The city of (in) capacity: contemporary shacks: the case of Barcelona

Abstract

At the same time as cities, especially the ones that have opted for a tourism-model (the case of Barcelona), strive to improve the quality of public space due to the spread (and unfounded) idea about the capacity of urban transformation to solve socio-economic problems, the private space sinks into obscurity subjected to carelessness and degradation. We make use of the analysis of the evolution of the phenomenon of sub dwelling in the modern Barcelona, from the emergence of the shanty towns of the industrial city to the proliferation of contemporary shacks in postindustrial city in order to show that the phenomenon of sub dwelling in Barcelona, often linked to the Franco regime, has not been abolished but it is a growing phenomenon in the “democratic” city. By means of this term we refer to dwellings which don`t meet the minimum requirements so as to be considered habitable.