The Meaningful City

This book presents a new way of examining cities to reveal the many and varied meanings which are written into urban landscapes. As the title suggests, urban areas are full of messages and communications, with signs and symbols incorporated into buildings, structures and plans. Taking the rich architectural and urbanistic chronicle of Barcelona as a model, the author shows how different social groups, consciously and unconsciously, have written their values and interests on to the city. The narrative opens with the forced reshaping by military engineers of the former capital of Catalunya after 1714, and extends up to an analysis of the many competing actors and agencies which attempt to impose their perspectives on the contemporary city. It scrutinizes how deep cultural and social changes such as the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the Industrial Revolution, de-industrialisation and globalisation can be read in the urban environment, as well as more intentional effects of major urban development projects including the Ciutadella fortress, the Rambles, the universal exhibitions of 1888 and 1929, the Sagrada Família, the Barcelona Model of urban renewal, the 22@ innovation district and the superil·les sustainability plans. Informed by the approach of critical urban studies, the narrative is written in a clear style to engage readers with many different interests, students, urbanists and design professionals as well as residents and visitors to the city. Drawing on research from varied academic fields published in English, Catalan and Spanish, it is illustrated with colour photographs of many of the buildings and sites that have made Barcelona a global resource for understanding contemporary cities.