During the second half of the 20th century, Barcelona experienced the largest urban expansion in its history.

The "Barcelona model" was born in the eighties thanks to the collaboration of the democratic institutions and architects such as Oriol Bohigas. From this period are the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial (Peña i Rius) or the Moll de la Fusta (Solà-Morales).

But the pinnacle of Catalan urban planning started with the choice of Barcelona as the host city for the 1992 Olympic Games. La intervenció a l’anella olímpica de Montjuïc inclou la restauració de l’Estadi Olímpic i les Piscines Picornell i la construcció del Palau Sant Jordi (Isozaki). The Vila Olímpica (Martorell-Bohigas-Mackay) brought the city to the sea with the construction of the Port Olímpic. Other examples of Olympic architecture are the Torre de Collserola (Foster), the Montjuïc Communications Tower (Calatrava) or the Hotel Arts (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill).

With the Fòrum Universal de les Cultures (2004), the Diagonal was extended to the sea, and the Centre Internacional de Convencions (Mateo), the Forum Building (Herzog and de Meuron) and the large photovoltaic panel (Martínez Lapeña and Torres) were built.

As for post-Forum, highlights include the spectacular displays of authorial architecture such as the Torre Agbar (Nouvel) or the Edifici Gas Natural (Miralles and Tagliabue).