With the designation of Barcelona as the 1992 Olympic Games city, a series of important public works were done, including a new ring road and a new subway line. One of them was the creation of a new residential neighborhood, la Vila Olímpica or Olympic Village, where formerly only abandoned factories stood. This housing was home to the athletes during the games, and was later sold to the public. The beaches and waterfront area next to the Vila Olímpica, which had formerly been a no-man's-land, was also rebuilt. It is now the most used beach in Barcelona.

All these works were performed, by different architects and urbanists, in a relatively consistent style. Monumentality is avoided, constructions have simple lines, and horizontality is preferred to verticality, which creates very wide open spaces. With Barcelona's nice climate, being able to see a big sector of blue sky is a very beautiful thing. I call these "new spaces". Even now, more than 10 years after the Games, this is the predominant style of new public constructions in Barcelona.

I like this kind of areas because they impose themselves so little onto people. They just provide a spatial framework for visitors and inhabitants to use, and then get off their way.