Superilla Cultura

The “superblock” is an urban model consisting in the grouping of 9 blocks of the urban fabric, in a system peripherally surrounded by highways and public transport networks. Its interior presents a character linked to the weak circulation with a marked pedestrian protagonism. This innovating model aims to reduce vehicle traffic, and CO2 emmisions. The four internal crossings of the superblocks, previously destined to the traffic, were going to become pedestrian spaces. The first issue observed after the implementation of the superblock was the realization that despite having changed the mobility system, pedestrians continued to circulate through the usual space, while the huge central space, formerly intended for traffic and now for pedestrian use, remained as a floating asphalt residue waiting to be re-appropriated. It was decided to homogenize the space, turning the “panot” into an icon, so that it created a pedestrian environment through the off-scale utilization of a recognizable everyday object.

  From the beginning there was the will to create a resounding but indeterminate support, a stage for events to happen and give rise to unforeseen actions. The public space was considered as a container, as a stage. Due to their magnitude (45 x 45 meters) many activities, both planned and spontaneous, could be developed. The panots followed a perfect grid inserted in a mesh that responded to the paving grid. Within that rule, there would be gaps but always linked to the existing order and those same gaps were meaning carriers on a wider scale (zenith view). The operation of inserting a white drawn panots pattern, allowed to eliminate the sensation and perception of the black asphalted space, with the corresponding environmental consequences (heating, illumination, reflection, etc.)

The intervention had a deep participative sense. On the one hand, there were sessions prior to the start of the workshop with the various associations and existing collectives so that the operation could respond to real needs. On the other hand, and once the workshop began, a campaign of citizen involvement was carried out. The slogan “Who said you have nothing to do?” was created, with a certain degree of provocation, to involve the neighbors in the proposed intervention. During the four days that the action, numerous neighbors or casual pedestrians contributed to the direct creation of their public space, collaborating in the painting of the asphalt and strengthening the sense of appropriation and belonging of the urban space. The entire intervention was executed only with recycled material. That way, the test of the first superblock was finished, opening the debate possibility through the positive action. Many things shall be improved, but the first reflections can already be studied from the possible spaces.

Superilla Cultura, Barcelona
Program: public space renovation
Direction and coordination: estonoesunsolar – Ignacio Grávalos and Patrizia Di Monte
Ex alumni: Roser Esterlich
Students: Sergi Viñals, Ignacio Morente, Anna Mirapeix,  Genis Vilalta, Cinta Lluis, Oumaima, Bensemlali, Héctor Muñoz, Anas Azzam, Margherita Concina, Antonio Berruezo, Gerardo Santiago, Marie Decruyenare, Heljä Loskimäki, Daria Vdovichenko, Ada Coll, Pol Mensa, Miquel Debón, Juli Algar, Carla Díaz, Karina Estrada
Completion: 2016