Master Thesis





The goal of this project is to recover a missing connection between the foothills of the Garraf Mountains and the Valley of Baix Llobregat. In recent years, this area has been divided by heavy infrastructure developments running parallel to the shore. However, the water flows have since time immemorial drawn a characteristic landscape pattern perpendicular to these infrastructures which has led, during the past few centuries, to the creation of paths, agricultural plots, property divisions and urban settlements linking the mountains with the sea. The project consists of an avenue and a pedestrian bridge that crosses a highway and a train line and that gradually changes from housing and services, when close to town, to greenhouses, when close to agricultural land. It runs from the core of Viladecans to the train station and subsequently into the agricultural park, thus enhancing the missing transition. This inhabited bridge is covered by a brise-soleil made of solar panels which provide energy to the prefabricated housing units and some shading to the terraces on top of each dwelling. The solar panels disappear whenever the greenhouses start to appear allowing the sun to be filtered effectively in every situation. In the end, two sides of the territory are re-linked by combining the agriculture with the living; functions that are already there but in a disorganized manner. This urban transition becomes a new benchmark for future urban and landscape regenerations of the whole valley.