Interpreting the Venustas Barcinonensis

Abstract

The expansion and improvement plan of Barcelona city was approved in 1859. 150 years later, the district of Eixample is considered one of the most versatile and successful urban pattern in Western Europe. Ildefons Cerdà was its designer, Modernism is its artistic style and residents are its soul. The aim of this article is study in depth an unprecedented aspect in project and implementation: Is the Eixample of Barcelona beautiful? The answer to this question is resolved through five hypotheses: artistic value versus scientific qualities, regular structure versus singular emplacement, human scale versus regional perspective, scenography versus dynamic city and social identity versus cultural heritage. Beauty is not only in a well-built design, it is in correspondence between solid and flow, between Architecture and mobility, between permanence and tentativeness.