Houses on the street Carrer de la Font Florida, in the Barcelona neighborhood of Font de la Guatlla. © Arianna Giménez
Who does the reversal of a public land designation affect? The cases of Satalia and Font de la Guatlla

Classed as green areas by the General Metropolitan Plan, the small neighbourhoods of Satalia and Font de la Guatlla have long lived under the threat of expropriation and demolition. In...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. A group of people form the blade of a palette knife, a plasterer's tool used to apply cement.
Lessons from the crisisSocial innovation: different responses from organized citizens

In the face of the post-crisis neoliberal siren calls, crying out for individual responsibility, civil society has organized itself to provide a collective response to the consequences...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. Two people are talking. One seems to tell the other about the house of his dreams: one bigger than the one he has.
Lessons from the crisisDisparity drives us further apart: psychological effects of economic inequality

Economic inequality is conducive to individualism. Living in unequal societies makes us more concerned about our social position; the greater the difference, the further the distance...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. A house split into four as if it were a cake and, in the middle, grows a tree full of vultures.
Lessons from the crisisFrom the mortgage scam to the rent scam

A decade after the worst real estate bubble in history burst, access to housing is still one of the major social problems. And it is because states operate as another cog in the...

Retrat de Joan Margarit © Camilla de Maffei
“Poetry is a tool for loving”

Joan Margarit

Joan Margarit is travelling through old age with a complete published oeuvre that grows as he writes new poems and books such as Per tenir casa cal guanyar la guerra [To Have a...

Il·lustració © Ana Yael Zareceansky. Quatre columnes amb capitells d'estil jònic de diferents alçades amb escales entre la part superior d'uns i altres. Sobre les columnes i en les escales diverses persones es miren, saluden o caminen.
Building the metropolisIn search of a metropolitan ‘demos’

Far from everyday use, the current consumption of urban space is eliminating the political functions and collective identity functions traditionals in public space. The...

Una dona penja una pancarta al balcó de casa seva en la qual es llegeix: banca estafa engaña © Pere Virgili
Home, much more than just real estate

“All housing is political” asserted David Madden on his recent visit to Barcelona to present his book In Defense of Housing, co-authored with Peter Marcuse. Madden believes that...

SHANGHAI, CHINA
Open cityFlexible Urbanisms

Much of the urban design applied around the world follows the technocratic model of the Athens Charter. This is a homogenous, one-size-fits-all model that provides simple solutions to...

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