Green coverage of the Ronda de Dalt highway

The green coverage of the Ronda de Dalt is a square configured with a productive wooden pergola, transforming a public space into a biodiverse climate refuge. Its design aligns with the climatic emergency in which we find ourselves, achieving a new public space on the Ronda de Dalt highway that connects the city, cultivating life, using natural materials, and producing renewable energy. This new square is located on the Ronda de Dalt, connecting two Barcelona neighbourhoods. This emblematic ring road was inaugurated for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, becoming a success as road infrastructure. However, its deficiencies as a public space meant that it did not take long to think about its coverage. Thirty years later, this infrastructure has been recovered as an active part of the free spaces system of our city, giving importance to walking, the neighbours interaction and our streets’ pacification. Thanks to the shadow generated, the pergolas helps to control the surface temperature of the public space, neutralizing the paved areas and making this space a new green lung for the city. In addition, special attention has been paid to the design of the green zone to ensure that it complies with the requirements of gender and inclusive urban planning, avoiding the creation of hidden spaces, dead spots, or dark spaces, creating a safe public space for everyone. A linear garden of autochthonous species will allow us to re-naturalize this part of the city gained from cars, making it healthier. Accompanying the vegetation, some stone steps from a nearby quarry create different meeting spaces, where the citizen can escape the noise and the intrinsic speed of the city, to really feel in a rest and connection with nature space. For the materialization of the new civic axis, aware of the weight that architecture has in the climate emergency, we have opted for materials that allow us to carry out a sustainable and healthy development of our cities. Proximity, recyclable materials are used with minimal CO₂ consumption, defining the closed cycle of resources. For the materialization of the pergolas, we have opted for wood, a natural, sustainable and renewable material that has excellent technical qualities for use in practically any type of construction. The vertical cut ends of the beams and the placement of an upper finishing piece, protect the points most susceptible to water ingress, preserving the material from deterioration. In addition, the stainless-steel joints ensure the maximum durability of the structure. It has also been an opportunity to create a productive landscape, placing photovoltaic panels on the pergola, which will provide energy to one of the closest facilities. This project is the seed of the transformation of the Ronda de Dalt to promote social connectivity, amplify the ecological connectors and generate productive spaces for the Barcelona of the 21st century.