Marie El Haddad

In the first half of the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution, cities like Paris were faced with health problems brought upon them by the rapid growth of industries and the waves of immigration from rural areas. As a consequence the cities, especially their historic center, suffered from congestion, overpopulation and hygiene that lead to various epidemics. To improve hygiene conditions, measures were taken through major urban developments such as the transformation of Paris under the hands of Baron Haussmann the Prefect of the Seine Department between 1853 and 1870. In accordance with Napoleon III, Haussmann traced Paris's new plan and started with the 'eventrement' of the city's unhealthy neighborhoods by opening large rectilinear and longitudinal streets. In fact, he was continuing the work already proposed by Napoleon I and initiated later by Comte de Rambuteau in 1839 under the same concerns of hygiene. Haussmann's objectives were to embellish and modernize the city, and foremost, to improve living conditions and public health, and provide all citizens with light, air, water, public parks and gardens.
On one hand, he was able to assemble a distinguished team the likes of Alphand, Barillet-Deschamps, Davioud, and Hittorff who created and built the promenades and squares of Paris. Their designs and urban elements
were standardized and systematized becoming an urban model and influencing the cities’ urban design.
The fact that led Remesar to develop the ‘Alphand- Davioud- Hittorff paradigm’ where replicas of their style still predominates in shaping the landscape, spaces, and elements of our historic center.
On the other hand, Haussmann received harsh criticism from political opponents that resulted in his dismissal. Due to the ‘eventrement’, he was criticized for destroying the old parts of the city causing a loss in
historic and monumental buildings and neighborhoods. The new wide open streets and spaces made means of communication hard especially for pedestrians. In addition, he was blamed for social disruption, inequality, and displacement caused by the amounts of demolitions and expropriations. Moreover, he was accused of squandering money over this long and costly procedure and over passing the budget.
However, one cannot deny the fact that many defended him for all the promenades, parks, squares, gardens, and sewage system created without forgetting that these kinds of plans and procedures had already started before Haussmann dating back to the time of Napoleon I.

Barcelona's old town had been suffering from overpopulation, congestion and several epidemic outbreaks that raised awareness concerning urban hygiene. One of the first intents of urban hygiene began when Carlos III and Carlos IV issued Royal Decrees concerning the exhumation of cemeteries. The first prohibited burial grounds next to churches and hospitals and imposed the conversion of existing ones into public squares, and the second enabled the construction of extramural cemeteries away from populated areas. This gave way to many of Barcelona's open spaces and small scale squares. The second intent of creating public spaces was taking advantage of the confiscation of ecclesiastic assets, like the Álvarez Mendizábal's Act (1834-1837) in particular, and the burning of convents in 1835 where the Catholic Church lost a large number of its convents, churches, and colleges to new buildings, streets and squares. In the 19th century, Spain also witnessed a hygienist movement and several doctors and scientists were prominent including Pere Felip Monlau who thoroughly discussed hygiene in all its aspects. Spain, and Barcelona in particular, experienced large waves of immigration coming from rural areas in search of work, and a massive industrial growth. By the 1850's the old town became overpopulated, increasingly dense, unhealthy and degraded, and was left in an unstable political and social tension. Basically, the old town was suffocating within its own walls. Monlau, as did Cerdà after him, described in his writings the drastic living conditions, the occupied spaces and exceedingly high buildings, the lack of sanitary infrastructure, clean water, sunlight and ventilation. He stressed on the importance of creating open spaces, squares and gardens and their impact on improving urban hygiene. He called for the demolition of old town’s Roman Walls and the expansion towards the urban land reserve of ‘Pla de Barcelona’ or Barcelona Plain. After many debates the destruction of the walls began in 1854 and lasted until 1868.

Any city in the world suffers from density problems. From an urbanistic standpoint these problems are related to a shortage of public spaces and the presence of areas in poor conditions of ventilation and light, filled up with degraded buildings and small residual spaces that are misused or transformed into mere parking.
In this final project I am studying small-scale public interventions as a system or method of urban acupuncture and hygiene that has been applied across the districts of Barcelona tackling important problems related to public spaces.
I am studying the process of restoring, urbanizing and converting these degraded areas, that were occupied by "infected" buildings and deteriorated factories, or remained as left over junctions, into useful public spaces, mainly squares and gardens.
My research is based on the concept of urban acupuncture and hygiene. Just like the Asian medical acupuncture heals and unblocks energy channels in the body so does urban acupuncture in a city. Much like the pressure points on a human body, punctual operations on the urban fabric are chosen to apply urban acupuncture causing by that a ripple effect, what Bohigas called metastasis, that provides the city with a chance to breathe in a new positive energy, render a better image and improve the usage of the new public space. In short, offering the citizens a better quality of life.
All the research is based on the "Barcelona Model", where for the last two centuries, urban projects in every corner of the city were being carried out using the same system of urban acupuncture and hygiene.
As case studies, several small-scale public interventions are selected in the districts of Barcelona, and analyzed according to their history, transformation, design approach, usage, choice of materials, urban furniture and greenery.

Small-scale public spaces form an essential part of Barcelona’s urban development. During the beginning of the democratic era, Oriol Bohigas began the reconstruction of the city by creating small-scale public spaces of quality with the purpose of “higienizar el centro y monumentalizar la periferia”. They were applied in all the districts of Barcelona, with the intent of compensating for the loss of open spaces and segregation caused during the dictatorship. Thus, the city gained a series of small public spaces that recovered its urban fabric and provided a better quality of life and coexistence. The means of creating these small-scale public spaces is through the ‘esponjamiento’ of the urban fabric, that involved a selective destruction of specific deteriorated sites and the redevelopment of residual spaces. The study of the historic framework of these operations in Barcelona demonstrates that the creation of small public spaces through ‘esponjamiento’ is attributed to the GATCPAC’s sanitation plan for the old town, and the interventions of Adolf Florensa in the city. This method originated from the concerns of urban hygiene in the 19th century. European industrial cities were suffering from epidemics, overpopulation and insalubrity, and the first measures of urban hygiene were through the ‘eventrement’ of the city, opening it up with large straight axes that crossed though its urban fabric eliminating everything in their path. In Barcelona, the first initiative was by tearing down its walls and expanding into the Plain. Ildefons Cerdà drafted his expansion plan focusing a great deal on hygiene and ventilation and provided the blocks in his grid with small-scale interior courtyards. As for the old town, early measures were taken through the ‘eventrement’ of the old fabric initially proposed by Cerdà and later redeveloped by Àngel Baixeras. Thus, began the opening of the Via Laietana that resulted in the loss of large amounts of historic and monumental buildings. From that moment, the creation of small-scale public spaces through ‘esponjamiento’ was born as an alternative solution to large-scale demolitions and expropriations. And thanks to this procedure Barcelona gained a network of small-scale public spaces that still play an important role in our present day.