The trace and slope of the existing path are regularized to solve the lack of connection between nearby neighborhoods Committing boldly for soft mobility and a new Biophilic city; healthy, cleaner, and accessible for people. The new 175-meter long passage has gentle slopes for pedestrians in a renaturalized environment acting as a vantage point over Besós. The path links the pedestrian urban network with the metropolitan free–space system through one of the shortest connections between Barcelona and Montcada.

By establishing a typical section and selecting a reduced material palette we are able to solve a complex project in a simple manner.
The project responds to the characteristics of the site and adapts to each place maintaining vegetation and the existing gradients in the most respectful manner possible. The esplanade next to the Primer de Maig square is also arranged with fruit trees, creating an urban door with an insect hotel.

The site is reassessed by generating a common space between both municipalities, adapting to pre-existing geological and morphological traits, increasing the involvement of citizens and local municipalities.

Three main goals are set in this new and recovered pedestrian connection:

Consolidation of a small path on the eastern slope of the Vallbona hill improves the connectivity of the Metropolis, bringing nature closer to citizens.

In spite of the site’s stark orography, an accessible path is built. When the train tracks are buried, it will be the only connection between Montcada and Barcelona along the Besos river.

The dock–style gangway on stilts maintains the site’s dynamics allowing for the crossing of fauna and keeping continuity with water along with the natural runoff. The 2-meter wide path avoids moving large quantities of earth keeping the site’s orography and respecting the existing pine trees.

In the areas closer to the urban fabric, where the orography is more favorable, the path becomes dam–like with a stone gabion wall to retain and laminate superficial runoff water favoring the sliding stability. The slope is made up of loose slate strata and illegal trash dumping.

n the paradigm shift towards more sustainable mobility encouraged by the Door to Door philosophy, this new path becomes a key connecting site between both municipalities. A space destined for metropolitan mobility but also a meeting point between two previously detached neighborhoods. A new bench anchored on the gangway’s structure and the new vantage point over the Besós River create leisure and meeting spaces with new views towards the natural environment. Arranging the esplanade adjacent to the Primer de Maig square with fruit trees turns it into an urban door where an insect hotel fostering biodiversity is placed

The large slopes of the surroundings and the geology of natural strata, as well as the will to minimize the intervention’s footprint through an easily detachable and recyclable construction system, has become the essence for the project’s materialization. A micropilotis system performed by small-scale machinery avoided the intervention on the natural terrain placing itself over the existing path while maintaining the terrain’s natural drainage. A minimal 11cm thick composite slab is placed over this micropilotis foundation. A light and transparent handrail reduce the project’s ecological impact while increasing the structure’s recyclability.