The City Council plans to put even greater value on the ground floors of Barcelona because it correctly considers them part of the public space. The economic activities that take place in most of the ground floors are the place of transition between the street and the privacy of our homes. They provide economy, exchange, social cohesion and security. New York urban planner Jane Jacobs said that a busy street has the possibility of being a safe street. On the other hand, a little crowded one is unsafe.
Public space, including ground floor activity, is of great importance for cities, as it defines them. If we are asked about our favorite place in a city, we will answer by citing a square, a park or an iconic monument. Even some emblematic businesses. Public space is where the city acquires its human scale.
For the North American urban planner Richard Florida, public space is an economic engine. It is where diversity and social interaction foster innovation and growth. For the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre, it is a place of great political and social significance, a place of struggle where we can express our demands. For this reason, it is also where totalitarian regimes exercise repression. In short, it is where everything happens, where citizens develop their individual and collective capacities.
The ground floors are part of this public space. Not only because they are also a meeting point, but because their aesthetics influence the city landscape. Furthermore, some of these activities leave their premises and extend to the street, such as the terraces of bars and restaurants. That is why it is important that schedules and noise ordinances are regulated in an orderly manner and respected. The public space forms a whole that is inseparable from the ground floors and must be thought about and improved as a whole.
Le Corbusier, one of the most influential architects of this century, did not share the concept of the commercial ground floor. He conceived the ground floor for car use. For this reason, he raised his residential buildings on pylons and planned common use spaces for neighbors on the upper floor, what in French is called la toit-terrasse. The importance of public space is seen when we lack it. We can experience it in the residential neighborhoods of the upper area, where commercial activity is scarce. There is the street, but the ground floors are missing. And we were able to experience it, above all, during the confinement due to the pandemic, when interaction in public spaces was limited and many businesses on the ground floors had to close. It was an unprecedented anomaly that altered our lives and even our minds.
Without questioning the value and architectural influence of Le Corbusier, I prefer our ground floor model integrated into the public space. Long.
