A street that became a garden
Nearly 3 km of Consell de Cent, a three-lane road through Barcelona's Eixample, became a single-level garden street in under a year of building. Here is what it cost, who made it, and what changed.
- Length
- ≈ 3 km
- Built
- Aug 2022 – Jul 2023
- Cost
- ≈ €25 M
- Idea to opening
- 2 yr 8 mo
Before
Consell de Cent is one of the long, straight streets of the Eixample, Barcelona’s 19th-century grid of cut-corner blocks. Until 2020, much of it carried three lanes of traffic. Green space covered about 1% of the street.
After
Nearly 3 km of the street became a “green axis”. The asphalt is gone. Sidewalk and road are now one level, with planting beds, benches and new trees. Cars are still allowed, but only at 10 km/h, and they must turn off at every block, so the street is no longer a through route. Bikes share a two-way space in the centre. At four crossings, the old junctions became small squares. 30% of the paving lets rain soak through.
Who made it happen
The Ajuntament de Barcelona under Mayor Ada Colau, which announced a network of 21 green axes in 2020. The Consell de Cent axis was designed by b67 Palomeras Arquitectes and Cierto Estudio, who won an open competition. The squares came from four other teams, including Estudi08014 and LAND LAB.
Cost and time
About €25 million for Consell de Cent, part of a €52.7 million programme for four green axes and four squares, funded partly by EU recovery money. No audited final cost has been published. Greenery and cleaning add over €1 million a year across the axes.
Construction ran from August 2022 to July 2023: under a year of building, and about two and a half years from idea to finish.
Did it work?
The city hasn’t published a full before-and-after evaluation. Here’s what independent and city data show.
- It’s quieter. A peer-reviewed study found daily noise fell by about 3.1 decibels on the new axes between 2022 and 2023. Levels are still above World Health Organization guidance.
- The traffic didn’t just move next door. Nearly 5,000 vehicles used to drive down Consell de Cent. Yet city counters show weekday traffic fell on the parallel streets: València −4.6%, Aragó and Diputació −3%, Gran Via −1.4%. Only Villarroel, a cross street, rose, by 1.5%.
- It’s calm, but not as calm as planned. 81% of vehicles on the axes are now bikes and scooters. Their average speed is about 20 km/h, double the limit.
- Rents went up. A study of 573,000 rental listings found rents near the axis rose 12–14% more than in the rest of the city. The study is a working paper, not yet peer-reviewed.
Not everyone welcomed it. A business group took the city to court, and judges annulled one stretch in 2023: the city had changed what the street was for without changing the metropolitan plan first. The Catalan high court agreed in 2025. The city appealed to Spain’s Supreme Court, and we could find no ruling yet. The street itself hasn’t changed back.
May 2023 · just finished June 2025 · two years on What others can copy
- Change the plan before you change the street. Barcelona's design survived but its paperwork didn't. Rewrite the master plan first, and the courts have less to annul.
- Traffic adapts. Taking cars off one street didn't jam the next ones. That's the strongest answer to the most common objection.
- Budget for success. Barcelona paused new business licences and bought 111 homes on the axes, and rents still rose. A popular street costs more to look after, too.
Sources8 links · every number above is linked too
- 3Cat: the before and after of the first green axis
- Ajuntament de Barcelona: works start on four green axes
- b67 Palomeras Arquitectes: Eix verd Consell de Cent
- UAB: green axes reduce noise levels
- Nació Digital: surrounding streets did not collapse
- SSRN working paper: rents and the green axis
- BIMSA: four new green axes and four squares
- TSJ de Catalunya ruling on the green axis
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