Cerdà/Barcelona/Eixample

Abstract

Barcelona's Eixample presently covers an area of 3x9 km. It contains 800 blocks, with their corresponding chamfered corners—and 20,000 totally built lots. It gives shelter to 300,000 inhabitants and an equal number of jobs. Furthermore, it is an immense forest of 50,000 trees—most of them planted along its 250 km of streets. It coincides almost exactly with the proposal conceived in 1859 by Ildefonso Cerdà, which today is still consolidating the city's most dynamic limits. What is the reason for the success of this plan? Perhaps the flexibility of a just norm over 150 years has helped identify Barcelona, as well as granting it the reputation as a well-planned and rational city. This is the most prominent value of the Cerdà Plan. Its ability of permanency in assuming changes of use, ordinances, an increase of its building potential, a succession of styles, construction processes, and ways of life mean practical success of a theoretical project, a view shared by experts and citizens.