some cases, move with it.
Barcelona, Medellin, and Rotterdam are masterful cities.
Camilo Osorio is an architect from the Pontifical Bolivarian University and holds a master's degree in urban and territorial development from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia - Barcelona Tech. He has been the co-founder and Executive Director of CityMakers since 2019. For over 20 years, he has worked on architectural and urban projects worldwide, especially in Colombia, Mexico, England, China, and Spain. He has collaborated with local governments in designing and implementing public policies for urban development, public space, social housing, and neighborhood rehabilitation. He has also participated as a speaker in multiple architecture, urban planning, and urban security congresses.
