Cerda and Barcelona : research and plan

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution had a huge impact on nineteenth century cities had plans to expand the "old city". Due to its historical controversy a plans developed during that time was the Eixample plan in Barcelona. The Eixample plan is the result of a controversial competition won in as a Civil Engineer and influenced by the Socialist thinkers of the time like Etienne, Cabet carried out meticulous studies of the living conditions inside t the old city. In the 1850's, Barcelona was going through an era of rapid industrial the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, the introduction of factories, and the conditions inside the wall worsened. As a result, epidemics like cholera beset the most advanced city in Spain was also, at some level, the most inhuman. Cedá's plan was different from others in the sense that it was a ... on an egalitarian grid, an economic proposal, and a comprehensive circulation important aspect of the plan was that Cedá's design intention was not only a functionality was a response to the industrial society's conditions. Due to hi! and his radical, utopian, and egalitarian proposal, his plan was not well received the central government. It eventually took decades for Catalans to digest and applaud Cedá's work. The main purpose of this thesis is to reveal Cedá's vision, that of an technical mind. Although much research has been done about the Eixample the meticulous, almost obsessive studies Cedá did of conditions inside thew the physical plan. This thesis, first of all, describes the city's conditions and how Cedá was receptive to them. Secondly, it shows how he combined a vision with the capacity to think about cities as shifting social entities, receptive to infinite agents. finally, it describes Cedá's design approach and the result of that process: the Eixample plan and how it exists in todays world, making it a remarkable urban design example.