From Gaudí’s enduring legacy to contemporary interventions in public space and social housing, seven pieces from the AR’s archive explore the city of Barcelona, free to read for registered users
‘Barcelona is now in every way a remarkable hybrid, a city that looks confidently to the future rooted in a still vital past that is everywhere proudly present,’ writes Peter Buchanan, in the wake of the 1992 Olympic and Paralympic games, reflecting on the city’s architectural transformation. As the 2026 edition of the UIA World Congress of Architects takes place next week throughout Barcelona and the surrounding metropolitan area, the AR revisits a selection of writings on the Catalonian capital.
From Gaudí’s enduring legacy to contemporary interventions in public space and social housing, this week’s reading list explores how Barcelona continues to regenerate itself. Questioning how the city’s urban transformation has become politically charged, while celebrating the architectural innovations emerging from its constraints. These seven pieces trace the evolution of Barcelona across decades, revealing how the city balances heritage with radical new visions.
The seven stories below are free to read for registered users for a limited period. Happy reading!
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Plaça del Canòdrom in Barcelona, Spain by Peris+Toral Arquitectes, AR June 2026, Rafael Gómez-Moriana
‘The result is a very intensely used public space that is highly versatile and exquisitely crafted’
Leading by Eixample: Barcelona, Spain, AR February 2025, Llúis Ortega and Julia Capomaggi
‘The city’s necessary urban transformation has become a political and electoral weapon’
Ghost storeys: Sala Beckett theatre in Barcelona, Spain by Flores & Prats, AR December 2017/January 2018, Douglas Murphy
‘Torn from their original contexts but retaining a memorial quality, they become less significant but almost more potent as design material’
Barcelona: a city regenerated, AR August 1992, Peter Buchanan
‘The sense of seamless spatial and multi-temporal integration of the physical city extends to its life style too’
Timber revolution: Social housing in Barcelona, Spain, by Urbanitree, AR September 2025, Eleanor Beaumont
‘The architectural innovation needed to prolong our existence on the planet is increasingly nurtured by low‑cost social housing – where constraints are the tightest but ambitions the most radical’
Revisit: Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona, Spain, AR December 2025/January 2026, Rafael Gómez-Moriana
‘Today’s Casa Batlló is an experience of pure spectacle inside and out – which was the intention from the very day it was commissioned in 1904’
Josep Maria Jujol (1879-1949), AR November 2012, Rowan Moore
‘Much of Jujol’s architecture is about layers of time, present in his brush strokes, in the geological history of stones, in weathering and ageing’
Lead image: Buildings grew taller and reached deeper into the block; today, many of the central, supposedly open and green spaces, are also occupied. Credit: Eloi_Omella / iStock