Urbanism and Ecology in Barcelona

Abstract

The article describes the growth of Barcelona. under the impulse of Olimpic games investments, towards the plane behind Collserola mountain (the Vallès) and along the coast to the Maresme. The article places Barcelona in its regional ecological context, explaining the amounts and origins of exosomatic energy, water, etc. for the metropolis. It critizices the growth of this conurbation and, in the last section, it remembers alternative, more ecological urban planning ideas in the early half of the 20th century (for instance, the Garden City movement in Barcelona under Cebrid de Montoliu), and the reasons for their failure.