New mediterranean elements in contemporary housing. The case of Barcelona

In the face of increasing and differentiating the low-cost housing demand and the trend of establishing new paradigms in the contemporary housing design, the architectural investigation has replaced into its disciplinary statement the topic of housing as central question in research and design experimentation. The city of Barcelona has codified in the last years innovative modalities of public management in social housing, offering interesting points of reflection on the idea of housing and of Mediterranean quality in urban, architectural and constructive terms. The paper proposes a key to the reading on the recent experiences of social housing in Barcelona illustrating the different forms through which architecture interprets the relationship between housing and public space, between innovation and constructive tradition.