GRN/Banyoles/Public space
Technical details [PDF]
- Site Banyoles, Girona
- Promoting Banyoles City Hall
- Client Public
- Type Rehabilitation
- Project 1998. Competition: First prize.
- Construction 1998-2008
- Area 18.000 m²
- Budget <2M€
Banyoles’ old town used to be a deteriorated area in which vehicles and pedestrians cohabitated around a urban system of narrow streets and old sidewalks. The irrigation canals that originally were clean had become part of the sewer system of the city. Around the Central Square there were also sidewalks in which cars parked randomly.
The process was to “pedestrianize” the whole area, removing all the old sidewalks. The new intervention is made with travertine stone. This calcareous stone has always been present in the city’s subsoil. All the enigmatic buildings, churches, medieval houses or monuments were also raised with travertine.
The departing point is to cover the Central Square (the most relevant part of the project) using a tessellation of travertine. The proliferation of this tiling arrives to the streets and minor squares in different phases of the project.
On the other hand, the irrigation system is uncovered intermittently across the pedestrian ways.
Prizes
2007 Comarques de Girona First Prize - Exterior Spaces.
2008 5º Urban Public Spaces European Prize. Finalist.
2008 5º Landscape European Prize - Rosa Barba. Finalist.
2008 CCCB European Public Space Prize. Finalist.
2009 Catalonya Construction Prize - Rehabilitation.
Exhibitions
06.10.2009-10.01.2010 Paris, France.
Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine. Palais de Chaillot.
Catalan architecture 2004-2009.
1999 Paris, France. Maison La Garde. Collective exhibition.
09.2008 Belgrade, Serbia. Museum of Applied Arts. "In Favour of Public Space. European Prize for Urban Public Space 2008". Collective exhibition.
22.04.2009 - 09.05.2009 Novi Sad, Serbia. Museum of Contemporary Art. "In Favour of Public Space. European Prize for Urban Public Space 2008". Collective exhibition.
14.05.2009 - 28.05.2009 Bucharest, Romania. Sala Dalles Gallery - 7th Bucharest Architecture Conference. "In Favour of Public Space. European Prize for Urban Public Space 2008". Collective exhibition.
in program 16.11.2009 - 06.01.2010 Leuven, Belgium. "In Favour of Public Space. European Prize for Urban Public Space 2008". Collective exhibition.
Publications
Architecture catalane 2004-2009, Portrait d'époque - Catalogue, ACTAR, Col•legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya, Cité de l'Architecture & du Patrimoine, Departament de Política Territorial i Obres Públiques de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona - Paris, 2009, pp. 60-61
Banyoles old town center. An urban excavation, Build - On. Converted architecture and transformed buildings, Gestalten, Berlin 2009, pp.2-5/180-181.
Catalunya Construcció, L'informatiu nº314, Col·legi d'Aparelladors i Arquitectes Tècnics de Barcelona, July 2009, pp. 4-6, p. 10 Banyoles' historical center, YAPI Dergisi 329, April 2009, pp. 86-90
Altstadtsanierung in Banyoles/E, Baunetz Wissen, www.baunetz.de, Nuremberg 2009
Urban pedestrian design, Historic center, Banyoles, igloo - habitat & arhitectură 84-85, December 2008 - January 2009, pp. 98-106
Repaving of Banyoles'old town center, Archinfo.it, www.archinfo.it, Milan 2009 Peatonalization and recovering of the irrigation ditches. Ancient city centre of Banyoles. Girona, Paisea - Landscaper Review, #007 December 2008 - Yearbook 07/08, Edita Paisea revista S.L., Valencia 2008, pp. 98 - 103
Rehabilitation of Old Town Centre in Banyoles, Urban Space and Landscape, DETAIL 12/2008, Reed Business Information, Munchen 2008
Banyoles old town center, Urban spaces - Innovation and design, Links, Barcelona 2009, pp.102-113
Banyoles old town center, INDE December 2007-January 2008, Colegio de Arquitectos de Catalunya, Barcelona 2007, p.55
Banyoles old town center, Premis d’Arquitectura de les Comarques de Girona 2007, Colegio de Arquitectos de Catalunya - Demarcació de Girona, Girona 2007, pp. 44-45
Project team
Judith Segura, Sophie Lambert, Sven Holzgreve, Thomas Westerholm, Oliver Bals, Marta Cases, Julie Nicaise, Lluís A. Casanovas, Anna Mallén, Bárbara Fachada, Marco Miglioli, Josep Puigdemont, Fausto Raposo, Adriana Porta, Mafalda Batista, Mario Blanco.
Models: Emanuela Scano, Stefania Carboni, François de Montgolfier, Dafna Servadio, Nina Dorici, Blanca Rieder, Patrick Hitzberger.
Consulting
Albert Ribera (technical architect), Josep Masachs (engineer).
Photographs
Adrià Goula