Les Cotxeres

What is easy for me to tell you in words is an ordeal in writing. It is possible that I am forgetting many things, since we have been working on the project I told you about for five years now. Lo que de palabra me resulta fácil decirte, por escrito es un calvario. Es posible que me olvide de muchas cosas, puesto que hace ya cinco años que trabajamos en el proyecto del que te hablé. It began with some conversations with Huarte, who has been a great patron of the arts for me, and for whom I am deeply grateful. La cosa empezó con unas conversaciones con Huarte, que ha sido para mí un gran mecenas, y por el que siento un profundo agradecimiento. They were interested in a plot of land measuring 70 x 150 m. of irregular shape, located in a very good area of Barcelona, on which he intended to build middle-class housing. In the planning project approved by the City Council, there were three towers of twenty or so storeys high, which were not well suited to the variety of types of housing they wanted to build. On the other hand, I am repulsed by the idea, perhaps because I have vertigo, of people having to live too high up. Nor do I agree with the type of housing estates that are often built, all of them practically inspired by Le Corbusier's ideas on urban planning. I consider the general construction of tall rectangular blocks, situated between green spaces, to be a mistake for two reasons: firstly because of what I mentioned before about vertigo, and secondly because I find it inhuman to be sitting on a bench, with a generally monotonous block of 10, 20, or 30 storeys high in front of me. Estaban interesados en un solar de unos 70 x 150 m. de forma irregular, situado en una zona muy buena de Barcelona, y en él pretendía construir viviendas para clase media. En el proyecto ordenación que tenía aprobado el Ayuntamiento, figuraban tres torres de veintitantos pisos de altura, que no se adaptaban bien a la variedad de tipos de viviendas que se deseaban edificar.