Gallina Blanca Block planning in Sant Joan Despí
Specific modification of the General Metropolitan Plan in the block around the Cercanías station
Richard Sennet laments in Constructing and Housing that contemporary urban planning has become a broken discipline, divided between knowledge about building and knowledge about living. To overcome this split, we may have to return to the origins of the discipline, as in the times of the modern movement when both of these types of knowledge were inseparable. We must build an open, inclusive, healthy, porous, habitable city that is full of interactions and infiltrations instead of the model of closed borders that dominates the modern metropolis; where urban habitats are cut up into parts separated by traffic flows and by isolation between areas of different uses or income levels.
An inclusive city
The necessary environmental revolution that we are proposing must affect the way of making a city, coinciding with the social revolution that we are experiencing in this century. The awareness of inequalities caused by economic status, gender, functional diversity, racialisation or age must also lead to a reflection on the role that urban planning can play in mitigating these inequalities.
Healthy public spaces
Biophilic cities are defined as cities that contain abundant sources of nature, cities that care about protecting and restoring the natural world and which strive to foster deep connections with the natural world to facilitate their enjoyment on a permanent basis. Batlleiroig puts nature at the centre of its decision-making due to the deep respect we have for the territory and because we believe that it is the best strategy to improve the health and well-being of people.
Healthy public spaces / Related projects
Well buildings, the user at the center
The buildings must achieve spatial, physical and material comfort, which in turn fosters the health and well-being of its users. The project for the Administrative Campus of the Catalan government is the first building in Catalonia to have LEED Platinum and WELL certifications. But more important than these certifications and in line with our “LEED is not enough” criteria, it is a place designed to offer the best conditions to its users, even during the pandemic.
