Courtyards of the Eixample

In 1859 Ildefons Cerdà’s plans for expanding the city of Barcelona were approved and the construction of today’s Eixample area began. His grid pattern idea for the city was to create a utopia based society. His original idea was to have a green and clean new city with constant open, fresh air. This new city was to symbolize the opposite of the old city and its terrible and crowded living conditions.

            However, due to a drive to generate as much profit as possible, Cerdà’s original plan for the Eixample area were completely scrapped. Today in the Eixample area, the only remains of Cerdà’s original plans are the outlines of the blocks of apartment buildings and store buildings and with rounded off corners of every block, originally designed to allow public transportation, then horse drawn buggies, to make easier rounded turns, instead of sharp turns.

            Other aspects of Cerdà’s plans were left out which would have drastically altered the way the area looks today. Buildings were to be constructed only two sides of every block in a checkerboard fashion so that there would never be two buildings touching each other, each having a small open green area in between. Instead, buildings were constructed on all four sides of every block, each touching the one next to it with no green open air space between them. In the middle of every block, in the interiors of the buildings were supposed to be private and public gardens, courtyards, to keep the open-air feeling of the new area. Instead, these planned courtyards were covered by single story structures that are manly inhabited by restaurants and stores.

            While searching the internet to find the few courtyards hidden in the Eixample area today, I found out a good deal about the city’s efforts to recreate these courtyards in an effort to lessen the densely crowded area that the Eixample has become. The organization responsible for this courtyards project is Proeixample S.A., a group made up of officials from the city of Barcelona and Catalan banks. Their aim is purchase land in the Eixample area whenever a part of a block, or manzana, becomes available due to a business closing down. They then convert the area into an open-air public park, usually with benches and children’s playgrounds. The costs for the design and layout of these converted courtyards are paid through the development and sale of the remainder of the area for apartment complexes and or other miscellaneous  public services.

            Since the beginning of Proeixample and this initiative, eight courtyards have been converted back to Cerdà’s original plan. The eight courtyards that have been recreated today are: Torre de les Aigues on Roger de Llúria, Casa Elizalde on Valencia,  Palau Robert on Passeig de Gràcia, Sebastià Bach on Rocafort, Cesar Martinell on Villaroel, Escola Carlit on Roger de Flor, Montserrat Roig on Roselló, and Manuel de Pedrolo on Diputació. While the courtyards in the Eixample area today are nothing spectacular, they are quiet and humble areas to escape the busy life of the city. The most interesting one I found was Torre de les Aigues. With an old water tower in the middle and a small wading pool, it was a refreshing break the apartment filled grid pattern of the city. It was also the only courtyard I found not cluttered with playgrounds and small children.