The New Barcelona Post converses this month with Víctor Gutiérrez de Tena Catalán, one of the young people participating in the leadership and city program taught by Barcelona Global, Barcelona 2040. An expert in brand building, Gutiérrez de Tena holds the position of Chief Strategy Officer at EssenceMediacom Spain. With more than 10,000 employees spread across 120 offices worldwide, the company has consolidated itself as one of the major communication and media agencies.
The objective of this series of interviews is for this new generation of leaders to share their vision for the Barcelona of the future they aspire to, as well as their impactful proposals for the improvement of the city.
--- What do you expect from Barcelona in 2040?
--- Barcelona has always been a city under construction. In 1859, Cerdà designed the Eixample not for his time, but for a future metropolis. With fewer than 200,000 inhabitants, he projected a city for a million, with wide streets and an adaptable modular grid to open the city beyond its walls. With that same logic, Cerdà's thinking was the skeleton of the 19th century; now we need a nervous system for the 21st century, where every street, every square, and every rooftop are sensors and producers of data and energy to accommodate new ways of working, moving, and living.
--- What city would you compare Barcelona to?
--- A city does not impose its identity; it builds it by creating spaces where people adapt and evolve with it. Barcelona should not seek to resemble anyone, but rather equip itself with tools that allow its transformation. The investment is not in the change itself, but in the foundations upon which society will make it possible. The mistake is to politicize it or seek authorship; cities are not individual projects, but collective visions that materialize over time. As happened with modernism, which united art, technology, and society without imposing a single view, but rather the interpretation of a single vision. Barcelona must generate structures that allow its evolution with coherence. Change always generates controversy, but if it follows a clear logic and responds to a real need, time will validate it.
"New generations will not build Barcelona with strategic plans, but with their way of life"--- What city model do you think Barcelona should resemble?
--- We should not resemble any other city, but evolve from its structure and identity. We do not have a blank slate like Cerdà's, but we do have the responsibility to reorganize space to adapt to new ways of living and working. The challenge is not only urbanistic, but cultural: to define a vision that guides transformation without falling into fleeting fads. If there is a symbolic reference, it is the Sagrada Familia. A construction from the past that follows its original plan while the city changes around it. Barcelona must do the same, define its essence conceived from the future as Gaudí did and evolve logically, without forcing changes, without sense or resisting the inevitable.
--- What is the main challenge Barcelona must solve in the coming years?
--- Barcelona's challenge is not to grow, but to organize itself better with common sense. Mobility should not prohibit cars, but demonstrate that they are not necessary with efficient transport and well-connected neighborhoods. Housing is not solved only by regulating prices, but by expanding the offer with flexible models that respond to new ways of living. And the economy must promote industries aligned with the city, such as biotechnology, sustainable innovation, and creative industries, which contribute to urban movement and guarantee a prosperous and balanced future.
--- What do you think should be the role of new generations in the development of the city?
--- New generations will not build Barcelona with strategic plans, but with their way of life, as we did and as those who come will do. The city is not an imposed project, but the consequence of millions of daily choices within a structural framework that facilitates its evolution. The true role of generations is not to receive a closed city, but to adapt and transform what we leave them. It is not about imposing models, but about generating the conditions for emerging solutions to have space to evolve coherently. Cities that endure are not those that seek to control everything, but those that create open frameworks where each generation finds its own path.
--- Which business sectors do you think Barcelona should bet on?
--- Barcelona must attract investment that not only generates employment but also modernizes its industry and updates its economy. It is not enough to attract companies; we must define what kind of city we want and attract the talent and investment that make it possible. Autonomous mobility must bring with it a technological ecosystem that drives the manufacturing and management of smart infrastructures. Flexible housing will not only be a housing solution but also an opportunity to boost construction and create new financing models. Digitalization must empower strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, or those we believe are inevitable. The future is not just about growing, but about building a model that ensures Barcelona remains a benchmark for those of us who live here and for those who want to live here.