Local Cultures – Global Spaces

Abstract

Modern lifestyle and digital environment made us a global indoor generation that spends most of the time without having direct interaction with outside world, nature and people. Although streets comprise more than 80% of cityscape, they are no longer considered key places where we can meet and experience a sense of communal identity, even affecting our health and quality of life. Current research strive to provide theories or turn space into time shaped on 15-minute cities, but there are few successful examples inspiring a throwback to living streets or squares. Moreover, an effective urban renewal is harder in European Cities due to historical patterns hinder transition to Green Urbanism (GU). Focusing on district scale, this paper promotes Biophilic Urbanism (BU) as a novel design approach to put human-nature interrelation at the core of urban planning, thus encouraging outdoor life, socializing as well biodiversity conservation. Through a multidimensional analysis built on UB (principles, initiatives, etc.), we explore Barcelona’s superblock evolution as best practice for sustainable development: such a pedestrian neighborhood integrating Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) show how spatial innovation is still able to improve mobility, society and environment; while it confirms block as a type-morphological place-belongingness for local community. Data and maps help us to visualize how small-scale changes are beneficial to the whole city. In addition to return more livable and healthier spaces to citizens, Biophilic Districts provide a virtuous models to be applied across the world.