Jardí Botànic de Barcelona
Project history
JBB is located on the northern slopes of the hill of
Montjuïc, next to the Olympic Stadium. The terrain
resembles an amphitheatre facing south-west, with
overwhelming views toward the Barcelona skyline.
The garden is at an altitude of 150m above sea
level and the topography is difficult, with slopes
of up to 30 per cent with a difference of 50m bet-
ween the highest and lowest points. It has a mild
Mediterranean climate and it receives moisture
from the sea, which condenses in the shade of the
hill.
The soil horizons have very uneven properties and
depths. According to a geotechnical study, approx-
imately 50 per cent of the JBB surface was a for-
mer rubbish dump with deposits up to 20m deep
in some areas, whereas much of the rest of the
ground is stony.
The site used to be a sort of suburban pine forest
until the 1960s, when it became an informal
shanty quarter for migrants from southern Spain.
In the gestation period for Barcelona’s 1992
Olympics Games, Montjuïc Mountain became
one of the epicentres of the city’s transforma-
tion. In 1986 the municipality commissioned the
Botanical Institute of Barcelona to make a plan
for its future and for its 1930s Botanical Garden,
which was affected by the Olympic Ring works.
At that time, the idea of looking for a new loca-
tion for the Botanical Garden was raised, and a
17ha site was assigned just behind the Olympic
Stadium. An international ‘Ideas Competition’
was held in 1988. The winning entry by Ferrater,
Figueras, Pedrola, Bossy and Canosa was announ-
ced in 1989.In 1994, a detailed scheme proposal was com-
missioned and an application for European Union
funding was requested, on the grounds that the
new Botanical Garden was to be built on top of
a former rubbish dump. The European funding
was granted in 1997. The detailed Masterplan,
including civil works as well as an overall planting
scheme, was presented in October 1997 under
the title ‘Recovery of an Urban Solid Rubbish
Dump into Barcelona’s Botanical Garden’. The
engineering works started in December of the
same year.The official inauguration date was fixed for April- Within a 17-month working period it was not
economically or logistically possible to implement
all the planting envisioned in the Masterplan, and
it also proved difficult to obtain many of the target
species. For this reason a new competition was
established for an initial planting scheme. The
objectives behind the inaugural planting scheme
were to provide a first impression of the future