This work comes largely from the research carried out for the doctoral thesis Arquitectura de pèrgoles i umbracle: un instrument per a l'aprenentatge de l'arquitectura (1996), published by EAE Saarbrücken Ed. (2012), in the Catalan language. Due to its publication, and counting on the vision that gives the time elapsed since it was written, the work has acquired a renewed interest. In fact, Barcelona has become an "urban laboratory" and an international reference in many aspects. The work published here focuses on the understanding of the urban space based on its direct experience. A vision of the reality that, in this case, studies the pergolas located in the urban public spaces of Barcelona. The examples included here were found on several urban routes, in which the main public spaces of the city have been visited, detailed and discussed. From there, useful conclusions can be drawn about different aspects, suitable for different points of view. Architecture, urbanism, and design occupy the central space, but conclusions can also be drawn to those new systems that complement the reality with the associated information, such as the new communication networks or augmented reality.

Josep M. Fort is Ph.D. in Architecture from the School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB-UPC). Since 1990 is a professor of Architecture and Design at ETSAB and author of more than 200 articles. He was President of the Association of Industrial Design (ADI-FAD) from 1999 to 2004 and is Director of the Master MBDesign (UPC-UB) since 2017.