Books
Barcelona’s Housing Lesson
The Barcelona of the past is the one we look to for its exemplary city-making. But, as Oriol Bohigas wrote, the city is not people: the brilliant operations were those focused on public space, on facilities, on infrastructures; meanwhile, Barcelonians continued to live in apartments whose layouts had barely changed since the postwar. Barring a handful of very fine cases, housing (let alone social housing) was not the priority, and it has taken a recession, a climate crisis, and new agents for there to be real interest in surpassing models of yesterday.
The Barcelona of the present is a conurbation of almost forty localities growing in unison thanks to governance of Àrea Metropolitana, a cohesive framework that has given a new batch of professionals (architects, builders, civil servants) the material and administrative resources for reformulating the dwelling from within. Ambiguous like our liquid times, the type generalized has diffused limits and uses, with the kitchen at center, the corridor eliminated, and in-between spaces serving a bioclimatic and social function: an affordable, flexible, and inclusive scheme for society today.
The Barcelona of the future already appears in the catalog of residential works sponsored by the supramunicipal body, which constitutes a manual of good practice. There we find nearly all the usual figures of Barcelona’s architectural scene, proof of official efforts to make design take the lead, which is only possible in a rich culture of competitions and wise planning. A lesson to keep in mind for tomorrow.
