ABSTRACT
Barcelona is well known as a successful urban model of the compact, Mediterranean city. It generates new ideas and allows for the reinterpretation of traditional ones already well established in the existing urban pattern of the city. After the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona finally joined the club of prestigious ‘world class’ cities. During those years, the popular expression was that the event ‘has set the city on the world map’. This chapter reviews the last 30 years of urban development of the city, starting in the late 1970s with the first democratic local government, and analyzes the process up to the present day and beyond. What is important to note is that the ‘Barcelona Model’ 1 is in a continuous process of improvement, learning from the implementation of specific projects and the accumulation of experience over the years.
