L’Atelier DEV in Barcelona: reconfiguring public space at the neighbourhood scale

As part of the Cities Connection Project exhibition in Barcelona, the Brussels-based studio L’Atelier DEV will take part on May 13, 2026, in an interim conference dedicated to the theme of public space.

This event is included in the programme of Cities Connection Project: 15 Years of Comparative Architecture, developed on the occasion of Barcelona becoming the World Capital of Architecture 2026. The exhibition brings together 202 contemporary projects and explores urban transformations through several thematic axes, including public space, which lies at the heart of current debates on the city.

The cross-conference will bring together L'Atelier DEV, the Swiss firm WE Architettura, and Albert Gassull, Director of Public Spaces at the Àrea Metropolitana of Barcelona (AMB), moderated by architect Noemí Martínez (AMB). It will offer a discussion on contemporary approaches to public space, its modes of appropriation, and its capacity to adapt to urban, social, and environmental change.

The Bon Air Garden City

L’Atelier DEV will present a large-scale research project carried out on the Bon Air district, structured around a masterplan and a comprehensive mobility study. The approach covers the entire garden city territory: road networks, public spaces, squares, intersections, peripheral edges, and inner-block areas, extending to the interfaces with the Ring and the Flemish border.

The project is based on a structural reconfiguration of mobility aimed at eliminating through-traffic and clarifying parking practices. A new circulation scheme organised into three loops improves safety, simplifies school routes, and gradually frees up public space in favour of soft mobility and pedestrian uses.

This global rethinking of mobility is complemented by an urban transformation masterplan structured into six categories of intervention. These include the creation of new themed public squares in place of former road intersections, the requalification of the district’s entrance gateways, the redesign of street profiles through the introduction of one-way systems, and the transformation of inner-block cores into densely planted ecological reserves.

Practical information

Venue: BENITO URBAN HUB – Calle Sant Eusebi, 34 (Barcelona)
Time: 7:00 PM