Turó de la Rovira is included in the last buttresses of the Serralada Litoral before the change of slope that constitutes the Barcelona Plan, forming a lithological part of the Collserola massif and representing its last buttress before the city plan. This geological formation comprises a series of hills between 180 and 260 meters above sea level that emerge from the urban fabric and constitute one of its widest and most extraordinary viewpoints.
The summit where the project is located has undergone several stages of urbanisation that begin in the early 20th century with the construction of several summer houses for wealthy families in Barcelona. During the Civil War, due to its strategic location, anti-aircraft batteries and the corresponding military installations were built there. After the war, the city must deal with a strong wave of immigration that favours the emergence of a settlement based on self-construction and shantytowns. It is not until 2010 that the summit space is reclaimed for collective use with an intervention that makes the dense history of the site visible, including all its strata.
The city of Barcelona is currently working to reincorporate the Rovira hill area into the urban fabric, imagining new itineraries that go through it and connect it on foot to some of the most significant urban landmarks in the city, such as Park Güell, the Sant Pau Hospital or the Sagrada Família. This operation requires an intervention to improve the accesses that lead to the viewpoint of the old batteries crossing the small, inhabited nucleus of Marià Lavèrnia.
The project aims to operate by modifying the topography. It contemplates, at the same time, the necessary condition of wheeled access, and therefore of traffic through a ramp, and the will to have small zones of rest that generate new activities in the open air, successive horizontal plans that allow the open appropriation of public space by people. These small squares are staggered along the existing street, seeking to preserve and emphasise the domestic character that is and has been an intrinsic part of the history of the place.
