La revisió del Pla comarcal de 1953 : alternatives a l'origen i organització dels treballs

The development of the residential urban areas in Barcelona and its metropolitan area during the twentieth century was characterised by the scant presence of alternative urban models, such as the garden city or public housing estates. The latter were not developed until the sixties, and until 1970 they only accounted for 30% of the new housing constructed in the metropolitan area. During the same period, the residential urban areas, whose growth until 1950 was by way of the occupation of newly developed land, underwent a process of densification that has led, in many cases, to the deterioration of the urban fabric, and the emergence of conflicts, both formal and functional, owing to the characteristics of a plot division and road network corresponding to an earlier developmental model, very different from that of modern housing growth. This is the situation that preceded the generalized process of residential reconversion currently under way on a metropolitan scale. The dispersion of developed land, and the high consumption of land by housing estates composed of single-family dwellings are the characteristics of the new residential model that is emerging in the Barcelona metropolitan region.