Superblocks

Location:
Population:
1 630 000 (2014)
GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP):
36 157.00US$ (2014)

The Superblocks project, designed by the Municipality of Barcelona in collaboration with the Urban Ecology Agency, represents an innovative planning approach for addressing urban challenges such as mobility, public space, biodiversity and social cohesion. Superblocks are territorial units imagined as bigger than one block of the dense Barcelona´s urban matrix with strict grid pattern, but still smaller than a whole neighbourhood. The aim of creating such superblocks is to recover space for the general public, to preserve biodiversity in the city, to improve sustainable mobility as well as to encourage social cohesion and collaboration. The Superblocks is open projects, so that any proposed action undergoes a participatory process involving local residents and organisations. The duration of the pilot program is four years, starting in 2014. The vision of the city council in implementing the pilot program, as stated in the Public Commitment for Sustainability 2012-2022, is to promote five superblocks and to create a city that works in a more mixed, compact, efficient and diverse way.