Description:

Geographically, the mountains, the Mediterranean Sea, and the rivers surround Barcelona, Spain. These natural boundaries, therefore, have determined the formation of the two-part traffic belt that currently circumscribes the city, which was built as part of the completion and improvement of Barcelona’s traffic network for the Olympic Games of 1992.  The beltway that transformed the urban configuration of the city, defining and revealing it on a new scale and in new de-centered perspective, is now itself being overtaken and supplanted by the growth of the city to meet the larger boundaries of the Metropolitan region. These ring roads, therefore, are fast being transformed from border to center as the peripheral counties are incorporated into the daily life of the city and the ring roads become a significant connector for a polycentric territory.  My research will focus on the beltway, seeking to understand how they affect the representation and imaging of the city, as well as to understand what happens when this very new image is transformed by further urban growth.

The Barcelona ring offers a continuously varied landscape, from the high road of the Ronda de Dalt, a view over the city that spreads out in panoramic miniature to the subterranean roadways of the Ronda Litoral. From the Rondas one can see how the city is organized and how it presents itself.  My research is centered on this aspect of image construction.  How does Barcelona display itself?  How is the city represented from the ring road?  What urban representations are legible, both from outside the Rondas and from within?  How do commuters, foreigners, locals, and other travelers “read” the city as it meets the ring?  Beyond this, as the Rondas become more “central”, how is this new city identity re-configured, literally and figuratively?  What are the spatial and temporal hierarchies that inform this identification process?  What kind of cultural and economic exchange does it generate?  The aim, then, of my research project is to understand how Barcelona, as a particularly urban-conscious and rapidly expanding European city of today, is both [re] presented and recognized by its various consumers.

Currently I am in Barcelona gathering documentation including drawings (plans and sections of the ring roads and their immediate surroundings), GIS information of land use, and photographic and video materials.  The video will be use to construct several continuous panoramic photos that show views of the city from the ring road.   There is also a pending trip to Amsterdam this April to understand how their ring roads differ from the ones in Barcelona.   These comparative studies will serve as an understanding of the functions and the affects of ring roads in cities today.

Cecilia M. Tham MArch I '02