266 The Barcelona Region’s land mosaic
Figure 10.1Edge park concept for a town or small city in the urban-region ring. For
thenumerous outward-expanding towns often present in an urban region, generic
solutions such as illustrated may be tailored to each town’s distinctiveness. The edge
park design (here an allee and series of small ‘‘outdoor rooms”) highlights four
values: (a) greenspace amenity for the existing adjoining neighborhood; (b) amenity
forafuture adjoining neighborhood that develops on the outside; (c) corridor for
movement of some species; and (d) connection to a stream corridor which
commonly slices across the land and into a town, thus facilitating species
movement and a potential walking-trail system. Also note the compact town
development and the node of small and medium industry at the edge of town,
providing ready access to employment and limiting commuter-vehicle traffic.
Adapted from Taco I. Matthews drawing (Forman 2004a).Nature and people in municipalities
Twoquite different targets are addressed here. First, for the numerous
towns and small cities present, are attributes which, when multiplied many-
fold, may have a major cumulative effect across the region. Second outlines
the solution for the most controversial spot in the region, the lower Llobregat
floodplain delta right next to the city.Towns andsmall cities
Towns andsmall cities in the region often show a rather nice logic.
Ahistoric distinctive residential and shopping core is surrounded by newer
multi-story residential and commercial areas, and on the edge of the built-up
area, small and medium industry of recent decades is aggregated in spots, and