Learning from Barcelona

Planetizen blogger Brent Toderian returns from a recent trip to Barcelona with six ideas every city should steal from the Catalonian capital.

1 minute read

December 2, 2012, 9:00 AM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Barcelona

Bert Kaufmann / Flickr

Having just returned from the second Global Smart City Expo/Congress where he was a speaker, Toderian offers some envy worthy photographs from his travels through the city along with a bevy of "steal-able" lessons for urbanists. In his observations and recommendations, Toderian champions holistic city-building, moments of creativity within larger city patterns, room for multi-modal infrastructure, the importance of scale in creating urban rooms, and strategically locating tall buildings.

Says Toderian: "I've often remarked that the eight most frustrating words in the English language are 'we could never do that in our city.' You may think that Barcelona, like many great European cities, is just too different to teach us anything. Many lessons though, are transferable, scalable, and universal."

Friday, November 30, 2012 in The Atlantic Cities

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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Mary G., Urban Planner

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