L'Eixample. Since the glory days of last century many new buildings find places within the 19th century grid of the district. The grid plan allowed for wide streets and avenues and comfortable sidewalks but a depestrian does not feel the same alienation here as in New York or Chicago. Proportions are tightly controlled in a strange way, maybe it is from the limited resources of Spain compared to the someplace like the USA. More likely it is because the Catalan pueblo has had democratic tendencies for a very long time: people are still important in the grand scheme.

In L’Eixample we see many buildings from the 19th century, and sprinkled throughout are examples of construction from then until the present. Their differences not so noticeable because formalism takes center stage here. In Barcelona, arbitrary, context less forms are justified by the Catalan joi de vivre, and the gently enforced grid. Walking through L'Eixample, we can see the effects of fashion, history and commerce, but something more shines here, a feeling of confidence and civic proportion unique to Barcelona.

Architecture here is the pride of every citizen even if they are not completely conscious of it. But when big projects go up, and beloved buildings are threatened, everyone has something to say about it. The physical space of the city seems to belong to everyone even if the quadrants are privately owned as usual. Even the government seems to realise that Barcelona is more than a collection of cells.

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Barcelona A well stated problem
this land is your land 06