MULTIRAMBLES - BCN 6 T

Barcelona is today a yardstick for the international tourist scene. In the nineties, its leadership in the tourist economy fostered a marked sense of “urban self-esteem” which, over the past twenty years, has gradually turned into a clamour for authenticity. Barcelona has absorbed a tourist pressure four times greater than its own population, concentrated in a handful of downtown public spaces and around certain alluring monuments. Its tourist services (accommodation, commercial establishments and culture and leisure facilities) are highly centralised, creating the perception that tourism is threatening its quality of life and urban management. The Rambla is probably the most representative icon of this conflict, and one of the urban areas with the greatest potential for reinvention.

MULTIRAMBLAS – BCN 6 T presents a hypothesis of opportunities for a city like Barcelona, which needs to rethink both the competitiveness of its main economic driving force and the quality and consistency of its urban model.

Credits Organisers: Intelligent Coast, a teaching unit attached to the Fundació Politècnica de Catalunya

Collaborators: Handong Global University Spatial Environment System, Pohang, South Korea Japan CHIBA University, Japan YGSA – Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture Master Intelligent Coast, 2008 issue – Fundación UPC, Barcelona Intelligent Coast Research Team