These superblocks are also used a bunch in china in newer cities. When subway's come to the edge of the superblock where you live its pretty nice -- you basically never interact with cars or potentially once or twice even though you live in the middle of a huge city (Shanghai for example in certain areas). After work you see tons of families walking around, people on dates, dancing, etc doing whatever in the central squares between the big apartment buildings that surround the area. And since many other superblocks have their own area like this, typically the park area is not overcrowded.. vs. like going to golden gate park in the evening or weekends in the summer.
The US could have some of these nice things too if the zoning law didn't ban all business in residential areas. It baffles me how the US has no shops / restaurants / convenience stores in residential areas and nobody questioned it over half a century.
Richer Asian cities often have good quality of life in the cities. Walkable and good transportation. It's true in many parts of China and all over developed Asia
Reminds of Tokyo's "blocks". I don't know where to find the details but I went to small exhibit in Omotesando (a part of Tokyo) where they showed how much of Tokyo is built where there are "large" (4-6 lane roads). The buildings on those roads are 8-15 stories tall. Behind the buildings on the main road are lots of side streets with small apartments buildings and single family homes. The 4-6 lane roads and the tall buildings are firewalls and were designed to prevent run away fires.
I don't remember if this design was in response to 1923 fires or WW2 fire bombing. But, I did notice that I can except for a few spots (West Shinjuku, or Otemachi), I can be in a crazy popular famous busy part of town (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku) and just a few steps off the main street it's suddenly quiet and pleasant. It wasn't until I saw the exhibit that I realized one of the reasons.
Compare to much of SF, NYC, I almost never feel any moment of "peace and quiet" during the day at least.
That all fits in well with the hierarchical way of assigning addresses in Tokyo as opposed to the street name and number used in much of the western world. I wonder if the address scheme came first or the urban development pattern came first and the address scheme followed.
Superblocks have much potential. And in general there is so much potential to build cities for people instead of cars.
Check out what we’re doing at Culdesac if you want to see how we’re approaching the opportunity. We’re building the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US.
Every time Barcelona's superblocks come up on HN, people confuse them with mere blocks.
A superblock (or superilla in Catalan) is usually a 3 by 3 grid of blocks. The inner streets are closed to through traffic, although locals can still get their cars to their apartment garages.
The inner streets are then turned into a combination of parks, benches, bike lanes, and plants.
Currently just a handful of these superblocks exist.
Superblocks are great, but they are bit boring. Take, for example, Barcelona - it looks the same everywhere. I think, the city should not be homogeneous. Thus, the idea is to make them heterogeneous.
Barcelona is a good example of how to not make things homogeneous; the map layout can be similar, but each superblock has its own personality. Not only they are architecturally varied, there's difference in the kinds of businesses hosted in the ground floor. This superblock has a bakery, the next one holds the fire station, the next one is residential but with red brick, the next one has a bank, and so on. It is very different from walking in other "purely residential" blocks that are just closed to the world, looking inwards.
Barcelona has a few pilot superblocks, five or six, but not nearly enough to make it 'boring'. You are perhaps thinking of the square grid, in place since the 19th century.
Part of what I love about modern western cities is how much verity there is in buildings. When I look out my window I see buildings of all different eras and design styles.
Some of them are “ugly” in a way but they still contribute to the aesthetic positively. One old 90s concrete office tower is fine, 30 identical ones would be ugly.
The grid in Barcelona started in Eixample neoghbourhoods. Check Gracia, Barceloneta, Horta, Gòtic for very different arrangements. I agree Barcelona needs more green though, too much asphalt.
All of these nice things are happening in many European cities where they have prioritized people over cars. None of this will happen in any meaningful scale or timeline in the US to reverse the country’s decline.
Discusses Barcelona, and 3x3 superblocks, and uses a 2xN illustration. Maybe its just me but the visual completely failed to make me believe Barca has 3x3 superblocks because it didn't show it.
Mexico City, at least in the central parts, has an interesting layout. Busy avenues roughly 1km apart grid the neighborhoods. Inside those squares most of the streets are one-way and low speed. You can walk in almost any direction and find a bus or subway station in 8 minutes. And of course they mix residential commercial and light industrial freely. It’s not unusual to find a small furniture maker next to a restaurant below an apartment building. They don’t ban cars and the “blocks” are larger, but it seems to work.
It does work really well and makes it really nice to walk or cycle inside your "zone" so to speak. The downside is that they concede the large avenues entirely to automobile centered design resulting in 10-13 way intersections that you have to navigate in order to get from one zone to another.
The most egregions example is probably the exit from Chapultepec leading into Condesa which drops you off next to a highway with no way of crossing without a 1KM detour:
That reminds me a bit of Tokyo. It's full of small streets[0] that cars can drive on, but they tend not to because they're narrow and don't have sidewalks, so making cars move slowly. Cars then naturally flow through to the larger streets[1] when possible, which do have sidewalks.
[0] https://goo.gl/maps/4RtUzUUfjvMpLs8y6 (this street has a small painted sidewalk since it has more commercial activity, though pedestrians often walk in the middle; the adjacent streets have no painted sidewalk).
i think seoul has something like this where the residential areas or "blocks" are basically this area of highrise apartments (prob covers a few minor blocks). inside this block there are big public square type areas for kids and fams to play or do whatever, usually a strip mall connected for convenience stores or what have you. no cars can really drive through it.
i do understand the appeal to convience and safety, but honestly it's super boring to me. having grown up in suburban sprawl and then living in NYC for a few years, this type of community is basically just bringing the suburbs to the city in a different form. i enjoy the bustle of the streets. for seoul it may be borne out of necessity, but in the US if i had a choice i'd rather not.
if you know know of stuytown apartments, just imagine if that was 50% of manhattan. it would totally suck IMO. just blocks of gated communities within the big city and ruins the "vibe" for lack of a better word.
It's not a gated community. It is to keep cars out, and allow people to use more space in their city. If anything I think having tons of space wasted for cars is bringing the suburb to the city. You get much more bustle with people than you do with cars, and much better vibes.
I'm too used to our cities that every block based design seems incredibly dull to me. I prefer designs like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Prague. These cities are so much more interesting than Barcelona or Berlin. In Barcelona as a visitor, you don't even come inside these blocks. They are meant for people who actually live there, but nobody else has a reason to visit one.
I hope we won't follow the superblock trend or what Dubai is doing. Basically a square grid full of isolated blocks or towers.
I am curious what the difference is in property value and general perceived desirability between external-facing and internal-facing apartments in these superblocks in Barcelona.
Looks nice. Plans like this would be even better if the norm was for residents to own a share of the land and buildings (and the responsibility for maintaining) - co-housing style.
Just seeing that aerial photo of Barcelona’s grid gave a dose of anxiety. I can’t really imagine living in one of these places, no matter how cleverly the Lego blocks are arranged.
A lot of people have this reaction to aerial photographs of densely-populated places, but, crucially, people don't live in aerial photographs -- they live at ground level. And the experience of being on the ground in places like Barcelona is very nice, no matter how it looks from the air.
Interesting to see this being developed in Spain, I wonder if it would be a manifestation of the greater community you see in Spanish cities like Barcelona.
[+] [-] xt00|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ZYinMD|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moltar|4 years ago|reply
To me the ultimate superblock is one that has everything needed for day to day. Like a small family grocer, barber, bank, etc.
[+] [-] space_rock|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qwertox|4 years ago|reply
Also scroll around to the east, north-east, to get a feeling for the size of the entire project.
[0] https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+Cairo+City,+Cairo+Gove...
[+] [-] Aeolun|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codesections|4 years ago|reply
Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars[0] (2016) - 236 comments
What New York Can Learn from Barcelona’s ‘Superblocks’[1] (2016) - 133 comments
Superblocks: Barcelona’s plan to take back streets from cars[2] (2019) - 31 comments
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12237966
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20200760
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12633414
[+] [-] wsaintx|4 years ago|reply
If you want to see how it is all shaping the information is available in English in:
https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en/
For example this is the map of the planned superblocks in Eixample: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en/superilla/eix...
And a few renders https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en/content/the-n...
As a resident I am ecstatic with the change.
[+] [-] LeanderK|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asiachick|4 years ago|reply
I don't remember if this design was in response to 1923 fires or WW2 fire bombing. But, I did notice that I can except for a few spots (West Shinjuku, or Otemachi), I can be in a crazy popular famous busy part of town (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku) and just a few steps off the main street it's suddenly quiet and pleasant. It wasn't until I saw the exhibit that I realized one of the reasons.
Compare to much of SF, NYC, I almost never feel any moment of "peace and quiet" during the day at least.
[+] [-] Mountain_Skies|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kevin_thibedeau|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanj20021|4 years ago|reply
Check out what we’re doing at Culdesac if you want to see how we’re approaching the opportunity. We’re building the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US.
[+] [-] thesuitonym|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevoski|4 years ago|reply
A superblock (or superilla in Catalan) is usually a 3 by 3 grid of blocks. The inner streets are closed to through traffic, although locals can still get their cars to their apartment garages.
The inner streets are then turned into a combination of parks, benches, bike lanes, and plants.
Currently just a handful of these superblocks exist.
You can read and understand the superblock concept here: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/en/
[+] [-] xvilka|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] otikik|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Schiphol|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Gigachad|4 years ago|reply
Some of them are “ugly” in a way but they still contribute to the aesthetic positively. One old 90s concrete office tower is fine, 30 identical ones would be ugly.
[+] [-] fennecs|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mejutoco|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] visarga|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nextstep|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dasloop|4 years ago|reply
And the general idea is the 15 minute city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15-minute_city
[+] [-] maxbaines|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ggm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mejutoco|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aristus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] L_Rahman|4 years ago|reply
The most egregions example is probably the exit from Chapultepec leading into Condesa which drops you off next to a highway with no way of crossing without a 1KM detour:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/La+Condesa,+Mexico+City,+C...
[+] [-] ceras|4 years ago|reply
[0] https://goo.gl/maps/4RtUzUUfjvMpLs8y6 (this street has a small painted sidewalk since it has more commercial activity, though pedestrians often walk in the middle; the adjacent streets have no painted sidewalk).
[1] https://goo.gl/maps/BquuyEvSrVExuyiu7
[+] [-] ookblah|4 years ago|reply
i do understand the appeal to convience and safety, but honestly it's super boring to me. having grown up in suburban sprawl and then living in NYC for a few years, this type of community is basically just bringing the suburbs to the city in a different form. i enjoy the bustle of the streets. for seoul it may be borne out of necessity, but in the US if i had a choice i'd rather not.
if you know know of stuytown apartments, just imagine if that was 50% of manhattan. it would totally suck IMO. just blocks of gated communities within the big city and ruins the "vibe" for lack of a better word.
[+] [-] Balero|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dncornholio|4 years ago|reply
I hope we won't follow the superblock trend or what Dubai is doing. Basically a square grid full of isolated blocks or towers.
[+] [-] jclem|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pauldavis|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rhipitr|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Daub|4 years ago|reply
https://judgedredd.fandom.com/wiki/Block
[+] [-] the_other|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thom|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dionidium|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tgv|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Simon_O_Rourke|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swayvil|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] john-doe|4 years ago|reply