Where a Square Block Loses Its Corners
The meeting of the streets forms an octagon, although the buildings belong to square blocks. In Catalan, the cut-off corner is a xamfrà, a chamfer that interrupts the right angle. Cerdà had a practical reason for the shape. He wanted people approaching a junction to see across it and vehicles to have room to turn. The grid also made space for light and air, which mattered to a planner who had studied living conditions within the old city walls. Even the corners had to earn their keep.
I would spend time at an ordinary crossing before going in search of grand architecture.
The Garden Cerdà Drew, and the Workshop That Followed
The original drawing was generous behind the façades too. Cerdà imagined buildings occupying opposing sides of a block, with a garden between them. A resident would have had open ground inside the square rather than masonry pressing against every side. Fresh air was to reach the homes from somewhere other than the street. Landowners and developers had another use for that land. Buildings spread around the remaining sides of the blocks. Low workshops filled garden ground, and the houses climbed beyond the height Cerdà had imagined. The street grid remained; the gardens became building plots.
From a crossing, Barcelona still looks obedient to its engineer: a workshop could fill the garden without disturbing a single clipped corner.
A Passage Into the Block
Barcelona has been recovering interiors d’illa, the spaces inside Eixample blocks, and opening them as public gardens and small squares. The way in can be an unremarkable passage beside a tall street front. You pass through the line of buildings and arrive at green space that cannot be guessed from the pavement outside. That passage changes how you judge the size of a block. The buildings facing the street make the square look solid, as though every inch behind their walls must be occupied. Inside, trees grow beside a garden path.
The Water Tower Behind Roger de Llúria
On Roger de Llúria, a passage leads into the Jardins de la Torre de les Aigües. In the middle of this reclaimed block interior stands a brick water tower, designed by Josep Oriol Mestres. The tower supplied water to the district’s new houses.
Around the brickwork are flowering trees and a pond with a fountain. For a time the pond served as a neighbourhood paddling pool. The pond and the tower remain in the public garden. The space was an early example of the city taking a block interior back into public use. The tower makes an excellent centrepiece because it was built for a job that had nothing to do with providing a pleasant view. An engineer’s neighbourhood needed water; a later neighbourhood needed a garden.
A Crossing Becomes a Place to Stay
On Consell de Cent, the old roadway has given way to a greener street that favours people on foot, and cars can no longer drive straight through every crossing. At some junctions the broad octagon made by the clipped corners has become a square, with benches, trees and planters. Some of these squares are planted like gardens; others, such as the one at Comte Borrell, leave open room for people to gather.
At the corner, Cerdà’s cut still widens the crossing. A bench now holds room once meant for turning.
