The Miquel Blay boulevard, known as “El Firal”, and the Bisbe Guillament boulevard (El Firalet) are together one of the most emblematic places in the city. Located in the center, these two tree-lined streets contain some of the most relevant buildings in the city, including the City Hall, the Main Theater, Casa Sola-Morales and Casa Gaietà Vila.
Historically, “El Firal” was a space for meeting and coming together of the citizens. It currently hosts a large number of activities, including the weekly open-air market and the main Olot festivities such as the “Festes del Tura”, which require flexibility and versatility in this public space. In this sense, the proposal intended to reverse the situation of recent years, in which the pavement, urban elements and other pieces presented a high level of heterogeneity due to improvised solutions that had taken place across recent decades, limiting versatility and functionality.
Central to the intervention is the proposal’s elimination of road traffic on the passage, limited to what is strictly necessary and establishing a traffic strategy for nearby streets that permit pacifying this part of the city.
In order to achieve these goals, the proposal uses different existing structures to provide a new sense of functionality to this space, so representative of the city of Olot. The strategy consists of defining the limits of “El Firal” and “El Firalet”, with the understanding that these spaces are protagonists both historically and culturally in the life of the city. Thus the project proposes a series of strategies for the materials of the different pavements, urban buildings and lighting to highlight the limits of these spaces, while at the same time they are totally permeable. In demarcating the geometry of these two boulevards, the interstitial space is solved with a simple topographic movement, providing a new plaza in the city, which brings together both public spaces while providing the functional capacity required by the municipality.
This new central space between “El Firal” and “El Firalet” provides for a multiplicity of uses, thanks to its open character. It solves the topographic discontinuity, eliminating all barriers and providing for children’s play spaces, a stage and an open plaza for events of all kinds.
Team:
Architects: Jaume Bach, Anna Bach, Eugeni Bach, Xevi Bayona, Alba Colomer, architects. Lluís Pauné, civil engineer.
Collaborators: Angel Rico, architect.
Promoter: Municipality of Olot
Constructor: Rubau-Tarrés SAU
Photographs: Adrià Goula, Eugeni Bach
Aereal photo: Eduard Masdé
