PHOTOS BY Adrià Goula

PHOTOS BY Adrià Goula

PHOTOS BY Adrià Goula

The urbanization of the Born Market surrounding area is part of the regeneration strategy of a city area which has been at a standstill for many years due to the lack of use of the market and the inaccessibility to the Ciutadella park. The market building, which contains a considerable part of medieval city, dating back to 1714, has been re-opened as a cultural and historic centre. The re-opening, at a urban level, offers a large, covered public space, framed by a cohesive architectural plan: the so-called porches Fontserè. The goal of the project is to answer to the potentials and needs generated in the public space by the reopening of the building as a cultural centre.

PHOTOS BY Adrià Goula

PHOTOS BY Adrià Goula

PHOTOS BY Adrià Goula

PHOTOS BY Adrià Goula

This answer is based on 3 strategies.

Connectivity and permeability.
Traffic has been eliminated in Carrer Comerç in front of the market, by diverting it to the Passeig Picasso, creating a pedestrian area, connected with the rest of the neighbourhood up to the edge of the Ciutadella park.

Centrality and identity.
An empty space has been generated around the building to accommodate its monumentality.The paved surface provides a link to the site’s history and memory. Information deriving from surveys and old cartographies has been implemented onto the layout of the granite paving stones. The final result allows two interpretations. On one hand there is a reference to a distant past: the layout of the old streets and buildings has been defined according to archaeological findings and translated into a composition, made of sharp changes in the paving stone, which characterises and gives identity to the main space of the Plaça Comercial. On the other hand there is a connection to a more recent past: the use of the market building offers a link to the cohesive character of the Fontserè XIX century plan. The continuous, granite paving, distinguishes and relates the work to the collective imagination in mind. A large part of the cobblestones has been extracted and reclaimed in the same site.

Flexibility and functionality.
The project has been defined with the premise to promote maximum diversity of uses. With the launch of the BornCC the current uses will be intensified and new uses will emerge. The open space, the single platform and the plaza character strengthen this polyvalence.

Collaborators: Adrià Guardiet, Miquel Camps, Jordi Riba, Eva Cotman, Ondrej Fabian