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«Наука через призму времени»

Октябрь, 2017 / Международный научный журнал
«Наука через призму времени» №7 2017

Автор: Арутюнян Мартин Варданович, PhD in Arts (Senior Research Fellow)
Рубрика: Искусствоведение
Название статьи: A Design Research of Barcelona Streets and the Adjacent Constructions

Статья просмотрена: 519 раз

УДК N7

A DESIGN RESEARCH OF BARCELONA STREETS AND THE ADJACENT CONSTRUCTION [1]

Арутюнян Мартин Варданович / Martin V. Harutyunyan

кандидат искусствоведения

Национальная Академия Наук Армении / Институт Искусств, Армения, г.Ереван

 

Аннотация. В рамках научно-исследовательского проекта «Проблемы и возможности усовершенствования проектирования, композиции, дизайна и внешнего оформления улиц Еревана и прилегающих сооружений» проводился профессиональный дизайн-анализ улиц и экстерьеров прилегающих сооружений города Барселона.

Ключевые слова: Барселона, Ереван, архитектура, дизайн, экстерьер, композиция, здании, реклама

 

Abstract. The design survey made within the framework of the scientific subject «Problems and Improvements Concerning Architectural, Compositional and Exterior Design of Yerevan Streets and Adjacent Constructions" includes a professional analysis of the streets and adjacent constructions exteriors of the city Barcelona.

Keywords: Barcelona, Yerevan, architecture, design, exterior, composition, buildings, advertisement

 

PhD in Arts, Yerevan, Armenia, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia / Institute of Arts

Barcelona is famous for its unique architectural constructions. The author of most of them is Antoni Gaudi, a world-famous architect. Barcelona is one of the modern architectural centers of the world. The whole city is furnished both with Gothic style, 20th century Modernist style and 21th century modern and unique architectural interesting constructions.

Barcelona is one of the few cities in Europe, where all the aspects of city surrounding and architectural environment are included into the city sub constructions. Those are beaches, old and new districts, trade and entertainment centers in Modernist style, modern public transport, technological innovations, buildings-constructions full of architectural correct solutions, residential districts, streets etc. Today, Barcelona, with its population is the second largest city in Spain and the tenth in the European Union.

The capital of Catalonia is situated on the shore of Mediterranean Sea. Barcelona, like many other European cities is built up of the old (historic) city and districts full of new-built residential and business centers with modern technologies. The district in  Gothic style built in the XIX century is also situated in the center of the city.

The major sights of Barcelona are situated in the center of the city. The city is one of the most impressing and most hospitable ones in the world. It has a great number of architectural constructions and provides a huge flow of tourists.

Barcelona is rich with architectural constructions and most vivid, impressing and sophisticated samples of city design, buildings exteriors and streets projects are situated there. So, we carried out professional searches and local surveys [2] in the central streets and avenues of Barcelona within the framework of the scientific study “Problems and Improvements Concerning Architectural, Compositional and Exterior Design of Yerevan Streets and Adjacent Constructions”. We also visited the city archive, as well as the design museum to get acquainted with the history of the city architecture, design and some documentary materials. At the design museum, the exhibitions of the vivid samples and projects of Bauhaus, one of the major schools of design history in the world were of a great interest. The building of the museum, full of modern architectural solutions, is harmonious with the exhibitions and the samples and is very impressing (pic. 1).


pic. 1

Most of the city streets and avenues are designed and furnished in the same style.  So, in the article we will mention in sequence the general analysis of all the main details and samples of the discussion.
At the first sight, it seems that the exteriors of the Barcelona streets and the adjacent constructions are standard European projects. Though, detail surveys and local observations reveal their features and the differences from the other European cities.

 

Streets
Most of the streets in the central and busy areas of Barcelona consist of not 3 parts (street, right and left pavements), but of 5 (in the middle, there is a wide pavement, where it is possible not only to walk, but also visit cafes, small kiosks, to the right and left from the middle, there are accordingly one-way streets and pavements) (pic. 2; 3).

 
This may be considered a unique type of a city planning, where the comfort of the residents and the guests of the city are taken into consideration. An attention is payed to the allocation of as much walking area as is possible.

           

      

pic. 2                                              pic.3

The curbs of the pavements are not high: this is comfortable only for the walkers, but they are not safe, as they cannot protect the people on the walking areas from traffic accidents. In Yerevan there are practically no streets of such design. Moreover, in the busy and central areas, the dividing curbs are higher, which is safer for walkers.

In the crossroads of the central areas of Barcelona, as well as in some adjacent suburbs we saw this type of corners of the crossing streets. They were surprising for us, as in the post-Soviet cities, the crossing streets generally have straight corners. Here they are weighted. This is a significant feature, which not only facilitates the easier and safer turning around of cars, but also some area is saved. In case of straight corners, the area of the streets decreases, which is not desirable for the capital cities or densely populated cities (pic. 4; 5).

         
pic. 4                                 pic. 5

Furnishing of the Streets

Getting back to the safety of walkers, we should also mention, that we met protecting barrages in few streets. In many streets of Yerevan there are already placed such barrages. Those are important for the safety of the population, taking into consideration some terrorist attacks with trucks and cars in European cities in the recent years (pic. 6).


pic. 6

The bright yellow traffic lights of Barcelona are of a significant interest. They are easily visible and cannot be missed from the drivers’ sight, although there are many narrow, shadowy and greenery streets. We cannot say the same about a number of post-Soviet cities, including Yerevan. Here are many examples, where the traffic lights are hidden behind the lush trees or advertisement sheets and are hardly visible for the drivers. The studied type of a design for traffic lights may easily be applied in any city. They have one more advantage: they can also be turned. In case of repairing of the streets or accidents, it is possible to change their direction to make them better visible. There are also many high-placed traffic lights in the middle of the crossroads, which are also aimed at better visibility and not hindering the traffic (pic. 7; 8).

 

 
pic. 7                                    pic.8

The street trashes are metallic, but the polyethylene bags inside them are changed once or twice a day. This type of trashes is common in a number of European cities: at the present they are the safest and the most economic ones. Trashes from other materials are highly dangerous to burn with cigarette remnants and are more expensive. These trashes have one more significant feature: they have a joint container like an ashtray for throwing cigarette remnants into it. Thus, the danger of a fire is minimalized. 
There are also larger trashes in the streets, which unlike the large trashes in Yerevan, have more hermetic closures, which prevent the unpleasant odor from spreading. They are easy to use, as the closures are opened by slightly pressing the shooters placed at the lower part with foot (pic. 9; 10).

 
pic. 9                            pic. 10

Buildings, Constructions

We assume it will not be something new, if we try to describe the fine architectural constructions of the buildings in Barcelona and their cozy and cultivated exteriors. Within the framework of the study, we have concentrated our attention on their outer decorations and the present architectural state.

The first thing, that catches the passersby’s or the visitors aye, is the cultivated appearance of the exteriors of both residential and public buildings: absolute majority of the buildings is clean and the solutions are preserved. Moreover, we witnessed the refreshing of graphic solutions of a building (pic. 11). So, it is a fact, that the city authorities are concerned at the facades of the city buildings. Both for the tourists and the residents it is an aesthetically pleasant and fine environment, where one immediately feels the bright atmosphere and the architectural splendor of Spain.
During local observations and photo shootings in more than a dozen of streets, we did not meet any cases of even a little distortion of residential buildings, for instance, modifications of balconies, areal modifications of apartments at the expense of the entrances or other adjacent areas, distortions of the gates, staircases or deviations of the architectural constructions of exteriors. The current repairing works were disguised by such solutions, cloth or net fabrics, which almost did not lose the architectural splendor of the buildings (pic. 12-14).

 
pic. 11                                          pic. 12

 
pic. 13                                                         pic. 14

Nearly in all the buildings in the city, in the ground floors, there are situated various stores, cafes and other entertainment places.   Though among the samples observed in a number of streets, we did not meet any abuse or distortion of the advertisement sheets, light letters and other advertisement materials. There were no deviations of architectural constructions or designer constructions of the buildings facades. They are visible on the profile photos of the buildings (pic. 15-17).

    

pic. 15                                pic. 16                                   pic. 17

Concluding, we may state that the streets and the exteriors of the adjacent constructions of Barcelona are in a good state. Nearly all the architectural constructions are preserved, the outer constructions and the architectural compositions of the buildings are not distorted, huge and anti-esthetic advertisement sheets are not eye-catching in the city. Moreover, the streets are cultivated and correctly furnished. The city authorities pay a significant attention to all-types and all-times buildings exteriors and their architectural constructions.

Referents.

Список литературы:

1.             This work was supported by the RA MES State Committee of Science, in the frames of the research project № 16YR-2A010.

2.             The visit was in July, 2017.

 



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