ABSTRACT
During the last 30 years of the twentieth century and until today, Barcelona, capital of Catalonia, has experienced a shift from the traditional compact city and its periphery—in generalized situations of conurbation between neighboring settlements—to a sprawling, heterogeneous spatial structure, as seen in many other urban regions in the south of Europe. A “new territoriality” has arisen that expresses new spatial, economic, and social relations, and therefore the problems emerging from these situations and the built forms that embody them.
The current demands are different than those from previous phases of urban growth; therefore the urban planning instruments must change to organize and develop them, since traditional urban planning proves to be inappropriate or insufficient.
The fact that urban planning today inevitably extends beyond the municipal and even inter-municipal spatial scope in most places, including Barcelona’s city region, raises the need for the existence of a series of revised urban planning visions and instruments (territorial plans, inter-municipal plans, projects, urban policies, etc.) to address the new situation. This chapter documents this shift over time, concluding with reflections on the new governance arrangements, instruments, and visions needed to guide growth sustainably and equitably in the future.
