This project has two fundamental objectives: firstly, to recover and integrate the urban spaces around the França Railway Station and the old Baluard del Migdia, and, secondly, to connect two central neighbourhoods, historically disconnected in this point: the Ribera and the Barceloneta districts. The new public spaces, next to the buildings built in recent years, will offer the possibility to stroll around the area and will highlight the architectural heritage of the city with the recovery of the old Baluard del Migdia.
The existence of the archaeological structures of the old Baluard del Migdia (16th century), the Muralla del Mar wall and the Contraescarpa from the beginning of the 18th century, shape a new urban setting. The project collects and solves the surroundings of the old bastion, creating a balcony and a restricted access ramp for specific visits. Archaeological finds have made it possible to find out that the sea reached this point in the 3rd century and that it was suitable for navigation until the 15th century, period in which a breakwater was built. The land gained ground and the Baluard del Migdia and the maritime fortification were built between the 16th and 19th century. The action carried out recovers the archaeological complex of the old sea front, showing the lower level of the original moat between the walls and generating at the same time, a perimeter urban space of the upper level that allows this heritage context to be visualised. The area that borders the old França Railway Station, occupied until then by a parking area, is transformed into a public space for pedestrians, open and accessible, that now allows to connect with the Barceloneta neighbourhood and that incorporates an extensive strolling area under new vegetation.
This urbanisation project corresponds to Phase 2 of the Urban Improvement Plan of the Renfe-Rodalies França Station grounds.
The overall urbanisation project aims to create a public space for pedestrians between the new buildings of Tricéfalo-Vallehermoso and the building of the Municipal Housing Board of Barcelona.
This space aims to facilitate communication between the Born and Barceloneta neighbourhoods.
The project proposes, within the scope of Phase 2, the paving of the entire area with a single material throughout, based on prefabricated concrete pieces of different specifications and joint breakage. In the area of the descent to the moat, a different treatment is given through natural stone (a piece of black basalt) to qualify and highlight the archaeological site formed by the Migdia Bastion, the Wall and the Counterscarp. The proposal generates a continuity of routes around the PMHB building and França Station, which links with the already executed Phase 1.
Between the PMHB building and the França Station, an extensive planting is proposed with a pavement on a draining base to guarantee maximum permeability and drainage of the subsoil and favour the underground’s best behaviour in this area due to tree growth. On the boundary with the PMHB building, the same pavement is proposed with different dimensions and on a concrete slab.
In the bastion area, the archaeological remains are highlighted. There is a descent to the moat (restricted access), up to elevation + 2.02, with a basalt pavement on the access ramp and basaltic crushed stone as a draining pavement that allows solving the natural drainage of the moat and gives a unitary treatment to the whole. The area of the moat is delimited by a part of the Migdia Bastion, the counterscarp, the limit of the parking lot of the Tricéfalo-Vallehermoso development, and the descent into the compound itself from Ocata Street.
At the boundary between Phase 1 and Phase 2, the temporary fence executed during phase 1 of the urbanisation project is demolished, thus giving continuity to the public space. This fence consists of an 80cm high plinth of concrete block supported by posts and steel mesh. The new limit is resolved with a protective railing that delimits the entire perimeter of the bastion and that generates a limit-balcony over the entire archaeological site. The archaeological site is treated as an area of special interest in which specific, complementary and ornamental lighting that will function independently of the rest of the public lighting is proposed.
