Where the streets now have names

Una estudiant de la UAB, guanyadora d’Imagine Express 2015

The UAB has decided to name and signpost the streets of its campus, thereby recovering part of the historic heritage of a campus which began to function at the beginning of the 1970s. Almost one hundred signs with the names of the streets were added to lamp posts before the start of this new academic year.

09/03/2015

Based on the study of the former houses, springs and brooks existing or passing through the campus, the most adequate names were chosen for each of the streets.

The Bellaterra campus - which received its first students in the 1971/72 academic year - has grown throughout the years and is now a university city with a population of 50,000 people who move regularly around the 263 hectares of campus.

One more step has been taken in the organisation and urbanisation of the campus with the identification and signalling of its streets. The names were chosen in relation to the surrounding area and the use made of the streets. Therefore, based on the study of former houses, springs and brooks existing or passing through the campus, the most adequate names were chosen for each of the streets.

Labelling the streets was also a decision made after seeing the need to have names in order to include the campus in electronic navigation systems. Recently, Google decided to include the inside of campus buildings in its navigation systems, but this option was not available for the exterior, given that the streets did not have proper names.

From Camí de la Ruta de Ho-Chi-Minh to Ronda de la Font del Carme
Some names were officialised, such as “Camí de la Ruta Ho-Chi-Minh”, in reference to the path students decided to baptise with that name in the 1970s, since they were obliged to travel down a narrow and muddy road which connected the train station to the campus.

Some names have been maintained, such as Eix Central, Plaça Cívica and Plaça Acadèmica. The main roads travelling from east to west are all avenues (avinguda); and crossings (travessera) have been used with all paths perpendicular to or which in some moment cross the avenues; while all others are streets (carrer) or paths (camí).

There is also a ring road: the Ronda de la Font del Carme, which goes from the Avinguda de Serragalliners roundabout to the Avinguda de Can Domènech and passes behind the Faculty of Medicine.

There are three streets which include the name of a person: Carrer Vila Puig, which goes from the Bellaterra train station to the Torre Vila Puig residence; the Carrer de les cases Sert; and the Camí de Ho Chi Minh, which goes from the Bellaterra train station to the Cases Sert, and which is the only original part of the road which went by that name.

A total of 95 street name signs have been located to signal the streets. Each sign contains a colour stripe at the bottom corresponding to one of the five areas the campus is now divided into, while all Camins are signalled in blue.

The names of the campus' streets are Serragalliners, Vall Moronta, Font del Carme, Eix Central, Can Magrans, Can Miró, Til·lers, Albareda, Oliveres, de la Vila, Cívica, Acadèmica, del Coneixement, de les Granges, de l’Hospital, Betzuca, De Badia, de l’Estació, de l’Escoleta, de la Fortuna, de les Sitges, de la Vinya, de les Columnes, de la ruta Ho Chi Minh, de les Cases Sert, Vila Puig and dels Turons.