Return the streets to the people, says Barcelona’s urban ecologist
Christchurch needs many more streets like New Regent and Cashel and the experimental redesign of Gloucester St is “gorgeous” and “magnificent”, according to the designer who helped lead the urban regeneration of Barcelona, Spain.
Gloucester St in the CBD is “so peaceful”, says Salvador Rueda, director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona since 2000. The few cars that passed purred along at low speed. Cyclists weaved through pedestrians, who were roaming down the middle of the road. Some street furniture got customers.
Central Christchurch had a “very huge opportunity ... but something is wrong”, Rueda said. The density is far too low. The central city should be the most dense place in town, not low density like the suburbs. “That is very, very wrong.”
There are also too many cars. “The car culture is perhaps the most serious problem in our cities, it's huge,” Rueda said.
The 10-week, $1.4 million Gloucester St experiment is contentious because it cost so much and lowered vehicle access to businesses and proposed developments.
The trial ends March 18, with hearings expected for April and a decision by councillors expected in June.
Rueda is best known for designing Barcelona’s “superblocks”. These are about 600m by 600m in built-up areas, but retrofitted to exclude almost all car traffic. They are culde-sacs for cars: One route in and out.
Residents can drive in (slowly) to drop off groceries or pick-up their nana. New fridges get delivered, rubbish removed. Emergency services have full access, but buses have none.
The roads are mostly turned over to walkers, cyclists, scooters, cafés, playgrounds, trees and plantings. There can be festivals, concerts, markets and protests.
“We need ... to put the people in the centre of the [city], not cars,” Rueda said.
The roads outside the superblocks carry the buses, cargo trucks and cross-town traffic. There are 50 superblocks in Barcelona and plans for 300.
When proposed, the Barcelona superblocks provoked “very aggressive” opposition. Now, you would be “dead” if you wanted to bring the cars back, he said.
Rueda owns a car – it’s an “amazing artefact” – but almost never drives. People called the plans “anti-car” and were instantly opposed, Jessica Halliday of Christchurch’s Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making, said.
“There’s room here to take a similar approach to the use of public space.”
Rueda had been “doing this his whole career”, she said. “He deeply cares how cities work and how to make them work better,” said Halliday, who hosted a public talk by Reuda on Thursday night. He didn’t tell Christchurch to implement superblocks immediately, but to think harder about the city’s future.
In theory, a Christchurch superblock might start at Armagh (at Te Pae), run along the river to Lichfield (Riverside Market), east to Manchester (the east frame), and north to the Margaret Mahy Family Playground and river. It would be a grid of Cashel streets.