Architectural ethnography of urbicide on Barcelona’s waterfront: The revival of utopianism and hygienism in commodified cities

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.