Insights on the spatial configuration of collective spaces within forming dynamics: the relation between infrastructure and urban transformation in Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes

Abstract

The research seeks to produce insights on the spatial configuration of collective spaces where large scale
 infrastructure propels urban transformation. Focusing on the meaning, character and programmatic qualities
 of urban spaces in transformation as outcomes of fluctuating processes, it deals with complex spatial forming
 dynamics of urban streetscapes: the non-traditional conjugations of spaces, boundaries and territories.
 These spaces foster unexpected notions of proximity, territoriality, permeability and critical boundaries,
 investigated by means of specific parameters manifesting and interacting in time. This can help upgrade the
 design of architecture and urban projects to innovative techno-cultural practices and improve their integration
 in the urban fabric; urgent matter within the hyper-complex conditions of contemporary urban realities. The
 case of Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes in Barcelona, where a car-oriented open-space based on a variety of
 spatial manifestations turns into a formalized urban centrality, is used to unveil the complex convergence of
 streetscapes and urban infrastructures in contemporary urban transformations.