Checkmate Barcelona
Barcelona was bursting at the seams in the middle of the 19th century. The city became increasingly prosperous and therefore also more crowded. Barcelona, like other European cities, was in need of expansion. The Eixample district, literally expansion in Catalan, was the answer to this, led by Ildefons Cerdà. A modern plan was needed to give both the well-to-do bourgeoisie and the workers a place in the city as functional and pleasant as possible. A block pattern was designed with the so-called manzanas, apples, because of the shape. The sloping sides were designed for the traffic safety of the trams. In Cerdà’s utopian socialist plans there was a lot of space for greenery between the blocks and inside the block. People would know their neighbors and could retreat within their walls to an oasis of peace in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, little of these plans remains today. The idyllic courtyards became parking garages, schools, public swimming pools while the traffic on the outside of the block rushes past you on all sides.
