The Mercabarna Flower Market
(@BLAU)Master Plan Port de Barcelona 2005-2015.
The main reflection we must be aware of while analyzing cities by the sea is that, during previous centuries the ports were the origin of those cities. Some of them developed into big cities because of that, and then, kept on developing in order to be able to compete against other cities and still stand
as big cities.
The ports, meanwhile, due to their oversizement, became places of low interest due to their proximity to those large cities which they contributed to create. And the cities started a slow regeneration process along their waterfronts as a revitalization strategy.
What would happen if the port idea definition guides us to other conclusions? Could we nowadays dare to think that the port is not a continental platform, but a maritime platform? And that the ships should not come to us, but we come to the ships?
This concept would create a new idea about how to take advantage of the docks, recycle the buildings, occupy and create new infrastructures: We have to redefine a new future for that, a new ambitious plan.
Willy Müller. “Port”, Diccionari d’Arquitectura Avançada Metàpolis.
Barcelona, Actar, 2001
