when climate matters
footprints seasons accommodation
RAFAEL GÓMEZ-MORIANA
The urban architecture of the European city has traditionally been shaped more by aesthetic notions of urbanity and decorum than by performative factors such as climate. Street symmetries and hierarchies of front versus back have usually outweighed factors such as solar orientation or cross-ventilation in the design of high-density urban housing, resulting in many dwellings that do not take maximum advantage of natural climatic conditions. How might European urban architecture be reconsidered in this regard? For this hypothetical exercise, I selected a standard urban block in Barcelona’s Eixample, the urban expansion planned by the reformist civil engineer Ildefons Cerdà in 1859. This urban plan was revolutionary in its day for its scientific basis and the priority it placed on human health and well-being over urban monumentality and aesthetics. It turned out much more densely built-up in the end due to property speculation, of course, but its characteristic standard square block with chamfered corners has long proved talismanic to architects in this city. If Cerdà’s Eixample plan sought to ensure better personal and familial well-being in a time of rampant industrialisation and urbanisation, in the context of today’s climate emergency it is planetary well- being that needs to be addressed. Today’s typical Eixample building, often more than 20 metres deep, depends on lightwells to bring light and air to many of the bedrooms, and uses internal vertical service cores to reach either double-aspect dwellings that are awkwardly elongated or else single-aspect dwellings that are without natural cross-ventilation. Although Cerdà ingeniously rotated his grid 45° so that no edge of a block would ever be completely without sun, many Eixample dwellings today do not receive adequate daylight in winter while other dwellings receive too much solar heat gain in summer.
wikimedia.org
all images and drawings: Rafael Gomez-Moriana
The Eixample, Barcelona
top: Ildefons Cerdà’s original plan, expanding on three sides around Barcelona’s old centre.
above: this aerial view shows just how dense each block has become over a century and a half. Buildings of such depth, up to 20m from front to back, suffer from both a conflicted prospect and little air movement. The proposed block maintains the street scale while opening the centre of the block to air and light.
28 on site review 45: houses + housing
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