Barcelona - L’illa Diagonal (Rafael Moneo, 1993, Avinguda Diagonal, 579-585), 2016. Wikicommons/ Zarateman. Some rights reserved.Barcelona has become the focus of international attention due to a proposal for urban transformation in its Eixample district, through the creation of “supermanzanas” (superblocks). Combining nine of the blocks proposed by Ildefons Cerdà in the 1859 plan (very different from those realised) is meant to reduce traffic in the streets and squares inside the superblock’s perimeter, confining it to the perimetral streets, in order to solve serious problems deriving from pollution, the near absence of green areas, and the minimal space for pedestrians caused by the omnipresence of cars.
The “supermanzanas” (superblocks, literally ‘superapples’) project aims at creating four squares in every superblock, converting the inner part of intersections in areas mostly dedicated to pedestrians. This is a proposal that, if completely fulfilled, will radically change the face of the city.
The central issue is the following: is this a change that is going to confirm features of the neo-liberal city, limited to mitigating them with the introduction of – essential and very helpful – measures for the reduction of air and accoustic pollution and for the creation of pedestrian areas? Or is this an opportunity to fundamentally challenge the neo-liberal economy in its urbanism, its processes of production, its voracity, its unfamiliarity with ethics, its inequality and its destruction of the environment?
