Barcelona is a city with an innate desire for being at the forefront of innovation in terms of urban planning and development. It is considered by many to be not only the birthplace of Urbansim but also a workshop for innovative urban solutions.

IAAC Academic Coordinator Mathilde Marengo and IAAC Head of EU Projects Chiara Farinea wrote a paper, featured this month by the Plan, about the SuperBlock, an urban regeneration tool that is part of a plan for Barcelona, developed by the Agencia de Ecología Urbana, within the Urban Mobility Plan 2013-2018.

This intervention, which allows to create new pedestrian areas and consequently new spaces for citizens, if implemented will greatly increase the public space availability in the city of Barcelona and it is therefore an important opportunity to test new principles to design the area.

As part of the #Superilla pilot, IAAC had the occasion to play an active role, testing the potentials of Advanced Technologies, specifically digital fabrication, virtual and augmented reality, and urban gaming, as a means to enhance citizen participation in urban design and deployment processes.

The Poblejoc project aimed to rethink the functioning of the streets and squares, transforming them in an Active Public Space fostering people interaction with flows of energy, materials, services and finances to catalyse sustainable economic development, resilience, and high quality of life.