The book reviews the transformation of Barcelona from 2015 to 2023. It compares the past and the present, analyzes the change in the centrality of public space, in the transition from gray to a city more in contact with nature and the new human hierarchies. "Now Barcelona is a city made for boys and girls, and also for the elderly, and that means that we make it good and safe for everyone," explained Janet Sanz Cid, Councilor for Ecology, Urban Planning, Infrastructures and Mobility and second deputy mayor, during the presentation of the book in the DHUB auditorium.
From the 600 images of the total project, "Volum I: Mirades" includes a selection of the most representative photographs of ten photographers who, based on ten thematic criteria, have reflected the changes that Barcelona has undergone in the past. recent years and have created a set of images that provide a choral vision of the evolution of the city. The texts in the first volume are the work of Adrià Goula —architect, photographer and coordinator of the work— and Valentín Roma, director of La Virreina Center de la Imatge.
The "Volum II: Projectes" offers a look at the great central projects developed in the city, such as the super islands, the great axes, the increase of green, the playable city, the schools, the improvement of the neighborhoods, the reactivation of the economic fabrics, sustainable mobility, facilities and housing. The text is the work of Xavier Matilla Ayala, chief architect of Barcelona City Council. This volume includes each project that has been carried out, through technical sheets, and transcribes a conversation about the challenges that the city of Barcelona currently faces and how urban reform should be approached, between Eva Franch , Margarita Jover, Carme Pinós and Janet Sanz.
The photographs that appear in the two volumes are the author of Milena Villalba, Andrés Flajszer, Pedro Pegenaute, Aitor Estévez, Jon Tugores, Xavi Bou, Joan Diví, Adrià Goula, Maite Caramés, Pol Viladoms and Simona Rota. The authors have photographed the small urban fauna, the neighbors of the latest public developments in the privacy of their homes, the parks full of life in the neighborhoods, the great urban transformations and also the small interventions in streets and squares.
The project is much more than a book that invites you to take a walk in this new transformed and transforming Barcelona. A specific website has been created that covers all the content of the Survey Barcelona project, with images included, in Catalan, Spanish and English: survey.barcelona.
