Azorín street & square redevelopment design achieves three goals:
1. To bring pedestrians back their unquestionable leading role in the public space of our cities. To achieve this, the roadway that divided the square into two unconnected spaces (one of them practically unusable due to its slope of over 4%) was removed as well as both parking lanes at Azorín st. to convert it into a pedestrian priority zone, with wide sidewalks that dignify building accesses.
2. to restore the identity of the neighborhood and enhance the sense of belonging & community. The central space was increased by almost 50% (from 350m2 to 550m2) in a steeply sloping part of town, thanks to an accurate elevation analysis. Physical and visual continuity with the surrounding streets remained. The final result is a new “Plaza Mayor”: a unique, continuous, open-space area, a place for meeting, sharing and interacting.
3. To recover physical and visual continuity and improve accessibility. All brick walls that divided the square into different fragmented spaces were removed and replaced by vegetated slopes as a new boundary between the central space and the surrounding streets. The increase of green area in differentiated strata (a dry, flowering meadow and a new canopy) up to 25% of the total surface of the square enhance biodiversity and promotes rainwater infiltration, recovering the water cycle through green ditches (SDUS) as toe drain, which allow the aquifers to be refilled.
Contributors: Quim Bosch, architect; Lourdes Romeo, architect; Elisabeth Torregrosa, Civil Engineer; Carmela Torró, structures
Contributors AMB (Barcelona Metropolitan Area): Jordi Bardolet, Núria Saura,Carles Villasur
Photography: Quim Bosch
Project location: 1 Azorin Square, Badalona (Spain) ” 41.440482″,” 2.215412″
Design year: October 2018
Year Built: December 2020