Sweet Home Barcelona blog

We live in the zona Eixample.  This is a huge extension that was built in Barcelona starting in the second half of the 19th century and includes most of the modernist architecture in the city.  Sandwiched between the districts of Montjuic, San Marti, Ciutat Vella (Old Town) and Gracia.  It is now regarded as the centre of Barcelona and it’s main streets (Diagonal and Gran Via) are the main arteries through the city.  The population of the Eixample (Ensanche in castellano) is around 260 000.  The buildings and streets follow an urban plan of identically sized blocks (manzanas) typically around 6 stories high, that follow a grid of lines parallel and perpendicular to the coastline.  This is why you see almost all maps of Barcelona have North West at the top (the coast runs North East to South West).

The manzanas are separated by 20 metres with a traffic road of 10 metres and footpaths on either side of 5 metres width.  Looking from above, each block is a square with the corners chamfered off (i.e. an octagon) with sides of length 113.3 metres.  Each manzana(including road and pavement) is separated by 133.3 metres.   So every time you walk three blocks you have gone 400 metres.  12 blocks make about one mile.  The building dimensions are designed to provide shade in the streets from the hot summer sun.  The architect/civic planner who designed the Eixample, Ildefonso Cerdá, was way ahead of his time, and the design included considerations for network infrastructure (gas, water and sewage) as well as private and public transport at a time when the world’s first urban railway in London was only just being built.

The entire Eixample area covers 7.46 sq km (2.88 sq miles).  The typical manzana has shops and businesses on the ground floor with residential property and some offices above them.