The transformation of Poble Nou extended to Sagrera, over all by modifying the traditional and partly obsolete industrial and rail uses. Finishing the renovation of the rest, into a city which with these urban planning operations has become practically fulfilled. The extension of the port and the Forum area will put the finishing touches to the changes of Barcelona’s sea front. The rest of the operations are, without doubt, of lesser importance.
As is well-known, the positioning of a municipality has a lot to do with the urban growth of its territory. In Barcelona, the urban growth will be, therefore, very small and it will be necessary to direct efforts towards another direction if we do not want to lose competitive drive. If Barcelona is full, what will be left for it to position itself in the national and international context of cities?
It seems that Barcelona will be obliged to change its strategy, at least that used by the majority of the urban systems that place its territory up for sale for new urbanisation so as to increase sustained, rather than sustainable economic growth, and which town councils use in order to achieve the surplus value which allow them to ‘survive’ and develop the municipal projects.
The basis of the new strategy also has to fit in with solving the two aspects which today inform the changes in the world: the entrance into the era of information and the reduction of the uncertainties which today reign over our heads because of the impact of human systems in general, and very especially the urban systems generate on the systems of the Earth which support our organisations.
To search for a formula, a model which deals with both challenges, at the same time to face competition, with a new strategy –that based on information and not on the consumption of resources – seems to be the road to follow. The urban model which is presented below tries to do this. Time and developments will prove it right or wrong. Its validation, however, depends to a large extent on us, on the intention and will we place for changes to be directed in the way proposed here.
Also, the set of strategic diagrams include the measures which may allow a reduction in the current urban dysfunctions, at the same time as increasing the environmental quality of the city. The aforementioned lines of this future vision show a Barcelona which would improve, to the eye, the urban reality in general and public space in particular. In the same sense, a proposal is articulated to establish the system and provide it with greater social cohesion, without forgetting co-development with third countries.
The model of Barcelona towards sustainability looks for coherence between the parties and formalises the basic characteristics which fill the starting point of the theoretic framework with content in the physical, social and economic areas.
 
Salvador Rueda
Director of the Agència d'Ecologia Urbana
 
Reference:
RUEDA, Salvador (2002). Barcelona, ciutat mediterrània, compacta i complexa: una visió de futur més sostenible. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council); Agència d’Ecologia Urbana, 87 p.
 

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