Barcelona is the capital of the spanish regionof Catalonia. During the 19th century, it was the centre of the industry in Spain, mainly in textile factories, chemical products and machinery.

In addition, Barcelona had one of the most important and active ports in Spain too. important and active ports in Spain too. The prosperity of the city during those yearschanged the city structure and its image.

From the Tibidabo to Montjuic, the two hills that limit Barcelona, we can observe three different parts in the city. The old town, thecluster towns and the “Eixample”, the union between the other two. between the other two.

The old town is organised in the ancient romanway, by the directions of “Cardus” and “Decumanus”, which intersect at the Sant JaumeSquare, the Roman Forum.

The old city was enclosed within walls for many centuries, outside of which farms and lots of agricultural areas grew into the settlements, of agricultural areas grew into the settlements, which have become the cluster towns of the

modern Barcelona.

Old Barcelona sketch

HOW HAS BARCELONA EVOLVED?THE ORIGIN OF THE CITY

“The architecture, like the good wine, needs time”

Alvaro Siza

HOW HAS BARCELONA EVOLVED?THE PATH TO A DIFFERENT CITY

During the first half of the 19th century, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the Medieval Town Plan was surrounded by those walls. They were later collapsed They were later collapsed by the installation of new industries and expanding population. That forced the union between Barcelona and the cluster towns like Gràcia, Sarrià, Sant Gràcia, Sarrià, Sant Gervasi or Sant Andreu. This union caused the demolition of the walls.

Barcelona “Eixample” Plan

For a better union it seemed necessary to begin Urban Planning. So, in 1859 a competition took place, won first by Rovira and Trias, but finally designed by Ildefons Cerdà, who proposed an urban plan that identifies a garden city with large open spaces, buildings, separated by wide streets and with no differen-separated by wide streets and with no differen-ces between the social classes. That’s why all the streets have the same dimensions. The streets generally have a width of 20 metres, with 10 metres allocated for the core road of vehicle transit, and with 5 metres on each side for the pavements. These streets generate a regular grid that defines square blocks, all regular grid that defines square blocks, all with the same dimensions too: quadrilaterals of 113,3m, its vertices truncated form a chamfer of 15m.

HOW HAS BARCELONA EVOLVED?GRAN VIA DE LES CORTS CATALANES: THE MAIN STREET

In the year 1878 Can Batlló was built near Gran Via Catalana, one of the main streets in Barcelona, in Sants, an old industrial area just annexed to Barcelona as a neighbourhood that year.

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes is still nowadays one of the most important streets nowadays one of the most important streets in the city of Barcelona. It crosses the entire city, parallel to the sea, going from the cluster city of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat to Badalona.

Gran Via Catalana stitches the city from end to end.

The location of Can Batlló,outside of the center of the city at the beginning,favored its current loca-tion in one of the mostimportant streets ofBarcelonaBarcelona

Can Batllo location in Barcelona

Barcelona sketch. The important of Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes in the city

HOW WAS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CAN BATLLÓ?

Can Batlló location and distribution of the BLOCK 11

collectivework

reuse spaces

collectivedesign

rehabilitationby phases

work comissions

activityactivation

reusematerials

knowledgeshared

minimumcost

REALneed

SELF-MANAGMENT+

SELF-CONSTRUCTION

BLOC 11 is an organization crea-ted because of the Can Batllótrouble, which is self-managedby the neighbours and is at theforefront of the protest move-ment.It also manages the activitiesIt also manages the activitiesthat take place in the building,

as a non-profit business, in order to serve the community.

BLOC 11

After a study about the structural characteristics of the building, people organized

themselves in work teams to rebuild the different spaces. The rehabilitation needed two phases. phases.

Phase 0

THE REBUILDING PHASES

First floor

Ground floor

Phase 1

First floor

Ground floor

In the Phase 0, they started with the ground floor, leaving a non-constructed room due to the poor condition of it. The rest of the floor was divided in different spaces according to the different needs.

The green zone was a library, which is the most important part of the rehabili-the most important part of the rehabili-tation, being the biggest self-managed library in Catalonia. A lot of different activities take place in it, like forums, conferences, discus-sions, lectures and other social and cul-tural activities.

The The yellow zone provides the offices for the management meetings.

The purple zone is a polyvalent room where workshops are held, as well as theatre plays or films.

The orange one is a bar restaurant, like a meeting place, and also stores and rest-rooms all over the building. rooms all over the building.

In the Phase 1, the most important change is the rehabilitation of the non-constructed room, which will be a nursery and an expansion of the bar.

Besides, outside there is an urban vege-table garden.

REBUILDINGCAN BATLLÓOne of the main activiesthat take place in CanBatllo during the

saturdays is its ownrebuilding. The neighbours and other people like other people like families, architecture

or design students,etc, can collaborate.Any help is useful.

WORKSHOPS

FURNITURERESTORATION

The reconstruction of Can Batllo is comple-

mented by insitu furniture restoration.All kind of people help

restorating old freefurniture or creatingfurniture or creating

new ones with free

and recycled materials.

Workshops are very useful activities forCan Batllo.They can attract peopleto the place, becauseof the many differenttypes of workshops types of workshops that are planned. They can includequite different

interests, like cooking, music, gardening, poetry,

cinema or childrens activities aswell.

URBANGARDEN

According to the newconcerns in thesociety about

ecology andbiological food,

the urban gardenhas become a veryhas become a very

succesful activitybecause of the

participation of the entireneighbourhood.

HANDMADE ANDSECOND-HAND

MARKETThe weekly market ofCan Batlló provides a

large number of

visitors tothe place.

It is one of thebest ways to make thebest ways to make the

people know about the Can Batllóprotest and social action.

THE CAFEThe cafe and restaurant is an

important meeting point in theneighbourhood today. It is one of the generators ofgenerators of

benefits to promote the other activities of Can Batllo.