Remodelling the Ramblas

A view down the Ramblas

A survey carried out by La Vanguardia in 2007 estimated that 100 million people walk down Las Ramblas every single year, or which a staggering 81% were tourists.

What was once the iconic heart of Barcelona was fast becoming a place the locals would want to avoid – it was too crowded, its restaurants and bars were overpriced and it was the most likely place in the city to have your bag snatched.

Las Ramblas was, in early times, a gully running down from Collserola. The word rambla itself originates from the Arabic word meaning a dry stream. Through the centuries, long stretches of the gully were filled in, resulting in the five distinct Ramblas we are left with today.

It has always been a special place in the hearts of the Barcelona people. During the 1930s, football fans would congregate at the Font de Canaletes to read the Catalan teams’ results from a chalk board there and even today Barça followers tend to head that way after a trophy has been won.

In an attempt to bring Las Ramblas back into the hearts of the citizens of the city, and to spread the tourists to other parts of Barcelona, Design Hub Barcelona has presented a project for public consultation known as ‘Multirambles – BCN 6 T’. The 6T of the subtitle refers to six important aspects of the city’s future – talent, technology, tolerance, tourism, territory and time.

This project proposes various elements all designed to link Las Ramblas with the area near the MACBA museum, the Ciutat Vella, the Moll de la Fusta seafront and the southern end of L’Eixample. Specific elements of the plan include such ground breaking ideas as pedestrianising Plaça Catalunya and Passeig de Colom; constructing a brand new pedestrian walkway linking the Drassanes shipyards, the Liceu Theatre, MACBA and the cathedral; and generally revitalising the public buildings along Moll de la Fusta.

Barcelona is a city justifiably proud of the manner in which it continually reinvents itself, whilst being able to maintain that precious continuity with its historical legacy. At the moment, the Las Ramblas remodeling plans are open to public comment and are simply at the discussion stage. The plans are symptomatic, though, of a city that is never content just to leave things as they are, it is always trying to make things better.