Case study report - Barcelona

An extract from Deliverable 5.1, Case study reports on green transition initiatives and their impact on housing inequalities,’ of the ReHousIn project

Barcelona constitutes a paradigmatic case for examining how ecological transition unfolds within a highly spatially constrained and commodified urban housing system. With approximately 1.7 million residents within the municipal boundary and a metropolitan region exceeding five million, Barcelona is among the most compact and densely populated cities in Europe. Its urban form is shaped by pronounced geographic constraints — the Collserola hills, the Llobregat and Besòs rivers, and the Mediterranean Sea — and its dense urbanization and topographical constraints leave little developable land within city limits (Busquets, 2005). The exceptions are key “major transformation areas,” which are predominantly reclaimed industrial and infrastructural land, a trend dating from the mid-20th century. All major “hard” gentrification measures in Barcelona follow this model, as there is not more appropriate developable land in the city due to its density and topography. Aside from the area under study in this report — that of the district of Sants-Montjuïc — the city is taking such an approach in the area surrounding the new La Sagrera railway station under completion, involving the demolition of thirty warehouses to make way for mixed-use redevelopment including a mix of social and market-rate housing, to commence in 2027.