10 private gardens on roofs and covers to promote the creation of green spaces in urban residual spaces.
Barcelona City Council will promote 75% of the works of the 10 private gardens located in private properties and without access to the general public. These are the projects that have won the municipal competition presented in June last year, which aims to promote the creation of green spaces in urban residual spaces such as roofs and covers.
The winning proposals have been presented last Thursday and were exhibited at La Modelo as part of the Architecture Week. These are ten projects of heterogeneous characteristics and of different areas -83 m2 the smallest and 1,085 m2 the largest, with budgets ranging from 40,000 to 165,000 euros. The 10 added together will bring more than 4,000 square meters of green to the city.
The winners
The winning project in Ciutat Vella has been one of the four roofs of the well-known Porxos d’en Xifré, between the Gothic and Barceloneta districts. It will include solariums, leisure areas, shopkeepers and vegetable gardens for the 11 floors of the estate and the rest of the block. He won’t have public access. In the Eixample two residential complexes have been awarded, which will now have a private garden on a rooftop terrace between blocks. The first one shares an estate with the Pérez Iborra private school, which will gain an extra patio to share with the tenants of the upper floors. In Aragó 323 the beneficiaries will be a large group of apartment and office towers.
A community of residents in Gràcia, on Carrer Balcells, will also enjoy a select subsidised garden. It will be equipped with a small fish pond, a butterfly garden and a farming area with state-of-the-art aquaponics technology. On the other hand, one of the new buildings of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau will be landscaped with a roof over a slope that is at street level at the accesses of the Institut de Recerca. 330 workers from the centre will enjoy this green space.
In Sants-Montjuïc, the 106 m2 garden that will include the Gran Via Park geriatric residence with a minimum contribution is a highlight. Its two roofs will be adapted playgrounds and therapeutic orchards with edible species and a greenhouse. It will be enjoyed by patients, families and workers – an average of half a thousand beneficiaries per week – and will undoubtedly enhance the facilities of this private centre. The Agora Psychological Research Group of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital will evaluate the positive impact on the residents.
The Salesians of Sarrià educational centre is another of the finalists, with the cheapest project of all. A pergola between two patios, which is now not passable, will incorporate vegetation and photovoltaic panels that will be managed by the students of the renewable energy VET cycle.
The district of Sant Andreu brings together the two remaining districts, both of which are covered by firms dedicated precisely to cleaning and gardening work for Barcelona City Council. These are the multinational Urbaser and the special work centre TEB Verd – of the cooperative TEB – for the integration of the disabled. The first one will incorporate the new garden to the routes it already offers for schools and courses.
The Deputy Mayor for Ecology, Janet Sanz, has defined the competition as a successful collaboration between the City Council and the public. He pointed out that the city is already’built’ and therefore advocated’being imaginative’ and increasing greenery also in private spaces. “It’s a first step towards promoting green in private spaces, where we’ve never been able to do so before. We’re not going to stay here, we’re starting a path that we’ll continue to follow to add urban green,” said Frederic Ximeno, the Ecology Commissioner.
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