Como Barcelona Tirou os Carros das Ruas e Salvou Vidas

UGREEN produces content about sustainability in construction and helps professionals and companies put it into practice. Below you will find everything about our consulting services, events, and courses. EVENTS: On May 15th, in Curitiba, UGREEN will hold "Who Will Build a Different Brazil?" Secure your spot: https://ugreen.com.br/evento2026 CONSULTING SERVICES: Brand Consulting: https://www.ugreen.com.br/marcas Sustainable Construction Consulting: https://www.ugreen.com.br/construcoes COURSES: Regenerative Architecture: https://go.ugreen.com.br/curso-regene... Low-Impact Material Specification: https://go.ugreen.com.br/curso-materiais Sustainable Retrofit: https://go.ugreen.com.br/curso-retrofit Energy, Thermal and Lighting Simulation for Buildings: https://go.ugreen.com.br/simulacao All UGREEN courses in a single access: https://go.ugreen.com.br/pass SPONSORSHIPS: Want to sponsor the UGREEN channel or promote a sustainable product or brand? https://go.ugreen.com.br/marca FREE RESOURCES: Broadcast List with free news: https://go.ugreen.com.br/transmissao Weekly Newsletter: https://news.ugreen.com.br Follow us on Instagram for exclusive content:   / ugreen_br   Barcelona is closing streets to cars, planting trees, and returning public space to pedestrians. The model is called superquadra, it's saving lives and becoming a world reference in urbanism. But there's a serious problem that almost no one talks about. In this video, I explain how superblocks work, why they generate intense political conflict, and what the central contradiction of the model is: the same tree that cleans the air and reduces deaths also increases rent and displaces the original residents of the neighborhood. Barcelona didn't invent superblocks out of thin air. The idea comes from a 19th-century urban plan by a socialist engineer named Ildefons Cerdà, who wanted to create an egalitarian city. Capitalism subverted this plan over decades, transforming green courtyards into garages and wide streets into asphalt corridors. The contemporary superblock project is, in part, an attempt to recover what was lost. The model works by grouping nine existing blocks and restricting internal traffic to 10 km/h, with looping streets that force cars out. Without through traffic, the intersections become plazas. The data is concrete: a 25% reduction in nitrogen dioxide, a 3-decibel drop in daily noise, and an estimated 667 deaths avoided per year if the model is expanded to the entire city. But here's the contradiction. When the state improves a territory, the real estate market reacts. Researchers at the University of Barcelona have documented that superblocks act as a magnet for real estate funds and digital nomads, closing what economists call the rent gap. The result: the residents who fought for that improvement are evicted by rising rents. This is what is called green gentrification. In Brazil, the problem is even more complex. The Brazilian city was built on historical exclusion, land grabbing, and peripheral urbanization without basic infrastructure. Importing the Barcelona model without housing policy would deepen inequality, not combat it. I analyze what makes Brazil different, why Brasília is not a superquadra despite its name, and what legal instruments such as the City Statute and Special Zones of Social Interest can be used to make the transition without displacing the poor.