The superblock is an oversized urban block, several ordinary blocks in size, from whose interior through-traffic is removed so that the inside can be given over to people, greenery or housing. The form was worked out in 1920s–30s schemes such as Radburn and the housing of CIAM-influenced modernists, who wanted to free dwellings from the noise and danger of cars. Barcelona revived and inverted the idea from 2016 with its 'superilles', grouping nine existing blocks and diverting traffic to the perimeter to reclaim the inner streets.
The superblock recurs across very different eras as a way of separating living space from motor traffic, from modernist housing estates to today's pedestrian-priority districts. Barcelona's version has made it a leading contemporary model for cutting car dominance in dense historic grids.