This simple idea is based on blocks, initially named “supermanzanas” (super apples), that are smaller in size than a district (but bigger than an apple!). These new 400mx400m urban blocks have given the city back to the citizens by keeping car traffic on the outskirts of each block. This urban development creates a peaceful, more spacious inner area, ideal for cycling and walking as well as testing new uses that encourage social cohesion and economic development. Several “super-apples” have already been created in the Gràcia district and others are in the process of being developed in Barcelona. This new idea is spreading to the cities of Vitoria, La Coruña, Ferrol, Viladecans and El Prat.
Barcelona’s Superblocks: Change the Grid, Change your Neighborhood from STREETFILMS.
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.
Read the full article on Energy Cities.
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