Barcelona

Mobile phone theft is also a popular petty theft crime when tourists leave their phones on tabletops. http://www.bricolage.cc. It is not uncommon for thieves to cut bags and backpack straps. In information technology, Bricolage is an open-source content management system. Internet cafes are a popular target in general. By valuing tinkering and allowing SIS to evolve from the bottom-up, rather than implementing it from the top-down, the firm will end up with something that is deeply rooted in the organisational culture that is specific to that firm and is much less easily imitated. Areas where one should be particularly careful are the Barri Gòtic, El Raval, and the Ramblas. In information systems, bricolage is used by Claudio Ciborra to describe the way in which Strategic Information Systems (SIS) can be built in order to maintain successful competitive advantage over a longer period of time than standard SIS.

The problem is compounded by the few policemen "walking the beat" in Barcelona, even though the city has one of the highest police to citizen ratios in Europe. Contrary to the analytical style of solving problems he describes bricolage as a way to learn and solve problems by trying, testing, playing around. Stealing money or goods worth less than about $360 without the use or threat of violence is classified as hurto or petty theft under Spanish law and is treated as a minor misdemeanor no matter how many times it is repeated. In the discussion of contructionism Seymour Papert discusses two styles of solving problems. Many pickpockets are known to the police and some have been arrested hundreds of times only to be released once the police have filled in a report. The term was coined by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. They usually work in groups whereby the victim is distracted by one party while being robbed by another party. For example, the safety pin became a form of decoration in punk culture.

Barcelona, like other big cities, has a large number of criminals who mainly prey on tourists. Here, objects that possess one meaning (or no meaning) in the dominant culture are acquired and given a new, often subversive meaning. The urban design by Eduard Bru created a terraced sequence of belvedere-like platforms with views of the city. In particular, it is a feature of subcultures such as, for example, the punk movement. One notable site is the Vall d'Hebron, a deep ravine in the foothills of the Collserola range north of the city. In cultural studies bricolage is used to mean the processes by which people acquire objects from across social divisions to create new cultural identities. For example, the upgrades to Montjuïc and the seaside industrial areas for the 1992 Olympic Games were accompanied by the building of recreational facilities in other parts of the city lacking development. (Molino 2000, p.169).

This program of planned parks is often among the civic improvements for which the city actively seeks international events as spurs for redevelopment. In biology the biologist François Jacob uses the term bricolage to describe the apparently cobbled-together character of much biological structure, and views it as a consequence of the evolutionary history of the organism. Some examples (note that many are not in Barcelona per se but on its metro area):. See also: Merz, polystylism, collage. Though the budgets may be small, the level of ingenuity and care in design and implementation is often very high. These materials may be mass-produced or "junk". Typically these new parks are carefully designed by architects, planners and landscape architects concerned not just with functional elements, but also with the unique characteristics of the site and its position in a layered understanding of the city. In art, bricolage is a technique where works are constructed from various materials available or on hand, and is seen as a characteristic of postmodern works.

The purpose of this program has been to reclaim space for the public which is threatened either by neglect or overdevelopment. . Since 1983 a formal program of park creation has been carried out by the Mancomunitat de Municipis de l'Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. A bricoleur is a person who creates things from scratch, is creative and resourceful: a person who collects information and things and then puts them together in a way that they were not originally designed to do. This park, designed by Luis Peña Ganchegui and Francesc Rius Camps and completed in 1985 integrated the industrial shapes of the site with a dominant water feature and displays of sculpture. A person who engages in bricolage is a bricoleur. At the same time, the neighboring Vapor Nou factory, was converted into the Parc de la Espanya Industrial for public recreation. Bricolage is also often contrasted to engineering: building by trial and error rather than based on theory.

In 1983 the Plaça dels Països Catalans in front of the Sants railway station was redesigned by Helio Piñon Pallares and Albert Vaiplana Vea in pink granite paving with an undulating metal pergola and various hard furnishings that have become popular with skateboarders. Bricolage – from the French-language verb bricoler, meaning "to tinker" or "to fiddle" – is that language's equivalent of the English phrase "do-it-yourself". Montjuïc Stadium was renovated and expanded by Vittorio Gregotti for the 1992 Olympic Games. "From Thinking to Tinkering: The Grassroots of Strategic Information Systems", The Information Society 8, 297-309. The German Pavilion, a landmark of modern architecture designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for this Exhibition was exhaustively reconstructed on its original site in 1986. Ciborra, C (1992). It is chiefly notable now for the cultural institutions that use the former palaces and exposition buildings. ISBN 0262232065.

Rubio Tuduri. Cambridge, Mass: A Bradford Book, The MIT Press. Forestier and architect Nicolas M. "Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Music and Language", The Origins of Music. N. Molino, Jean (2000). The site of the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929 and 1930, the Parc de Montjuïc was laid out by engineer Jean C.

See separate article on Parc Güell (1914), the large fantastical park designed by Antoni Gaudí for a housing estate and opened to the public in 1922. See above for a description of the Rambles. Besides the beaches, the Rambles and Parc Güell are the most famous of these. Barcelona, with its mild weather and dense medieval centre, is renowned for its parks and open spaces.

Barcelona has recently adopted another transport option with two new tram lines known as Trambaix and Trambesòs. See List of Barcelona metro stations. Barcelona's transit company, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), runs the Barcelona Metro system and city bus. Renfe and the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) run Barcelona's widespread commuter train service.

The AVE high-speed rail system was recently extended from Madrid to Lleida in western Catalonia, and is expected to reach Barcelona by 2007. Barcelona is a hub for RENFE, the Spanish state railway network, and its main suburban train station is Sants-Estació (which is under renovation and enlargement at present in order to prepare for the arrival of the AVE system). In addition to its port, of great historical and contemporary commercial importance, Barcelona is served by El Prat International Airport ('El Prat') in the town of El Prat de Llobregat. UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Barcelona:.

In addition to the University of Barcelona, the city is home to the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Technical University of Catalonia, the Ramon Llull University and the International University of Catalonia. Near Barcelona, in Montmeló, the Circuit de Catalunya racetrack hosts the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix. FC Barcelona has also internationally known basketball and handball teams that play at the Palau Blaugrana, situated in the same complex as the Camp Nou. Barcelona is the home city of two internationally-known football teams: FC Barcelona, also known as Barça, who play at the 100,000 capacity Camp Nou stadium, and RCD Espanyol, who play at the 56,000 capacity Olympic Stadium.

There's also the Torre de Collserola, a telecommunications tower designed by Norman Foster which also has a windowed balcony with a great view over the city. The church mosaics provide a curious example of the religious art style much in vogue during the dictatorship. Uptown is the hill of the Tibidabo, 512 meters high, with an amusement park (which, after a long economic struggle, now belongs to the city council) and a monumental church on its summit. On the way down, there could be found the Botanical Gardens and the Costa i Llobera gardens, with an unique cactus collection.

Around the hill are a group of installations known as the "olympic ring" and that were the heart of the 1992 summer olympics: the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium (originally built in 1929 but completely refurbished for the 1992 olympics), the Palau Sant Jordi (a multi-purpose installation designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, used primarily for all kinds of indoor sport events but also for concerts and other cultural activities) and the Bernat Picornell Pools. On its top is an old fortress which used to guard the entrance to the port. One, Montjuïc hill, is next to the harbour and perched above a large container terminal. For spectacular views over the city and the coast line there are two hills.

Visitors should note that the opening times of Barcelona's museums vary considerably and are often highly inconvenient; careful planning is recommended to avoid wasted trips. The Fundació Antoni Tàpies holds a collection of Tàpies works. The building was designed by the American architect Richard Meier. The Contemporary Art Museum is also worth a visit, not only because of its paintings and sculptures, but because of its architecture.

The National Museum of Art of Catalonia (in the Palau Nacional left behind by the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition) possesses a well-known collection of Romanesque art, including wall-paintings of Romanesque churches and chapels around Catalonia that have been transferred to the museum. There is also a unique museum featuring the lesser known works of Pablo Picasso from his earlier period. Art visits include the museum of the Fundació Joan Miró,hi where several paintings and sculptures of this artist are shown, together with guest exhibitions from other museums around the world. Many of these have now been levelled to make room for the city's ill-starred "22@" project to build an area for ICT-based firms.

Property speculation is also blighting other areas of the city, including the 19th century Poble Nou district with its many interesting buildings dating from Catalonia's Industrial Revolution. In recent years, office developments along Passeig de Gràcia have been allowed to break up the architectural unity of the 19th and early 20th century buildings lining the avenue - a process which shows no signs of slackening. Several of these buildings and indeed the Sagrada Familia church itself are threatened by Mayor Clos' plans to build a large railway tunnel for high-speed trains under the city's shaky 19th century foundations. The most elegant avenue is the Passeig de Gràcia, where two Gaudí buildings are situated, the Casa Milà (La Pedrera) and the Casa Batlló, along with buildings by other famous modernista architects: Casa Ametller by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Casa Lleó Morera by Domènech i Montaner.

In the modern districts of the city are several avenues on which most of the international merchants offering clothing, jewelry, leather goods and other items have their stores. Another very notable modernist building in the older part of the city is the Palau de la Música Catalana, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built in 1908. The Sagrada Família is billed for completion in 2020. Outstanding is the legacy of architect Antoni Gaudí, who lived and worked in Barcelona, and who left several famous works like the Palau Güell in the city's old center, the Parc Güell at the northern tip of Gràcia, and the immense but still unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882, financed by popular donations like the cathedrals in the Middle Ages (However, it is not a cathedral: the cathedral of Barcelona is the Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia, a Gothic building of the late Middle Ages).

The park also contains science museums, like the zoology museum, housed in a modernist building. One of Barcelona's most famous residents, the late albino gorilla Copito de Nieve ("Snowflake"), lived and died recently at the zoo. To the north of downtown is the Parc de la Ciutadella, which includes both the Parlament de Catalunya (Catalan Parliament) and the Parc Zoològic de Barcelona (zoo). The old harbour offers all kinds of other amenities, including the second largest aquarium in the Mediterranean area and an IMAX cinema.

The buildings of the museum are the medieval Drassanes (shipyards), where the ships which sailed the Mediterranean were built. Next to it is the Museu Marítim (naval museum), which chronicles the history of life on the Mediterranean, including a full-scale model of a galley. Les Rambles ends at the old harbour, where a statue of Christopher Columbus points eastwards across the Mediterranean Sea to his birth place of Genoa. It is also worth keeping an eye out for pickpockets, for whom the boulevard is a favourite haunt.

There's also a Wax Museum near the end. Walking along Les Rambles one can see the world-famous opera house El Liceu, the food market of La Boqueria and the Plaça Reial (literally Royal square), with its arches and palm trees, amongst other interesting buildings. A notable feature is Les Rambles, a boulevard that runs from the city center to the waterfront, thronged with crowds until late at night and lined by florists, bird sellers in the higher part, craft sellers in the lowest, street entertainers, cafeterias, and restaurants. The historic city center is fairly flat, while the modern city fans out towards the surrounding hills, bordered by steep streets that are vaguely reminiscent of those found in San Francisco.

Barcelona offers a unique opportunity for the tourist on foot to walk from Roman remains to the medieval city, and then to the modern city with its open thoroughfares and grid-iron street pattern. The following list favors Catalan-language names over Spanish-language names; as of 2004, they are the most commonly used and the only official ones:. Barcelona is divided into several districts. Tibidabo, a prominent peak to the northwest, is visible from much of the city.

To its north, the city borders the Besòs river and the municipalities of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adrià de Besòs; to the south it borders the Zona Franca, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Esplugues de Llobregat; to the east is the Mediterranean; and to the west are Montcada i Reixach and Sant Cugat del Vallès. There are vast amounts of Moroccan, Pakistani's and Eastern Europeans, particularly immigrants from Romania and the Ukraine. Many of them are from Spain's former posessions in Latin America, mostly Ecuador, Argentina, and Colombia. The city of Barcelona being the second largest in Spain, has a fair amount of immigrants numbering 230,942.

See also: List of Counts of Barcelona. Famous people who have lived and worked in Barcelona include: master painters Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali, Antoni Tàpies, Enrique Tábara, Eugenio Granell, Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares architect Antoni Gaudi. The city's controversial 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures was held between May and September of the same year, lasting a marathon 141 days. Barcelona was the site of the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Despite massive immigration of Castilian speakers from other parts of Spain in the second half of the 20th century, there has been notable success in the increased use of Catalan in everyday life. The city has been the focus of the revival of the Catalan language. A decline in the inner city population and displacement towards the outskirts and beyond raises the threat of urban sprawl. While it may still be the second city of Spain, it has a charm and air that is unique and prized.

The protest movement of the 1970s and the demise of the dictatorship turned Barcelona into a centre of cultural vitality, enabling it to become the thriving city it is today. It was overrun by Francisco Franco's forces in 1939, which ushered in a reign of cultural and political repression that lasted decades. Barcelona was a stronghold for the anarchist cause -anarchist opposition to the call-up of reservists led to the city's Tragic Week in 1909- siding with the Republic's democratically elected government during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The beginning of the 20th century marked Barcelona's resurgence, while Catalan nationalists clamoured for political autonomy and greater freedom of cultural expression.

The fields that had surrounded the artificially constricted city became the Eixample ("extension"), a bustling modern city surrounding the old. The exposition also left behind the Arc de Triomf and the Museu de Zoologia (a building originally used during the fair as a cafe-restaurant). During a period of weaker control by the Madrid authorities, the medieval walls were torn down and the citadel of La Ribera was converted into an urban park: the modern Parc de la Ciutadella, site of the 1888 "Universal Exposition" (World's Fair). During the 19th century, Barcelona grew with the industrial revolution and the introduction of many new industries.

It was returned to Spain after Napoleon's downfall. Barcelona and the province of Catalonia were annexed by the French Empire of Napoleon after he invaded Spain and put his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. Official use of Catalan language was forbidden, and the University withdrew. King Philip V of Spain demolished half of the merchants' quarter (La Ribera) to build a military citadel, as a way of both punishing and controlling the rebel city.

The city was devastated after the Catalonian Republic of 1640 - 1652, and again during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. The city is home to the University of Barcelona, founded in 1450. The forging of a dynastic link between the Crown of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline. The counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include all of Catalonia, later formed the Crown of Aragon who conquered many overseas possessions, ruling the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories as far as to Athens in the 13th century.

Barcelona was still a Christian frontier territory when it was sacked by Al-Mansur in 985. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early 5th century, by the Moors in the early 8th century, reconquered from the emir in 801 by Charlemagne's son Louis who made Barcelona the seat of Carolingian "Spanish Marches" (Marca Hispanica), a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated in the cathedral butted up against them [1]; the basilica La Seu is credited to have been founded in 343. The Roman Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino was outshone by the province's capital Tarragona but some important Roman remains are exposed under the Plaça del Rei, entrance by the city museum, Museu d'Història de la Ciutat and the typically Roman grid-planning is still visible today on the map of the historical centre, the Barri Gótic ("Gothic Quarter").

About 15 BC, Romans redrew the town as a castrum (a Roman military camp) centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill nearby the contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Legend attributes the Carthaginian foundation of Barcino to Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal. . The mayor of Barcelona is Joan Clos.

2005), although this only covers 7,733 km² (3,000 mi²) around the city. Population of the province of Barcelona is 5,226,354 (est. 2005). 2005), while the population of the metropolitan area is 4,686,701 (est.

The population of the city proper is 1,593,075 (est. It is 160 km (100 mi) south of the Pyrenees mountain range. It is located in the comarca of Barcelonès, along the Mediterranean coast (41°23′N 2°11′E) between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs. Barcelona is the capital city of Catalonia.

Parc Nou del Prat, on the Llobregat delta, adjoining Sant Cosme and the airport. Once a quarry, now boasts an artificial lake that converts to public swimming pool in summer, and magnificent statue by Basque artist Eduardo Chillida. Parc de la Creueta del Coll, 1987, Oriol Bohigas, Josep Martorell, David Mackay, architects. Parc del Litoral, at the mouth of the River Besos.

Parc de les Planes, located at the boundary of three districts. Parc del Besós, La Mina housing estate. Fontsana, Sant Joan Despí on the site of a former refuse dump. Upgrading of Parc de Torreblanca, the historical site of an urban farm.

A narrow linear park defined by hedge walls and a grid of trees on the bank of the Congost River. Parc de Torrent Congost (Granollers), 1996, Enric Battle and Joan Roig. Parc de Canserra (Barberà del Vallès), 1996, Studio BCQ. Trees and a pool strengthen the sensual escape from the surrounding city.

The design recaptures the pattern of agricultural use using beds of flowering plants. Parc del Torrent Ballesters (Viladecans), 1997, Arturo Frediani/SOB Associates. A ramble built over parking spaces. Carrer Brasil, 1996, Olga Tarraso and Jordi Hernrich.

Parc Güell. Palau de la Música Catalana. Palau Güell. Hospital de Sant Pau.

Casa Milà (La Pedrera). Sant Martí: Fort Pius, Sant Martí de Provençals, Poble Nou, La Verneda, el Clot. Sant Andreu: Barri del Congrés, Sant Andreu de Palomar. Nou Barris: Can Peguera, Porta, Canyelles, Ciutat Meridiana, Guineueta, Prosperitat, Vallbona, Verdum, Vilapicina, Roquetes, Trinitat Vella, Trinitat Nova, Torre Baró, Torre Llobeta and Turó de la Peira.

Horta-Guinardó: Horta, El Carmel, La Teixonera, El Guinardó. Gràcia: Vallcarca, Barri de la Salut, Gràcia, El Camp d'en Grassot. Sarrià - Sant Gervasi: Pedralbes, Sarrià, Sant Gervasi, Vallvidrera. Les Corts.

Sants - Montjuïc: Can Tunis, Montjuïc, Hostafrancs, Sants, Poble Sec. The Eixample: Sant Antoni, Esquerra de l'Eixample ("the left side of the Eixample" with the sea at your back), Dreta de l'Eixample ("the right side of the Eixample"), Barri de la Sagrada Família. Ciutat Vella (old city): El Raval (also known as the Barri Xinès), the Barri Gòtic, and the Barri de la Ribera. 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures.

1992 Summer Olympics. 1982 Hosted eight matches of the twelfth Football World Cup. 1962 In late September, major flooding kills 800+ people in the surroundings. 1952 Eucharistic Congress.

1936 People's Olympiad, cancelled because of the Spanish Civil War. 1929 International Exposition (World's Fair). 1909 Tragic Week. 1888 Universal Exposition (World's Fair).