Plaça Països Catalans

Plaça Països Catalans
1981-1983
Presented by Mathias Fitzer

This plaza, by Enric Miralles, Helio Pinon, and Albert Vaiplana, was the first major public space project after the Franco era and was intended to erase negative association with the late dictator. Many critics will say that, by doing so, it has erased all association with anything. The Project for Public Spaces lists this plaza on their Hall of Shame, calling it an "empty, useless disaster of a space." A description of the elements that make up the plaza are "fountains that bring to mind rows of stylized dripping faucets; tables and seating suitable for a post-apocalyptic picnic; a covered walkway that offers no protection from sun and rain; nighttime lighting so bright it could foil prison escapes." However, where the plaza fails, one could say it also succeeds. The plaza sits as an entrance to the city from the Sants train station, whose train platforms are concealed beneath its surface. Its emptiness offers a break between the stress of traveling and the activity of the city, just like it offers a break between the architecture of the Franco dictatorship and the more democratic architecture of the present. Its current state is run-down and a majority of its patrons are on skateboards, but the plaza serves its purpose as a release of pressure in both a historical context and from the perspective of a traveler.