Baricentro junction. AP-7 / C-58 / N-150

The Baricentro junction is seen as an opportunity to strengthen metropolitan relations. A strategy is proposed at different scales that aims to transform the N-150 into a civic metropolitan avenue , connecting the municipalities and improving accessibility to the surrounding natural spaces. The square created on the N-150 is an element that adds urbanity and breaks up the linearity of the inter-urban road.
The proposal also includes the intensification of existing commercial uses around the junction and a recreational programme inspired by Coney Island or Tibidabo. This approach is compatible with existing uses, while at the same time it proposes new uses and activities in the area of the junction and allows for the densification of the railway station environment. The immediate area of the station neighbourhood provides urban continuity and offers mixed uses. It also has an impact on the urban metabolism, since green spaces between infrastructures are used to generate renewable energy; spaces that are self-sustaining thanks to livestock.
The jury values highly the proposal to create a new urbanity to transform an intersection into a multifunctional metropolitan crossroads with an innovative programme: an energy-generating and recreational park.

Green infrastructure is the key element for connecting the territory.  Based on an environmental strategy aimed at the restoration and improvement of ecosystems, the proposal envisages the rationalisation of existing mobility infrastructures, the improvement of ecological connectivity, the increase of active mobility and public transport, and the transversal connection between existing nuclei.     
The space between rivers recovers its environmental value thanks to the recognition of potential habitats to improve its biodiversity, its ecological function and the recovery of ecosystem services.

The Baricentro shopping centre is transformed to become something more than the typical prototype of a large retail area next to the motorway. The space currently occupied by the car park will be freed up to link its uses with the natural environment. The proposal therefore offers a more open and permeable multifunctional centre that connects the park with the urban fabric.

What the jury values most about this project is the separation of mobility uses proposed on the two existing branches of the N-150. One branch is dedicated to motorised vehicles and the other to active mobility.

Thanks to a "magic wand", the infrastructures are transformed to obtain maximum benefits with minimum resources. Three operations are proposed that take advantage of the      pre-existing elements to regenerate the territory: a network      of ecocorridors      that links intermodalities and re     interprets the infrastructure as an ecological resource, a "super-sponge" that allows the      porosity of the land and urban fabric, and a "super-junction" that enhances the resilience of the landscape. Priority is given to the network of eco-corridors based on nature-based solutions to enhance the natural water cycle and improve the resilience of the territory.
A new elevated infrastructure, called the "magic wand", connects the different activities and forms a shortcut of active mobility between the two river areas. This new axis acts as a connector of a currently fragmented territory and forms a large balcony in the land between rivers.
The jury values highly this element which enables transversal connectivity and ecological connectivity underneath.

A green link could be the solution to enhance inter-municipal connectivity. This project proposes the progressive construction of a new metropolitan centrality, distributed and connected by the inter-municipal green ring,  which creates a naturalised urban landscape around the junction. The landscape is the driving force behind the reconversion of the road junction:      it reorganises existing     road connections and creates new ones for      pedestrians and bicycles, to connect the proposed settlements, the intermodal station and the open spaces. A central green space is designed      with a network of inter-municipal paths favouring active mobility between municipalities and access to open spaces      .    
The road junction is complemented by four independent urban development sectors:  the area around the N-150 south as a gateway to Ripollet and Cerdanyola del Vallès, a sector that offers urban integration and a new functional programme of urban regeneration and landscape integration for Baricentro, the Rivière sector and La Clota  and, finally, the area around the N-150 north, as a new gateway to Barberà del Vallès.
The jury values highly       the versatility of the proposal, as it proposes new routes for active mobility and creates a centrality that interweaves the fabrics around the junction, as well as a large central green space.   

A forest regenerates the interior of the Baricentro junction.  Baricentro forest , covering more than 350 hectares, houses a new centrality with a mobility interchange and urban fabrics that are based on regenerative urbanism and  also take into account the natural ecosystems. The forest strategy, called Plan #28, bases this transformation on the regeneration of ecosystems; it prioritises the environment and people's health as a new paradigm of biological and ecological urbanism.

A network of roads dedicated to active mobility is proposed with a geometry based on a Voronoi diagram, which breaks the orthogonality of cities designed for road traffic mobility and proposes an organic network that maximises the ecological relationships of ecosystems, the water cycle and   the laws of nature. 

The jury were impressed with the narrative of regenerative urbanism  and the commitment to introduce activity and intensity in the junction.