Inside

City

B is for Barcelona

A lot of people new to the city, including myself at the time, comment on how little nature there is in the heart of the city. It’s an old city, dense and nature has been on the defence for millenia. But in spite of this you can feel it holding you and wanting to assert itself. The climate, proximity to forests, ocean and mountains, and relatively small footprint of the city means it’s just around the corner, in the pavement cracks or hanging from a roof cornice above you.

I’ve spent the past year and a half criss-crossing Barcelona, studying it in a Master’s program, and making sense of what’s new to me here and what is the same for any similar city in the world. I’ve been most interested in how urban nature presents, is part of our experience as humans yet competes with our human intent, and where it’s future lies. We are nature but we lose sight of this to our detriment. We can see it again if we choose to, and with some nudges.

A few short things that relate to our Invincible Summer to come…

Making better use of space for nature, Warren Davies MISMec (UPC) 2024

Nature is not just plants and gardens.

It seems obvious, but to look around you’d think that’s how we collectively see it. We have this Haussmann-esque view of the urban landscape that it’s a scrap of park there and a row of trees here. But it’s everywhere of course, more than half of your body is not human, so let’s see things with a bit more perspective.

Sanctioning nature behind a border or wall is not just humorous, its letting us down. If we find a broader acceptance of the natural world in our homes, streets, precincts and major buildings we honor our place in the world and give wider nature a chance to thrive. When non-human nature thrives, we can too.

Non-human nature, Barcelona

Healthier urban nature does not (necessarily) mean a radical restructure of cities.

We can evolve what we have and end up with a much stronger urban ecosystem. The biggest change needed is in mindset, culture/policy and how we lever change (laws, financial incentives etc). Animals, plants and more abstract natural elements like winds, light, smells and atmposheric conditions (last image above, how cool!) are already responsive to our efforts here.

I asked people a few months back if we need small changes, moderate change or a re-do (some kind of apocalyptic end to the 10,000 year-old city idea from a Hollywood movie) and most people fell at either end of that spectrum. I think the most likely, and therefore most useful direction, is changing as much as we realistically can as quickly as we can. Somewhere in the middle.

While we create boundaries with nature, we show how we really feel.

There’s a great story I heard on the radio recently about neurodivergence where the interviewee explained that “wherever we are, nature is. We could be on a plane, eating a mandarin and of course that’s a natural process. It’s visceral and sensual and there’s the smell and the droplets floating away. And it’s in this sterile abstract space.”

Whether its eating a piece of fruit, dancing like (other) creatures in a Broadway show or carving our likeness in stone above Casa Mila (below) to form part of the landscape, we never escape or actually fear or revile our nature. We just forget our place sometimes and it comes to life in poor urban planning, policy and practice.

Rooftop chimneys, Casa Mila, Antoni Gaudi.

What is Barcelona doing to encourage urban nature?

The first impression you have of nature in the city is not far wrong. If you exclude the hills above the city (technically part of greater Barcelona but clearly not part of the city) there is only 7m2 of green space per resident. The WHO standard is 15m2. Barcelona committed to an extra 1m2 per resident in the Paris accord of 2015 which seems small, but considering it’s one of the densest cities in the world, is a challenge nonetheless.

There are a host of strategies outlining what’s needed, and genuine interest and activity. There is even great success like the Superilles (below) and good precedents in green roof projects, community gardens/farms and water use.

From the Barcelona Nature Plan 2030, here’s what a fair green future looks like…

I believe we can better connect with our place in nature, apply that to the city around us and play our part here in meeting the climate emergency. It’s in the balance right now but it’s in all of us to shift the centre of mass. While it may seem hard, maybe the shift isn’t too great.

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Concept

Taxonomies

The history of ecology is fascinating. It’s relatively recent, a potent mixture of science, history, culture and politics, and just plain good from a theory perspective.

Look at this would you! It’s an early 19th century section of Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador by German Naturalist and Explorer Alexander Van Humboldt. It explains in precise terms how it works scienticfically, with the prevailing view at the time that by observing and classifying natural phenomena, we can understand.

Taxonomies were the AI of the time: an ‘answer’, a mystery to solve and a philosophy to challenge prevailing ideas of the world at the time.

Chimborazo volcano, drawing by Alexander Van Humboldt

While not exactly the same in substance or approach, Charles Darwin later built on taxonomies to create one of the most defining theories of our species.

Here’s another ripper from an 1850s atlas showing the distribution of plant life for several mountain ranges.

If you’re curious about this beautiful fusion of science, art and sweetly quaint thinking here’s a great post about Alex by The Smithsonian. It has the full drawing with tables that detail the volcanic grumblings.

Footnote: In 1869, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, 25,000 people gathered in New York's Central Park to listen to speeches extolling his accomplishments and witness the unveiling of a large bronze bust of Humboldt, who had died ten years earlier. Flags and enormous posters showing Humboldt's face lined the streets of Manhattan. Similar celebrations took place around the world—in Berlin, Humboldt's birthplace, 80,000 admirers gathered in the chilly rain to listen to eulogies and songs sung in his honor.

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Plan

An algae-powered building

I came across this building just now and the inner child in me shouted ‘YES!’ Here we’re making stuff, it looks like lego and it seems messy right? Meet you in the playground.

It’s just a very good idea to use the natural process of algae and photosynthesis to create energy for a building. Algae is flexible, buildings typically underuse their facades and roofs and energy production-use is the #1 human problem in the global carbon equation.

I love more conventional presentations of nature but with land at a premium in cities we need to be creative with how we encourage it today and into the future. It’s pretty compelling biology and science:

“Thanks to the hybrid functionality of its algae façade, this building combines various processes of regenerative energy production to create a sustainable circulation system: solar heat, geothermal energy, biomass and a fuel cell together form three storable energy sources in the form of heat, electricity and biogas. Moreover, the façade fulfils all functions expected of a conventional building cladding: it not only acts as a thermal and sound insulation, but also as a sun shield.” — read more

It’s a residential building from local architects SPLITTERWERK and the global engineering magicians ARUP.

BIQ building, Hamburg

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Idea

Factory forest

Thank you so, so much to the French founders behind my new workspace. Why shouldn’t a factory conversion include a forest? That is all.

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Photo

A house by the sea

What does this image make you feel? I smell the sea and the pines. I see something that could be a building or it could be a shell, husk or growth. Or both. I am in awe. Like the inspiration for Gaudi’s major works here in Spain - seeds, skeletons, honeycomb - nature is the greatest teacher. Being original is turning to origins in suprising ways, today.

See more on this house

The Price residence, Corona del mar, CA.

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