THE WALDEN 7 EXPERIENCE: HOUSING AS PLURALISATION OF THE NON-CONVENTIONAL

Abstract

The Walden 7 (1970–75) is a housing building that remains a unique example of what could have been a City in Space, the research undertaken throughout the 1960s by Ricardo Bofill and a team of architects, artists, engineers, mathematicians, writers and poets. Widely debated and analysed both in the generalist and the specialised press, the Walden 7 tends to be seen as a utopian experience that alludes to a way of living in society which is paradigmatic of its time. However, the closer social and cultural context —the Barcelona that saw (and made possible) the birth of the work— has not yet been sufficiently explored. It is our purpose to demonstrate that the design of the interior spaces, although corresponding to a social model that was beginning to find acceptance, is a reflection of an unconventional lifestyle that an elite of Barcelona already practised. After a résumé of the ideas of the City in Space, the paper seeks to clarify the extent to which the book Walden Two was influential in the conception of an alternative social model, and to what extent informality was already a manifest characteristic in the interior design of small works contemporary to the Walden 7. Both aspects are taken up in the analysis of the building’s cells, which seeks to emphasise the spatial strategies intended for an individualistic, although festive and hedonistic, use of the dwelling. A usage that was common to a select few was now devised for a large majority.