Barcelona Lockdown 2020

Carles Crosas, Data, Eulàlia Gómez-Escoda, Middle Density, Politics and economics, Territory and mobility, Urban Paradigms

Air quality, Balanced urbanism, Barcelona, Community Facilities, Confinement, COVID-19, Data, Digital era, Diversity, Greenery, Health crisis, Livability, Mixed uses, Pollution, Population, Residential, Self-sufficient city, Spain, Transformation, Urban dynamics, Urban environment, Urban fabric, Urban mobility

GIS mapping collaboration: Mikel Berra-Sandín, MArq ETSAB Student, 2020.

This text is part of an ongoing investigation, part of the results of which can be read at Crosas, Carles; Gómez-Escoda, Eulàlia. 2020. "Mapping Food and Health Premises in Barcelona. An Approach to Logics of Distribution and Proximity of Essential Urban Services", ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 9, n. 12: 746. Special Issue Measuring, Mapping, Modelling, and Visualization of Cities. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi9120746

One year after the national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and still far from re-establishing the usual urban pulse, it is worth stopping to observe some aspects in the transformation of the behavior of cities during the days of stricter confinement. Beginning on March 14, 2020, only essential services were allowed to continue operating: food stores, pharmacies and health facilities were, during a period of eight weeks, part of the few shutters that were raised at ground level in the city. The new “stay at home” routine radically changed urban performance with an unprecedented reduction of mobility and a radical shift of social circles into the digital scene.