Why Barcelona Looks Weird

I can be wrong, and I will be wrong.

This is a video on the Cerdà Plan, which is the reason why there are so many octagons in the city of Barcelona.

It's a fascinating story about urban planning and human centric design, which was informed by studies on air circulation, adequate height requirements for sunlight, urban vs rural living, elaborate sanitation plans, and street design.

Thank you to professor Neuman for helping me make this video.

Music:

Title: (FREE FOR PROFIT) Melodic Type Beat ~ Dark Magic
Artist: Zyeq

Title: Air Hockey Saloon
Title: The Theatrical Poster for Poltergeist III
Artist: Chris Zabriskie

[hoogyoutube]

Some housekeeping:

Heyo everyone, have to be honest that I was a bit sloppy with this video, but each new video will be an improvement, hopefully. A couple of things though.

One, I need to figure out how to share the source documents with people effectively, but I'm launching a new website for that. For now, if you want to be notified when the source document is up, please check out this website and sign up for the email so I can notify you:


Secondly, thank you to professor Neuman for helping me with this video. You can read some of his work online, although you do need an academic license I'm pretty sure:


Thirdly, if you're a European looking to start a channel, please feel free to DM me over twitter so that we can get in contact:

[adaptable]

crazy how a guy in the 1800s designed a city better equipped for the 2000s, than planners in the 1900s did

[undercoverduck]

This channel's oldest video is less than a year old but the videos are of a quality that I'd expect from a channel that has been going strong for years

[LordTenebrum]

As a Barcelonian, thank you! Usually YouTubers talk about Barcelona's tourism or Gaudi's art, not about urban planning. Thanks for talking about Cerdà and Eixample.

[Kraut_the_Parrot]

This will become increasingly more important in the near future.

[Playerestblog]

As a person who lived in Barcelona many years it is sad to see how the original plan was so green and beautiful.

The lack of parks and the constant view of building was one of the things that I didn’t like it when I was there

[der.Schtefan]

It's not "weird". It is genius. Ildefons Cerda is my personal hero. It is so sad that they did not follow his original building plans. He calculated how many trees are needed, planned for subways, turns for horse-drawn street cars (that is actually where the octogonal shape comes from), calculated air flows, etc. in the late 1800s.

[szymonmiosz]

At 3:21 You say that some YouTubers are hating on cars too much, yet later you say that green spaces were taken away to make garages. Cars are cool but they just take up too much space and are very inefficient in moving people around when compared to well made public transport. It's that simple.

Edit: Mr Hoog said it sarcastically. I should have known...

[lemdixon]

The "cubes" look strange from the sky but when I lived in Barcelona it seemed normal. All the buildings had parking lots I nderground.

[GOTTHEDAWGINME]

I simply cannot wrap around how much brainpower it required and requires to plan such a sophisticated city system. I can't even plan my time schedule right

[sinopia]

Greenify is actually a word in Dutch, it is called 'vergroening' literally a translation of greenify. You see a lot of cities trying to bring back green, and as a landscape architect student i work a lot with this as well. But it is really nice to hear about a plan from 200 years ago that saw that this was important too! Super interesting video :)

[Duck-wcde]

My mother used to say (relative to lisbon) that during centuries, we built art, since the 18th century (great lisbon earthquake) we built good, and in the 80's we "aborted" it all, and now we are trying to solve that.

and the fact that this applies for most cities in the world, with the exeption of the netherlands, amazes me.

[mapsinanutshell]

Another masterpiece by Hoog! As someone born in Barcelona, I'm so glad you made a video covering this topic! 👍

[asdsdjfasdjxajiosdqw]

Good video but Cerda didn't make the streets and intersections expecting cars, he made them with street cars on rails, trams, in mind. The intersections provide ample room for trams to turn and the streets are wide not because cars, but to accommodate trees providing shade to make walking from the tram stop to your destination more pleasant in the hot summers.

[intiorozco]

I've been a couple times, and every time I find it fascinating, that grid plan with octogons, with that diagonal avenue cutting through it like it's nothing... The whole city feels so well designed. Now I know the name behind it.

[halbarroyzanty]

I like how he took a jab at youtubers who critizise car centric urban design and then a couple minutes later into the video was like oh yeah btw those green walkable spaces he wanted to put between buildings were filled with parking instead

[Oeno]

I dont mind the sarcasm so much, except when it’s based on wrong facts…

Cerda did not plan/anticipate cars, quite the opposite. The chamfered (diagonal corners) of the blocks were designed because he thought trams would be the transport of the future and tracks need more space to make a turn.

[jurjenbos]

One thing I saw in Barcelona that struck me is that the traffic lights between the octagons are synchronized to improve traffic flow.

[uydagcusdgfughfgsfggsifg]

I wish in North America still built new cities so we can actually put theory to the test. We aren’t innovating, and I think anyone agrees the current state we’re stuck in is not where we should stay

[funny-video-YouTube-channel]

Barcelona is trying to move the parking under the surface, where the parking is occupying the court yards.