Barcelona 

Historical Background

During the Franco era, Barcelona was run down and the Barcelona people or the Catalonians were harshly mistreated. In 1939 Barcelona was bombed and by 1950-1980 immigrants arrived and there were 1,500,000 new inhabitants. When Franco died in 1975 Barcelona had a party because they were finally free from Franco and they could start to live the way the desired. In 1995 suburbs started and the housing consisted of policing housing, which are linear slab housings and barracas, which are self built shanti housing. These were to start the neighborhood activism and to become a community. People then started to ask and demand for basic necessities for example stop lights. This was the start of a new way of life for Catalonians.

The Barcelona Model

1979-1980 the first elections were held in Barcelona and the regeneration projects began in order to remedy the past. They fixed each neighborhood one by one creating centers of community life and architecture started to become famous in this area. The first park that was created was the Joan Miro Park in 1980-1982. The Olympics in Barcelona also had an enormous role in the new city of Barcelona comparing it to the difference of before and after Christ. Money was mainly spent on infrastructure changing from an industrial city to a post industrial city. In 1976 the Metropolitan Plan was set for a Ring Road around Barcelona so that it was easier for transportation between where each place in the Olympics were held. Beaches also went from completely industrial and made into athlete houses for the Olympics.

The Olympic Stadium

Post Olympics

After the Olympics were held in Barcelona there was a lack of consensus about projects. Industrial waste lands were made into public spaces. These areas were contaminated before, but after they redesigned it the wastelands were buried underneath the new public spaces and land that was once waste are now beautiful public areas for example the Mar Park. On a neighborhood scale, RCR Architects and Josep Llinas created two of the community spaces that integrated low scale, green, and intergenerational spaces that everyone can enjoy.

Historic Memory

Building new did not mean to forget about the past in Barcelona and the Santa Caterina Market EMBT was first a Medieval area created into a market that left old pieces to remember the past. Layers of time had been left in many places in Barcelona to appreciate their heritage.

Creative City and Innovation

Barcelona is a collage of old and new from the historical sites to the new structures. Due to the high demands of housing, new architects were allowed to experiment to make a space for this large group of people. They had to anticipate the dense housing mainly for people who needed a place to live a short amount of time and an example of this is the Walden 7 Taluer de Arquitectura in 1975. Their housing was about 420-450 square feet unit in order for them to have a place to say and to also fit as many people in as possible. In comparison to Boston, it is equivalent to a micro unit although Boston's is slightly larger. 

Barcelona is a historically beautiful country that consists of old and new creating a place for Catalonians and tourists to enjoy.

Historical to Modern Buildings in Barcelona