Uploaded on 2014-12-09 by CarlesTuca

| Sagrada Família Montjuïc hill Diagonal Mar | Mapfre | W hotel | | | | | | | | | | | | | ![enter image description here][1] Panoramic view of the centre of the Barcelona urban area (4.788.422 inhab.). Photograph taken from the Spanish Civil War's air defence: ["Els Canons del Carmel"][2] at "Rovira" hill. **Description:** This is the main centre of Barcelona city (1.611.822 inhab.), located in the north-east of the Mediterranean sea, visible at the back. I will try to divide in different parts this big bunch of buildings. Most of them do no exceed the height of 25 m. so is easy to identify several exceptions: the Agbar tower, The Mapfre twin towers, the "Sagrada Família", the Marenostrum tower (in the same vertical line) and the W hotel. These iconic buildings will guide us through the description. The Agbar tower is in "Glòries" square, the urban gate of the new business district of the city [22@][3], few tall buildings on the left of the tower represent its advent. On the left side of the picture we can see some towers too, this is ["Diagonal Mar"][4], the other end of this trading district. On the right of the Agbar tower onwards, there is the "Eixample", which extends until the feet of "Montjuïc" hill on the right of the picture. This is the XIX th century city expansion after the demolition of the medieval walls. Finally, there is the old district, "Ciutat Vella", the origins of the city. To find it, let's begin in the "Sagrada Família". Observe that there is a green spot behind the crane, between the "Sagrada Família" and the sea, that green spot is "Ciutadella" park. The medieval neighbourhood begins in that park and continues along the harbour (we see it as a line) until the very beginning of "Montjuïc" hill. **Invisible Information:** To describe the picture I have talked about the sea, iconic buildings, districts and hills. I would like to focus the exercise on urban history (invisible district information) and tourism (invisible iconic building information). - Urban History Meanwhile urban history might be not very important for new future cities, is crucial to take it into account in urban rehabilitation. Preserve the traces of the past without denying the winds of the future, while a renewal of a building, is a current practice in nowadays architecture. The same happens with future old cities. Our architectonic and urban heritage is an integral part of our history, culture and identity; necessary foundations to build the cities of tomorrow which will definitely influence in its character. This is not only the case of Barcelona, many cities in Europe, Africa, central and south America and Asia have to face this issue. Ancient constructions and cities keep information hidden in their stones and within their shapes. They tell stories about the people who lived insight their walls and walked through their streets, this information helps us to explain our past. Technology today let us store and study this information for our future needs, not just that; we can deeply analyse a building to explore its structural and environmental behaviour to apply them in nowadays construction science. For instance, the reason why the urban expansion of Barcelona was so neat, it is because there was a vast open military zone where urbanization, once was forbidden. Due to the impossibility of construction the XIX th century industries settled down in the villages nearby. All this facts facilitated the urbanization of the actual city, keeping industries aside but well connected. Fortunately or unfortunately, today the city experiments the same constrains than before (with different consequences, of course). In the past, the medieval walls prevented the city from growing horizontally, dramatically increasing its density to dangerous and unhealthy proportions. Now the city feels constrained by natural boundaries: the sea (east), the hills (west), "Besos" river (north) and "Llobregat" river (south); provoking urban protuberance more or less under experts control. - Tourism Barcelona is a sunny city with a temperate climate. Its centre is a kind of open-air historical and cultural museum with many shop, bars, restaurants and hotels. It has more than 4 kilometres of beaches at the Mediterranean. After the Olympic Games in 1992 Barcelona consolidated its tourism business leadership, today is one of the top 10 most visited cities in the world. The brands Mediterranean, Spain and Barcelona get together to evoke ideas such as sun, beach, light and tasty food, healthy diet, open and talkative people, joy and smiles, "Antoni Gaudí", shopping, museums, night life, fun, etc. All these ideas attracted more than 7 and half millions of tourists last year with more than 16 millions of overnights. This amount of tourist significantly increases the floating population of the city, specially in the centre. In peak seasons of the year, at certain times of the day and in certain places, the capacity of urban infrastructures and services is taken to the limit and sometimes is clearly overloaded. Although tourism is the business which provides most incomes, the city has to pay a social price. The raising living costs in the centre constantly displace people and small businesses inexorably altering the everyday life of a typical working class district and its traditional character. Frictions between tourists and permanent inhabitants are palpable in this highly dense area where streets are very narrow and their activities and rhythms seem to be opposite. Another focus of tensions is the political corruption around tourism and the citizen's sense of abandonment of the authorities, exclusively worried about the visitant. For example, the line to enter the "Sagrada Família" temple occupies the whole sidewalk, making pedestrians invade the road and, at the end, originating traffic jams. As a result, there is a traffic police patrol permanently in the area. The government is always modifying approved urban plans to fit the interests of important private companies, normally to build tall hotels, while practically forbidding people to rent their flats as tourist apartments. The Agbar tower was before the headquarters of the state water corporation, the organ sold the building to "Hyatt Hotels Corporation" to build a luxury hotel. **Knowledge:** In the case of tourism, there are many actors that can provide useful information that contributes to the planning of a more liveable urban space. The urban tourist is a person whose activity includes spending money and communicating most part of the time. Hotels, shops, restaurants, nightclubs, museums, credit cards, smartphone applications, cameras (of their own and of the city), public transports, airports, constantly generate data that can be analysed and interpreted. [Flow and movement patterns][5] can be useful to generate models and simulations to improve urban infrastructures and interaction between tourists and inhabitants. Other kinds of data, mostly provided by governmental statistics can help to understand tourist economic dynamics and its social consequences, improving living standards and satisfaction of citizens. *sources:* [*Wikipedia*][6], [*La Vanguradia*][7], [*Barcelona Turisme.*][8] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14134630125953385.jpg [2]: http://www.publicspace.org/en/works/g320-arranjament-dels-cims-del-turo-de-la-rovira [3]: http://www.22barcelona.com/index.php?lang=en [4]: http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitxer:BCN-ParcForum-4923.jpg [5]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1FLPDY73QU [6]: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distrito_del_Ensanche [7]: http://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20131116/54393504066/torre-agbar-hotel-grand-hyatt.html [8]: http://professional.barcelonaturisme.com/imgfiles/estad/Est2013.pdf