URBAN RAMBLA
Borrowing from topographic site conditions and Manresa’s industrial history, this hybrid complex spans across literal and figurative voids to unify a city hopeful to clarify its identity.
Project Name
La Torrent San Ignasi
Project Type
Comprehensive Studio
Advisors
Margarita Jover / Charlie Menefee / Nana Last
Dates
09.2013 - 05.2014
Location
Manresa, Spain
As the birthplace of the Jesuit Order, Manresa, Spain will be celebrating the 500 year anniversary of St. Ignatius Loyola’s arrival by welcoming thousands following the pilgrimage route. This momentous occasion calls for a new project that can accommodate the population influx while generating new social and economic growth.
Akin to the fractured geology of the region, the citizens have divided themselves demographically through a mass movement away from the historic city center. This proposal reverses this trend by embracing the natural flow of the buried San Ignasi Rambla as the new Urban Rambla. The city topography will restructure the logic of its re-programming. The northern end of the Urban Rambla will be highlighted by a new industrial research campus, while the southern terminus will link with the existing rail line that clarifies the entry to the Manresa for those arriving from Barcelona. This implementation of the urban street form as a means of collecting citizens and distributing them throughout a new sequence of civic and cultural institutions will remind Manresans of their past while looking ahead to the future.
Urban Strategies
Three distinct urban issues plague Manresa, but all can be remedied through a comprehensive restructuring of the movement of people, water and information through the heart of the city (the “Axis of Knowledge”).
The EXCHANGE phase of the urban strategy occurs here, where the city meets the river.