Urbanism of open spaces
Landscape, leisure and production
- Date:
- 27.03.14
- Municipality:
- Santa Coloma de Gramenet
- Venue:
- Auditori Can Roig i Torres
Second Workshop
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- PendingPending
- AnnouncedAnnounced
- In progressIn progress
- DoneDone
Urbanism of open spaces: landscape, leisure and production
Ever since the approval of the Metropolitan General Plan (PGM) in the seventies, open spaces have taken on an increasingly prominent role in our cities. If back then they were defended as elements of protection and preservation, today they are asserted as spaces of leisure, as valuable places of unique production and, especially, an essential part of the metropolitan landscape. Natural parks, rivers, green corridors, gardens and urban parks, beaches, the coastline…they are all key elements for the quality of metropolitan Barcelona.
This second workshop served to present and discuss the concepts and instruments used to develop open spaces, with the goal that the metropolitan Urban Master Plan may find an adequate synthesis of the concerns of urban ecology, the environment and large-scale landscape.
The presentations and panels focused on discussing: the role open spaces should play in the metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDU), with specific references to the issues and opportunities surrounding these spaces; also the activities, management and regulations that are most convenient for land which can not be developed; and identifying the existing civic structures and appraise the capacity of green infrastructures to improve the relationship between consolidated fabrics and open spaces.
Workshop programme:
-
Welcome and presentation
- Jordi Mas, Planning Councillor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet
- Antonio Balmón, AMB Executive vice-president
- Ramon Torra, AMB General Manager
-
The metropolitan ecological matrix and the different scales of green infrastructures
- Enric Batlle, Architect and professor ETSAV-UPC
-
Urban Ecology: theoretical framework of Land Mosaics
- Richard Forman, Professor of landscape ecology, Harvard Universtiy
-
The role of open spaces in the territorial mosaic of the AMB. Friction and disturbance
- Xavier Mayor, Biologist, specialist in environmental ecology and strategic planning
- Relator/a: Maria Goula, Landscape architect, Director UPC landscaping Master (Debate 1)
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Activities in open spaces. Leisure and recreation. Agriculture
- Antoni Farrero, Forestry engineer, AMB infrastructures coordinator
- Relator/a: Marc Montlleó, Biologist and Director BR Environmental Projects (debate 2)
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Open spaces and property system. Undevelopable land regulation
- Pablo Molina, Lawyer, specialist in urban planning and environmental law
- Relator/a: Carles Castell, biologist, manager Territorial Planning and Analysis Office, Barcelona Provincial Council (debate 3)
-
Green civic structures in metropolitan complexes
- Maria Rubert, Architect and professor in Urban Planning ETSAB-UPC
- Relator/a: Antoni Alarcón, Biologist, manager Consorci del Besòs (debate 4)
-
Debates
DEBATE 1 The role of open spaces in territorial mosaci of the AMB. Friction and disturbance Xavier Mayor, biologist, specialist in environmental ecology and strategic planning Reporter: Maria Goula, landscape Architect, Director UPC landscaping Master |
The interpretation of so-called open spaces has undergone considerable change over the last decade. The introduction of concepts, ideas and visions from landscape or territorial ecology, even in urban spaces, has open a whole range of possibilities of approach from this discipline to a wider understanding of open spaces and, consequently, better planning and management.
The classic approximation to so-called undevelopable land (SNU) is now obsolete and outdated, and is a hindrance to more innovative and efficient planning projects; it therefore must be overcome. In view of the ecological essence of open spaces, approaching them from applied ecology better and more strongly resolves their strategic, ecological environmental and productive values, so that more solid decisions can be made about the capability of these spaces to welcome activities —new activities. This is especially so if the objective is that the things put on it fit in better and generate more assets, while maintaining the ecosystem values and services they provide.
This new approach makes it necessary to determine the strategic, structural and functional values of the different parts making up open spaces. Doing so will enable us to better define activities that are compatible, a key aspect when facing the challenge of a territorial transformation that requires, and more and more each day, redefining the possible activities that can take place. This gives us greater capacity to consistently approach the friction and disturbance that our kind of activity causes in this type of space, especially in the metropolitan context.

DEBATE 2 Activities in open spaces. Leisure and recreation. Agriculture Antoni Farrero, Forestry engineer, AMB infrastructures coordinator Reporter: Marc Montlleó, Biologist and Director BR Environmental Projects |
En aquesta ponència s'analitza la gestió i l'evolució dels diferents tipus d'espais oberts metropolitans des de l'aprovació del Pla General Metropolita. Es fa una especial referència al canvis produïts en la concepció d'aquests espais dins dels estaments tècnics i científics en els darrers anys i s'estudien els diferents factors que han propiciat el canvi de paradigma.
Per aquesta anàlisi ens recolzem en l'experiència de l'AMB com a institució que ha assumit un paper central en la gestió de l'espai públic metropolità. Així l'AMB disposa d'un bagatge de més de vint-i-cinc anys en la gestió directa de la xarxa de parcs i platges metropolitanes i també ha estat l'impulsor del planejament i la gestió de projectes territorials d'envergadura com són el del Parc de Collserola els darrers projectes desenvolupats a l'espai fluvial del Llobregat o el planejament del Parc Agrari.
També es tracta de la problemàtica generada a l'entorn de les activitats agrícoles, forestals i de lleure com a motors, per una banda, de la dinàmica del coneixement i conservació dels espais oberts i com a generadores d'impactes i pertorbacions, per una altra. Tot plegat ens fa encarar el repte d'un nou planejament dels espais oberts amb l'objectiu de maximitzar-ne les utilitats socials i d'us públic d'una forma equilibrada amb els requeriments econòmics i ambientals.

DEBATE 3 Open spaces and property system. Undevelopable land regulation Pablo Molina, Lawyer, specialist in urban planning and environmental law Reporter: Carles Castell, biologist, manager Territorial Planning and Analysis Office, Barcelona Provincial Council |
Els espais lliures en l'Àrea Metropolitana són elements d'una gestió complicada. D'una banda, tenen un valor essencial per l'entorn de l'AMB, que va molt més enllà de la seva configuració de simple espai buit i que, per llur complexitat haurien de ser objecte de polítiques positives en conseqüència.
El propi disseny del PGM confirma aquesta relació tan important. No debades els espais lliures es configuren en aquest instrument amb vocació global prescindint de la delimitació municipal preestablerta. I, no obstant aquesta essencialitat, la gestió dels espais lliures es fonamenta una vegada més en polítiques de no fer i en l'aplicació de l'article 47 de la Llei d'Urbanisme com a barem d'actuacions.
Un bon exemple de la distància entre el rol fonamental dels espais lliures i la seva realitat es pot trobar en la dinàmica d'adquisició dels espais lliures destinats a zones verdes públiques que comporta la subjecció dels municipis de forma individualitzada a un risc econòmic importantíssim (en estimacions de l'AMB, 36 milions d'euros per l'any 2013).
És imperatiu que el PDU reflexioni sobre els instruments jurídics, econòmics i urbanístics per dotar als espais lliures de la seva veritable naturalesa de sistema metropolità. Dimensionar correctament el valor que aporten aquests espais en sòl no urbanitzable i flexibilitzar llur configuració en sòl urbà hauria de permetre una nova aproximació, més coherent amb llur importància.

DEBATE 4 Green civic structures in metropolitan complexes Maria Rubert, architect and professor of Urban Planning ETSAB-UPC Reporter: Antoni Alarcón, biologist, Manager Consorci del Besòs |
Open spaces aren't the remains or leftovers of a built city, but spaces for opportunities and for modernising metropolises. Intermediate-sized open spaces give the Urban Master Plan (Pla Director Urbanístic, PDU) a chance to establish new connecting structures, new areas of work that combine and give meaning to what in previous planning was broken up into streets, green and facilities.
The needs of the metropolis change and making variable use of large empty spaces can provide answers to questions in the future. These spaces for cohabitation must make it possible in the future to consider new connections between infrastructures on different scales, thoroughly rethink energy alternatives and favour active and productive uses linked to contemporary forms of leisure –which are compatible with new forms of farming, stock breeding or forestry. Open spaces of intermediate size must allow the insertion of a new compromise structure of open spaces that establish new connections in the metropolitan continuum.
Ideas on usage and, above all, the role of open spaces in the contemporary city have changed. We need to look on them and think of them as spaces for opportunities, but also as blank spaces ready for unforeseen uses. This approach must necessarily tackle different scales and commitments: necessarily more fluid and less static spaces, which doesn't mean they are legally less precise, but necessarily ‘open' to new environmental contingencies and requirements.
Planning in the 20th century often made the construction of large roads and large empty green spaces the general argument behind the design and strategy (ring roads, fingers, wedges, new meshes) that were used to design the new profile of capital cities. In the 21st century we can imagine new, less abstract arguments that design future strategies for the metropolis –which already has a considerable degree of complexity and compactness–, necessarily on different scales. On one hand, those connected with the geographic structure and ecological criteria and, on the other, those relating to opportunities for connecting facilities, avenues and open spaces, to transform weakly-structured situations.

The collection Quaderns PDU metropolità is a platform for disseminating these ideas, expert discussions and studies, which provide data and new insights to the understanding of the metropolitan city and to the drafting process of the Urban Master Plan.
Quadern 01. Cap a la redacció del Pla Director Urbanístic metropolità
Quadern 02. Anàlisi de les modificacions del Pla General Metropolità
Quadern 03. L'urbanisme dels espais oberts: paisatge, lleure i producció
Quadern 04. Urbanisme i noves dinàmiques socials i productives
Quadern 05. Estudis Metropolitans (1)
Quadern 06. L'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona en el sistema urbà europeu
Quadern 07. Ciutats i plans urbanístics al segle XXI: Per comprendre les noves dinàmiques i els instruments urbanístics
Quadern 08 Innovació urbana, mobilitat i metabolisme metropolità
Quadern 01. Cap a la redacció del Pla Director Urbanístic metropolità
Quadern 02. Anàlisi de les modificacions del Pla General Metropolità
Quadern 03. L'urbanisme dels espais oberts: paisatge, lleure i producció
Quadern 04. Urbanisme i noves dinàmiques socials i productives
Quadern 05. Estudis Metropolitans (1)
Quadern 06. L'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona en el sistema urbà europeu
Quadern 07. Ciutats i plans urbanístics al segle XXI: Per comprendre les noves dinàmiques i els instruments urbanístics
Quadern 08 Innovació urbana, mobilitat i metabolisme metropolità
The process of writing the first draft of the PDU has an online space to continue the debates begun at the workshops. The contributions are transferred to the reporters of the debates.
Access to experts' network
Executive Summary
Access to experts' network
Executive Summary
PDU reflections gathers visions and opinions expressed by different experts on the future of urban planning in the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
PDU Reflections
PDU Reflections