Urban Fragmentation and Proximity Retail: An Essay on the Superblock Project in Barcelona

Abstract

The Superilla Barcelona project is analyzed from the perspective of the concept of city that it convey. The main changes that planning has undergone since the deregulation of the Fordist-Keynesian state, the valorization of the local and neighborhood scale, and the role of municipalism are taken into account. In this context, the main objective of the study is to identify the ideas or foundations that guide the Superilla Barcelona project. Special attention is paid to the residential and retail function based on the analysis of the so-called “proximity retail.” The paper asks to what extent the Superilla Barcelona project may drive an increasing fragmentation of the city as a product of the dominant weight of the micro-local scale of the project.