Book review: The Spanish school of renewal

The 'Barcelona phenomenon' has become an obligatory part of the regeneration syllabus over the last decade. As someone who spent seven years living in the city, the total absence of a critical perspective in this debate has always astonished me. Transforming Barcelona is an admirable bid to provide a more balanced, diverse, insiders' view of how the city managed its reincarnation, from the chaotic industrial port of the 1970s to the urban icon of the 1990s.