The role of planning in the evolution of Barcelona

Abstract

This thesis attempts to assess the role of planning in the evolution of Barcelona from 1714 to 1976. 1714 marked the beginning of a long period of military dominance that was to see immediate and drastic alterations in the urban morphology of the city. Other factors also played their part in the vertical and horizontal growth that followed, eventually making expansion beyond the medieval walls an urgent necessity. This expansion - the 'ensanche' - came in the second half of the 19th century after the passing of the Plan Cerda, that was to remain the official 'plan de ordenacion' for the city for almost a century. Many of the proposals of Cerda's plan were ignored, however, as the city grew in radiocentric form, stretching out across the plain towards the mountain chain and the two parallel rivers that enclose it. In the first half of this century many plans were drawn up in periods of differing political ideology and varying economic prosperity but had little impact on the growth of the city. The 1953 'Plan Comarcal', which recognised the long-present need to plan on a scale greater than that of the municipality, replaced Cerda's plan as the official 'plan de ordenacion' for Barcelona. It was the first of a variety of plans at Provincial, Metropolitan Area, 'Comarcal', and Municipal level, produced by a new, formal planning machinery. At the same time, the housing and regional economic planning policies of the Madrid Government involved unprecedented intervention by the central authorities in the urban affairs of Barcelona and its region. The thesis establishes how these plans and policies have affected the evolution of Barcelona and why the growth of the city has continued in as chaotic and disorderly a fashion as ever before.