rome :: (ex)pression

The paintings below of the lighting of the candles at Carnivale capture something about the street's ability to host a chaotic spectacle, when the street is itself an ordered space. Here self-similar buildings are built to the street edge to create a legible, active outdoor space that handles flows and hosts a wide variety of activities. To be in the chaotic mob or to be in a flat looking down - either way everyone is involved. The party permeates the town. 

[title unknown] - Giuseppe Gioachino Belli

Li Mocolleti - Ippolito Caffi

rome :: tension | compression

city design | urban ordering
Below is an example of both city design (top down) and urban ordering (bottom up) approaches. The classical city emerged in form from local rulesets, with exceptions, while the tension network was carved from the existing fabric. The catch here is that the tension network was acting on an emergent order, too - that of pilgrims moving between the votive churches. Sixtus merely reinforced what was already occurring by widening, possibly straightening the streets, and putting focal points at each church - the obelisks. Now one can walk through the streets of Rome and overhear tourists saying things like, "It's all about the obelisks." 

tension | compression
A Baroque spatial innovation was the long, straight street with a focal object on axis. This draws the eye up and out, thus the use of the term "tension". Classical Rome had nothing like this, so the opposite of "tension" is used - "compression". 

The Aurelian Wall (271AD) enclosing two systems*:

     1) Classical city in compression (yellow)

     2) Baroque network of churches and squares in tension (orange)

*Bacon, Edward. Design of Cities. New York: Penguin, 1974.

barcelona :: (com)pression

Ciutat Vella


Eixample

barcelona :: (ex)pression

gargoyles (past, present)

barcelona :: self-trace

self-traced paths through barcelona

barcelona :: crossroads

bcn :: cardo decumanus 1:21

30mins-worth of 21st century traffic at the 1st century central crossroads of barcino (barcelona) in 55 secs. The exposure was inverted for better visibility of movement.

music: Anne Gastinel's Bach Cello Suite No. 2 in D-Minor, III. Courante

barcelona :: siesta

bcn :: into the lunch hours [1 of 2]

In spain most stores close from 2pm to 5pm. Many businesses take two hour lunches. I wanted to see if that schedule is visible in pedestrian and auto traffic at an otherwise busy corner - I hypothesized the second video would have far less activity (as people would be home, eating or napping). Two time lapse videos, one going into the lunch break, and the other during the lunch break. Is there a difference?

The music is a clip from Anne Gastinel's Bach Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, I. Prelude and II. Allemande

bcn :: during the lunch hours [2 of 2]

barcelona :: breakage

Though in plan the Eixample in Barcelona is designed as an isotropic field, users have had different ideas. Economics and use types have a strong influence over urban continuity.

Corner Breakage
Are these departures from the form welcome breathers to an otherwise relentless grid and typical building massing, or are they holes in an otherwise continuous and harmonious environment?

Layout Breakage

Original Eixample plan by Ildefons Cerda over the actual city. The actual is far denser than Cerda had planned.

barcelona :: square grid

the eixample autonomously fills the plain between the old towns

The Eixample: a grid of chamfered square blocks, uniform in all orientations (isotropic). Each block is geometrically the same. 

The streets are hierarchical, so the grand avenues are wider, incorporating a strip for pedestrians and bikes on either side, a center lane for through traffic, and an outer lane on either side for local traffic. As a jogger and a biker, I am thankful these grand avenues exist. If no available park, they are the next best way of running or biking almost continuously without hindrance. The treelined strips are really pleasant even in winter. In the hot mediterranean summer, they provide a shaded path.

Gran Via provides tree lined strips for running, biking, walking      

The only time the blocks are different are when the extra width of the grand avenues takes away some of the block, or when a diagonal cuts through, creating odd-shaped blocks. This is enough to break the monotony, but the prevailing continuity of the grid is one of its main strengths.