Overview

Banyoles’ old town used to be a deteriorated area in which vehicles and pedestrians cohabitated around an urban system of narrow streets and old sidewalks.
The irrigation canals that originally were clean had become part of the sewer system of the city. Around Central Square, sidewalks turned into random parking lots limiting pedestrian access to the whole area. The refurbishing process was to pedestrianize the whole area, removing all the old sidewalks, and returning the centre to its inhabitants. As all the enigmatic buildings, churches, medieval houses or monuments were raised with travertine, the new intervention is planned with the same calcareous stone, that always was present in the city’s subsoil. The departing point is to cover Central Square (the most relevant part of the project) using a tessellation of travertine.
The proliferation of this tiling arrives in the streets and minor squares in different phases of the project. The irrigation system is uncovered intermittently across the pedestrian ways and eventually opened in bigger sections so children can play as if they were in front of a puddle of water.
Re-paving the city centre opens a new pedestrian area and corresponds to a part of Banyoles in which the traces of the medieval age are still present. In fact, the urban planning at the historical centre shows up as a sequence of squares. Most of these names are given due to the buildings to which the squares give access (mainly churches and museums). The project restores the circulation of people and water through the old town of Banyoles, giving them back the itineraries they occupied originally.