Urban Landscapes and the Construction of the Commons: Barcelona’s Superblocks and Urban Voids

Shifting global paradigms have led to a revolution in the way public collective space is understood, perceived, constructed, and (collectively) managed and used. The evolution in the planning, design, and management of cities to better face contemporary challenges and new demands can be examined through principles of new municipalism, which includes urban strategies regarding ecology and the commons. Today’s aggravated social climate, economic recessions, and socio-environmental challenges place stressful demands on public spaces. They must be sustainable – yet beautiful – ecological infrastructures, serving as both community builders and the political canvas for civic protests and engagement. Moreover, with the growing privatization of public ground in cities, public space is ever diminishing, increasingly unaffordable, and becoming undemocratic. These new paradigms imply a shift in the use, accessibility, ownership, and maintenance of urban spaces and a radical change in the goals, means, and tools for designing and managing these spaces. Beyond that, urban social movements, catalyzed in new municipalities in Spain, urge us to rethink the urban space from a collective perspective and beckon us to find more creative, sustainable, and inclusive ways of articulating spaces for the citizenry. This chapter examines the case of two of Barcelona’s innovative municipal strategies – the Superblocks and the Voids Plan – which, claimed and implemented through participatory processes, are transforming the city’s common grounds. As a laboratory for city planning, Barcelona’s urban policies and practices – from pioneering approaches to the recovery of public spaces to their contested appropriation by neighbors, activists, and tourists – serve to illustrate the role that public space plays in the construction of the commons.