The next city: low density territories in the metropolitan area of Barcelona

Abstract

In 2010 the Metropolitan Territorial Plan of Barcelona (PTMB) was approved. The plan is conceived as a strategic tool where some more specific and detailed planning will be framed in the next future. Some of the themes and challenges the detailed planning will be addressed to are here for the first time considered, since the scale the plan covers has been never approached before. For the first time the low density developments in this territory are faced as a whole phenomenon that needs to be readdressed. The Plan defines the “Specialized Residential Areas to Restructure” (AERR) which are low density residential areas in the form of continuous large-scale urban settlements, usually placed on steep areas, where physical conditions are critical to residential uses. These areas will be subject to further planning committed with the improvement the basic living conditions of its physical environment. This paper announces the description of these strategic lines which were applied in form of analysis over the AERR. The goal of the research is to obtain some useful criteria for further renewal of low density territories in the metropolitan area of Barcelona.