Parigi e Barcellona: due esempi di "metropoles douces". Paris and Barcelone: two exemples of "sweet metropolis"

Both Paris and Barcelone in the very last years have experimented the idea of gaining a “sweetest” way to relate their urban spaces to their cityusers. A way more comfortable, more direct, and then more sustainable. Looking for a city where citizens could meet and found all they need in their daily life in a closer space. Paris has launched in 2008 the Grand Pari(s) ten projects and more recently has updated them throughout the international design competitions of 2014, Reinventer Paris and la Seine. Barcelone has finally applied the visions of the Super Illa idea, the mega city block of 400 x 400 m made of 9 traditional Cerda blocks, where inhabitants can live more softly, having access to “services” more than “things”, and going on foot, or on shared means of transportation. Throughout this project the catalan town has improved a parametric approach to urban space quality, looking for a really complex and active contemporary city model, for the planet future survival. The two city experiences here presented have been monitored since 2005 within two annual seminars of the Sapienza University International Master in “Gestione del progetto complesso di architettura”. They propose two compared possible interpretations of “freespace”.