Barcelona Superblock
Barcelona has embarked on a large transformation of public space to take on the big challenges of the future and put residents’ lives at the centre.
Green hubs are traffic-calmed streets, with places for relaxing and more greenery, which enable people to get around on foot with ease, in comfort and safely. These green hubs are giving rise to new squares at their junctions, comfortable spots that foster relations and activities for people. This will be happening throughout the city, although 21 green hubs are being created within Eixample itself, deep in the Cerdà section, with 21 new squares, reclaiming a total of 33.4 hectares of priority space for pedestrians.
Barcelona Superblock
A new model that reclaims the city for local residents
Barcelona has a plan. It's called Barcelona Superblock and is transforming our city with the aim of putting daily life at the centre, bringing cohesion to neighbourhoods and launching the ecological transition. It involves a strategy for meeting the triple crisis we are going through: social, environmental and economic.
The Barcelona Superblock model is aimed at changing the inertia and rules of the game and thereby implementing implement plans and projects which will help to chart the future of a fairer, healthier, more inclusive and diverse and more productive city.
FIGURES FOR THE CITY’S TRANSFORMATION
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525
million
euros in investment
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8000
euros in jobs
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1000000
m2 opened up to citizens
To regenerate Barcelona and its neighbourhoods
Barcelona Superblock Government Measure
To regenerate the city is to re-make it, adapting it to the current context and modern-day challenges. This Government Measure sets out the actions conceived to re-make and reprogramme the city, the goal being to make Barcelona a more habitable place where everybody can live their lives to the full without the city losing its character and identity.
LET’S TRANSFORM PUBLIC SPACES
To make them friendlier, healthier and more community-minded. The Barcelona Superblock Plan is changing our streets, seeking to reclaim spaces for pedestrians and put greenery where there was once cement. The superblocks in Sant Antoni and Poble Nou are examples of this new way of organising (and understanding) the city. These iconic developments are now being accompanied by many other initiatives, from the reformulation of the city’s main thoroughfares and nodes to programmes that have already became benchmarks in the city, such as the “Let’s protect schools” programme.
LET’S IMPROVE NEIGHBOURHOODS AND SITES
The Barcelona Superblock Plan is being deployed in such a way that ensures that no neighbourhood will be left behind. It therefore executes urban regeneration programmes in the parts of the city that need it most. Urban regeneration programmes are currently being implemented in neighbourhoods such as Trinitat Vella, Besòs i el Maresme, Canyelles and Bon Pastor. Regenerating also means giving a new lease of life to existing structures, with the refurbishment projects at the old Mercedes-Benz factory, La Model prison and La Escocesa arts centre being examples of this.
LET’S REACTIVATE THE ECONOMY
The urban transformations being carried out in Barcelona have their sights set on the future. These regenerative projects are being executed in old industrial estates, seeking to turn them into new economic hubs in each of the city’s neighbourhoods, making them authentic activity centres that generate jobs and promote excellence, entrepreneurship and talent. Various projects of this type are currently underway. One is the regeneration of the industrial estates in the Besòs district. Another is the Master Plan for Ciutadella, which seeks to open up this iconic space to the sea and set up a 46,000 m2 research and innovation complex.
LET’S PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY
Regenerating the city also entails making it easier for citizens to move between neighbourhoods: either by foot, by healthy and sustainable transport methods, such as cycling, or by public transport for larger distances. The Barcelona Superblock Plan seeks to implement a sustainable mobility network for each of the city’s neighbourhoods. The objective is for all citizens to be able to carry out their day-to-day activities within a reachable radius of their home, without needing to use a private vehicle.
Towards a more sustainable and resilient city: map of urban transformations
A new step forward at Glòries
On 6 November, we will open the new road tunnel at Glòries for traffic heading in the direction of the Besòs river. From this date onwards, traffic heading in this direction will no longer pass through Glòries using surface roads and will circulate underground instead.
The opening of the tunnel will see Glòries cease to be a road junction and a barrier between neighbourhoods, instead becoming a a large park. It will be a large ‘green lung’ for the city and represent a meeting point for local residents, with plenty of places to walk, play and enjoy.
The new tunnel is the latest in a series of improvements that have been made, or are about to be made, to this part of Barcelona. Other improvements include the joining of the tram lines; the remodelling work carried out on Avinguda Diagonal; the new Avinguda Meridiana; the new green streets in the 22@ district, etc. This new form of urban planning places the needs and interests of people first, improving the day-to-day lives of local people in the Eixample, Sant Andreu and Sant Martí districts.