Architectural ethnography of urbicide on Barcelona’s waterfront

The revival of utopianism and hygienism in commodified cities

Bibliographic Data

ID19220402
AuthorsMaría Gabriela Navas Perrone (0000-0001-9293-0907, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-26
Publication date2026-06-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Urban Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0735-2166 • E-ISSN: 1467-9906
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07352166.2026.2675560
OpenAlexW7163426780
LanguageEN
References cited20

This article frames urbicide as a quintessential manifestation of urban commodification, evidenced by the destruction of the built environment and the erasure of social practices that do not align with the accumulation of urban rent. Using the Cerdà Plan as a historical point of departure, the study situates contemporary urbicidal processes within a broader genealogy of the hygienist and utopian urbanism inherent to 19th-century planning ideals. The research analyzes the transformation of Barcelona’s waterfront through two emblematic case studies: the construction of the Olympic Village for the 1992 Olympic Games and the current redevelopment of the Olympic Port for the 2024 America’s Cup. Drawing on architectural ethnography, the paper unpacks how urbicidal logics continue to underpin urban renewal strategies. The findings highlight key dimensions of this process, including the destruction of industrial heritage, the disruption of long-standing neighborhood dynamics, the privatization of urban governance, and the deployment of architectural discourse to pursue utopian visions that divorce design from lived urban reality. The article concludes by advocating for an urbanism rooted in lived experience as a vital strategy to resist and counteract urbicidal tendencies

Commodification · Ethnography · Work (physics) · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Spatial and Cultural Studies · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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