Domesticating the public space

The city is my natural living environment, it’s where I feel comfortable, where I feel at home.

One challenge that cities are already facing is the challenge of mobility. Not so much because of the infrastructure it requires, but rather because of the space and protagonism it needs to offer urban life and other activities that take place in the public space. Industry is already responding with new urban mobility solutions that are more lightweight, silent and sustainable.

Another challenge, this time with a view to the future, could be that of how to incorporate technology and artificial intelligence into the city, into our urban space. I would like this incorporation to be done with a humanist approach, one that incorporates design right from the start.

Yes, I think we need this kind of vision, and I would explain it as an allegory of the human skin. It took scientists some time to discover that our skin is actually the biggest organ in the human body, tasked with managing the interaction between our bodies and the environment around us. So, I believe we should view urban space from an ecosystemic perspective, in the sense that all the skin of the city, whether that means the streets, the façades or the roofs… everything that is in contact with urban life constitutes an interactive skin, and I think it deserves our design, care and attention.

For us at Cierto Estudio, planning the city of the future means looking at something as simple as people’s daily lives. This has naturally become the focus of our eyes and our approach. Walking through the centre, placing people at the centre of the street. At the studio we also talk about how to “domesticate” public space. We want to transform it into something that feels closer to home, that responds on a much more human scale, a more domestic one.

Barcelona is a model to follow and has always been, but it needs to stay on the ball. It can’t take that position for granted, we need to keep setting ourselves challenges and evolving. For me, it’s an incredible city because of how its density generates life in the street, because of its accessible size and because of its Mediterraneanness.

The street of the 21st century is a simpler street, with less information, less hierarchy and more democratic.

The cross-section of the street of the 21st century has different layers: the surface layer, where the action takes place, where the people are, the furniture, the cars, the bikes, everything there needs to be; and a lower layer, where the earth allows nature to grow, and also where the utilities are that the buildings and citizens connect to (electricity, water, gas, connectivity…). It is also important to bear in mind the proportionality of the cross-section of each street, as depending on the width-height relationship, different conditions of light and perspective are generated, as well as transversal relationships, or not, between opposing façades.