The article discusses the findings of in-depth research into the reorganisation of settlements in the urban region of Barcelona following the construction of new transport infrastructures. The study, which combines geographical readings with a detailed functional and morphological analysis of several ‘fragments’ of the area, focuses mostly on the system for locating shopping centres and industrial estates, both of which have played key innovative roles in the recent local transformations. In the case of the shopping centres one is dealing with new forms of organised distribution, while as regards industrial estates it is the development of cutting-edge technology that holds sway. The construction of these large-scale complexes is inseparable from the formation of new centres, some of which are characterised by functional specialisation, others by the synergy between compatible activities that exploit their spatial proximity in terms of capacity to attract and rational use of common services.

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