"Superblocks are a relatively new urban planning concept that has been pioneered in Barcelona, Spain."
No, they're not new. They've been tried many times. Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan has "superblocks".[1] That might be the first large development like this. The units near roads, not the ones facing the green spaces, are considered more desirable.
And that's in Manhattan, which has really good public transportation.
Peter Cooper Village in a collection of near-100% residential highrises. It is completely lacking in shops, restaurants, or bars at street level. When it comes to amenities, it is a virtual desert. Despite the lack of cars, you still can't really walk anywhere you want to go to.
Due to the large number of highrises the access streets are still very car-focused and hostile to pedestrians.
Additionally, the remaining space is filled with small closed-off snippets of high-density greenery. The large amount of trees block any kind of visibility from the residencies, greatly reducing safety.
It reminds me a lot of the Bijlmermeer neighbourhood in Amsterdam. Constructed in the 1970s it is best-known for being unsafe and undesirable - until a massive reconstruction starting around 2000.
At a glance this seems quite a bit different: much larger than a super block, and with almost no ground level retail, which means being in the center places you quite a ways from stores/restaurants.
No, they're not new. They've been tried many times. Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan has "superblocks".[1] That might be the first large development like this. The units near roads, not the ones facing the green spaces, are considered more desirable.
And that's in Manhattan, which has really good public transportation.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuyvesant_Town%E2%80%93Peter_...