In Europe, cities are confronting the challenge of adapting existing urban conditions to a changing climate and warming summers while improving access to nature, quality public spaces, and the resources of everyday routines. ReGreeneration, a Horizon Europe initiative working across nine European cities, approaches this challenge through urban renaturing at the neighborhood scale. Combining strategies for complete neighborhoods, communal spaces, and nature-based solutions for cities, the Barcelona project examines how climate adaptation is embedded within residual, peripheral spaces of daily life. As part of a series following ReGreeneration across the participating cities, this article turns to Barcelona, where the project is working in the Trinitat Nova neighborhood to explore how small, often overlooked, urban spaces contribute to broader models of regeneration.
Barcelona offers a unique, particularly significant context for this ambition because of the city's urban and architectural legacy, which has become internationally associated with the reclamation of streets and public spaces. From the transformation of its public realm following Spain's democratic transition to the well-known Superblocks project and ongoing traffic reduction measures, there is a storied, layered history of tactical urbanism and temporary urban changes in Barcelona. Across various scales, the city demonstrates how streets and undervalued spaces can be designed as places for walking, activity, community, playfulness, and urban nature. Tactical urbanism is an essential component of this process, allowing new programs to be introduced and tested at higher speeds than traditional urban development can accommodate. The celebration of tactical urbanism in cities around the world energizes designers and planners alike, but this project dives into a deeper, more difficult question about the process. How can the flexibility and responsiveness of temporary urban interventions translate into long-term planning and policy in cities?
