The Ciutadella Park extends over the remains of the old fort that was built in the 18th century to control Barcelona militarily, together with the Montjuïc Castle, and to be able to subject the city to crossfire if it revolted again. Once the space around the city had been cleared and the Cerdà plan had begun its works, the military imposed the condition that the land should be turned into a park for the fort’s demolition. This is submitted to a competition, which is won by Josep Fontserè thanks to his ability to hand over the land against the remains of the Ribera district, demolished precisely to build the fort, and against the growing city organised by Cerdà. Against the Ribera district, Fontserè organises an urbanization which depends on the Passeig del Born and the current Passeig Picasso, both parallel, culminating in the Born market. Against the Eixample, Fontserè has what will become the Passeig de Sant Joan. The project suffers from two major setbacks: the first one happens when Fontserè is forced to preserve part of the Ciutadella buildings (such as the one that currently houses Parliament of Catalonia) and to have a water tank that ends up being turned into a monumental waterfall. Fontserè does the project with the collaboration of Antoni Gaudí, then still a student. The second setback is the 1898 Exhibition, which delays its development. This is carried out episodically over the following decades, never completed on the southern slope where Mayor Porcioles will end up building the Zoo that prevents the connection with Poblenou. Today, all the romantic-inspired gardens, preserved by existing buildings and those built in the early 20th century, which produce one of the most pleasant walks in the city, are preserved. The monumental waterfall, where Gaudí played a decisive role, is still open to the public and can be visited. The park is guarded by a perimeter fence and the Zoo is still awaiting relocation. When this is done, the park will finally reach its original perimeter.

The deposit built by Josep Fontseré in 1874 combines the virtues of good construction, the ease of adapting to changing uses and the ability to understand and improve the place where it is located. A great example of good architecture. The building was in perfect physical condition after being used as a pavilion at the International Fair of 1888, and it later housed a hospital, a municipal warehouse, a movie set and also became an important resting place for many migratory birds. The project proposed demolishing all the interior divisions, the central part of the intermediate slab, and opening five skylights in the geometric centre of the roof that balanced the perimeter light and established a visual and kaleidoscopic relationship between the interior and the roof. For safety reasons, the large body of water that had been planned to be stored was never allowed to reach the top edge of the tank and the new proposal replaced it with a thin sheet at the top. This improved the old image of the permanently half-empty pond and solved the problem of vertical loads, seismic actions and tightness by reducing the weight and forming an intermediate security camera between the bottom of the new vessel and the old one. As for the interior, two elaborate prefabricated pieces of concrete, one as a slab and the other as a support, organised discontinuous mezzanines three metres high above the floor of the room. Treated as furniture in the huge space, they increased the area of use, contained all the voluminous facilities that the building needed and gave rise to a great diversity of reading spaces, from some very collected and homely to others with wider views and spectacular heights. With the exception of the new skylights, everything, including the new pond, was delicately superimposed on the building without injuring it. Everything could be dismantled so that the original support appeared intact again. The search for the formal expression of this strategy guided the project in all its aspects. Again, an exercise that reflects the relationship between architecture and decoration.