Constructing a City: The Cerdà Plan for the Extension of Barcelona

Abstract

This article applies a constructivist perspective to the analysis of a town-planning innovation. The so-called Cerdà Plan for the extension of Barcelona was launched in the 1860s and gave this city one of its most characteristic present features. For different reasons it can be considered an extraordinary case in town-planing history, though almost unknown to international scholars. The authors analyze the intense controversy that developed around the extension plan and the three technological frames involved. Finally, the relationship between power and technology is discussed. The sociohistorical account is used to illustrate a specific concept of power, to be used in a politics of technology.