"Organization type ": Administracion pública

Aldea Vertical, Madrid

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Aldea Vertical, Madrid

Mismatches Vulnerable groups
Urban Design Quality Liveability
Promotion and production Public promotion

Main objectives of the project

In the midst of Madrid's housing crisis, characterized by soaring property prices and a shortage of affordable options, resilient social housing initiatives, such as the project spearheaded by the Madrid City Council through the EMVS, are challenging the pressures of gentrification. This vertical village of 85 social housing units represents a beacon of hope, offering dignified contemporary housing at regulated prices. Comprising a mix of ownership and rental units, the project accommodates diverse family structures and promotes social and family diversity through temporary rotations. Embodying innovative design elements, such as geometric setbacks and ceramic lattice systems, the project fosters community cohesion while providing residents with spaces for interaction and engagement, reminiscent of traditional village life, within the urban landscape.

Date

  • 2020: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo.
  • Architect: llps arquitectos

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Madrid
Country/Region: Madrid, Spain

Description

Madrid is currently grappling with a severe housing crisis, marked by skyrocketing property prices and a significant shortage of affordable housing options. This crisis exerts immense pressure on the city's most vulnerable populations, leading to widespread gentrification that displaces long-standing residents in favor of high-income newcomers. In response to these challenges, resilient social housing projects are emerging, aimed at countering the adverse effects of the free-market housing boom and ensuring that even the most disadvantaged individuals have access to dignified, contemporary housing.

In an urban landscape where gentrification often displaces the most disadvantaged, a resilient social housing project promoted by the Madrid City Council through the EMVS stands firm against the pressures of free-market housing growth. This initiative offers dignified contemporary housing for the most needy at regulated, affordable prices, despite the complexity of constructing a 17-floor vertical tower.

At the intersection of pedestrian public space and railway infrastructure, a vertical village of 85 social housing units rises from a textured concrete base. This tower complements the EMVS's social housing blocks, featuring a mix of ownership and rental units to support a diverse range of family structures, including numerous, multi-nuclear, single-parent, and single-person households, facilitating temporary rotations and enhancing social and family diversity.

The imposing white volume, adhering to geometric setback regulations on the upper floors, faces north with a smooth surface punctuated by a systematic array of square openings corresponding to bedroom scales. This design conceptually ties Horizon-Ground and Horizon-Sky, breaking down the urban scale of neighboring buildings and providing an enriching spatial reference through its abstract form.

In contrast, the southern elevation features a complex arrangement of setbacks and depths with ceramic lattice systems, offering protection from summer sun and heat while allowing light in during winter. This depth system incorporates diagonal spaces traversing the entire block, enabling residents to engage with their surroundings at various scales—territorial through horizontal views, urban through transverse visions, and communal through integrated terraces.

The project revives the idea of a primordial neighborhood, fostering a sense of community through interconnected spaces that facilitate neighborly interactions in all directions: diagonal, vertical, and horizontal. This concept of vertical streets within the urban alignment plane encourages encounters and relationships among residents, reminiscent of the German Siedlungen or Viennese Höfe, but with an enhanced focus on interrelation. Outdoor terrace spaces serve as communal meeting points, allowing residents to engage with their neighbors, akin to villagers sitting at their doorsteps, thus promoting crucial social interaction, especially significant during times of confinement.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Social housing in Sa Pobla, Mallorca

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Social housing in Sa Pobla, Mallorca

Mismatches
Urban Design Urban fabrics Environments Quality Liveability
Promotion and production Public promotion

Main objectives of the project

The social housing project in Sa Pobla, an agricultural municipality in Mallorca, addresses the housing pressure and vulnerability of its working population. Located in an area of new growth, it follows the traditional urban pattern with housing aligned to a road. The building, with a double southwest-northeast orientation, optimises space by eliminating corridors and improving cross ventilation. The structure is based on ceramic load-bearing walls and wooden slabs, with a façade of sandstone and wooden elements that reflect the traditional aesthetics of the island, guaranteeing high construction quality.

Date

  • 2025: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: IBAVI
  • Architect: Andrea + Joan Arquitectes

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: Spain

Description

Sa Pobla is a village and municipality in the Raiguer area of Mallorca (the central region of the island), characterised by being a large esplanade with a strong presence of orchards and water, located on the axis that connects Palma and the Bay of Alcúdia. Thus, Sa Pobla is a very agricultural village, with a significant presence of vulnerable population that is beginning to suffer real estate pressure due to speculative tourism with housing. With tourism being the main activity of the island, Sa Pobla is suffering more and more from the rises in rents and housing, as well as having a very vulnerable working population in the countryside. In this context, the construction of social housing is fundamental.

The project won the competition of IBAVI, the public company promoting social housing on the island. The projected building is located in a new growth area of the municipality, characterised by the construction of housing between party walls with facades aligned to the road, following the traditional urban pattern of Sa Pobla.

The footprint of the building within the plot is determined by the urban parameters of occupation and buildability and by the separations from the thresholds established by the municipal regulations. In this case, the building is aligned with the road and the party walls, but not with the buildable depth, to allow the appearance of the surface car park in the free space of the building on the ground floor. The result is a building with a double southwest-northeast orientation, whose facades face the street and the rear courtyard.

Following the particular urban morphology of the area, the project is structured by means of 5 bays perpendicular to the street of equal dimensions, and the programme is inserted within this organising scheme.

This scheme makes it possible to obtain a standard floor plan made up of 3 flats and a distribution space for accessing them, with a porch, towards the street façade. These dwellings are understood as a succession of rooms of similar proportions linked together, with the living-dining-kitchen spaces facing south-west and the bedrooms to the north, while the services occupy the central strip of the building.

The result of this floor plan is three dwellings, two of them with two bedrooms located at the ends and a central one with one bedroom. On the ground floor the central dwelling is removed, giving way to a passage that allows access both to the vertical communication cores and to the rear part of the plot, where the car park is located.

The façade reflects the regularity of this scheme and is composed of a set of identical windows, interrupted only by the appearance of a wooden porch located in the centre of the ground floor.

The spatial typology of the dwellings is based on the optimisation of space by eliminating corridors, understanding the house as a succession of interconnected living spaces. The windows and openings are placed in the centres of the spaces to achieve maximum lighting with the minimum number of elements.

The houses have two orientations, towards the street and towards the interior space of the plot. The house opens up, therefore, to a double orientation that allows us to choose at any given moment where to open and where to close depending on privacy, climate, noise, etc. This double orientation in large naturalised spaces improves the quality of the air in the homes through cross ventilation.

This approach to the building by means of bays perpendicular to the street is transferred to the structural functioning of the building, which is resolved by means of ceramic load-bearing walls with limited spans and one-way wooden slabs. Externally, the building recognises its surroundings, using marés stone as the façade material. The architectural openings are defined by stone jambs and lintels, while the window frames and sun protection are made of wood. These traditional elements of the island are integrated into the project, giving it a local aesthetic and high construction quality.

At the time of writing this lines, the project is still under construction. The keys are expected to be handed over to the neighbours in 2025.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

47 social housing units in Torre Baró, Barcelona

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47 social housing units in Torre Baró, Barcelona

Mismatches Vulnerable groups
Urban Design Quality Liveability Inclusion Equity
Promotion and production Public promotion

Main objectives of the project

This social housing building is designed around a central atrium that enhances the energy efficiency of the complex. Along with the spacious staircase landings, the atrium also serves as a communal meeting space for residents. Commissioned by the Institut Municipal de l'Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona (IMHAB), the public housing authority in the city, this project features a distinctive high-rise layout with walk-through courtyard flats. Each unit is positioned along the façade, ensuring natural lighting and scenic views. The building's sustainability is further enhanced by rooftop photovoltaic panels and intermediate terrace-gallery spaces that allow for cross ventilation. When closed, these spaces create a greenhouse effect, providing thermal gains and reducing the need for heating. As a result, this high-quality, sustainable building is made available to vulnerable populations.

Date

  • 2017: Ganador
  • 2022: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: IMHAB
  • Architect: dataAE

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Barcelona
Country/Region: Barcelona, Spain

Description

Torre Baró, one of Barcelona's most vulnerable neighborhoods, has one of the highest deprivation indexes in the country. Despite this, it is experiencing skyrocketing housing prices typical of a global city like Barcelona. Consequently, the Institut Municipal de l'Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona (IMHAB), the city's public social housing promoter, emphasized the need to invest in this neighborhood to ensure dignified housing for its residents.

The project consists of a building with 47 social housing units, including a basement, ground floor, and five upper floors. This building is designed as a shallow, continuous perimeter of courtyard flats that create a central space in the form of a collective and bioclimatic atrium. This atrium serves as a reception area, a social space for residents, and a mechanism for enhancing the complex's energy efficiency.

Situated adjacent to the Parc de Collserola mountain, Torre Baró originally required terraced constructions with numerous outdoor spaces connected to nature and the landscape due to its steep terrain. The new building will become the permanent home for some families who have moved out of the neighborhood and currently live in precarious housing conditions but maintain a strong connection to the mountain. These natural spaces are strategically incorporated, adapting them to the high-rise courtyard house typology.

The building emphasizes the relationship between the dwelling, the immediate public space, and the city, using intermediate spaces to transition from the street to the house through a large bioclimatic atrium. This welcoming ground-floor space is a mandatory passage for users to access different stairwells. It serves as an energy-efficient intermediate space, fostering a new area for social interaction among residents and future generations year-round. Additionally, it addresses energy poverty by designing homes with nearly zero energy consumption (NZEB) and high rooftop photovoltaic electricity production.

The central space, featuring a bioclimatic roof that can be opened and closed and protected from the sun, functions as a greenhouse in winter and a hyper-ventilated umbraculum in summer. This creates a thermally favorable space that adapts the building's form to environmental needs, improves the interior façade's transmittance, and facilitates energy exchange with the dwellings, reducing ventilation-related losses. These favorable conditions allow both the large central space and the generous staircase landings to serve as living, play, or meeting spaces for neighbors.

Each dwelling includes a 13m² terrace-gallery type intermediate space that functions as a passive-use area. In summer, this open, exterior, and ventilated space aids in cooling the dwellings through cross ventilation. In winter, it becomes a closed space that collects thermal gains from the greenhouse effect, directly benefiting the living room and reducing the need for heating. Each terrace acts as a private filter space between indoors and outdoors, an intermediate area between the individual and the collective.

A single typology is proposed for the apartments, where all units are located on the façade, ensuring natural lighting and landscape views. The gallery's position alternates: in some flats, it is the access space, while in others, it is at the end of the dwelling. The interior configuration of the dwellings features versatile 10m² rooms, all designed to favor multi-functionality. The layout is inclusive, with an open kitchen connected to the living room and access to the laundry room and bathrooms from the common space of the flats.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Social Housing in Magaluf, Mallorca

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Social Housing in Magaluf, Mallorca

Mismatches Cultural suitability Diversity Vulnerable groups Climate change
Urban Design Services and infrastructure Environments Quality Liveability Inclusion
Promotion and production Public promotion Materials

Main objectives of the project

The project aims to build 48 public housing units and an underground car park in Magaluf, Calvià. It arises from a collaboration between the Balearic Housing Institute and the Calvià City Council, with each entity managing 24 homes. Organised in two south-facing enclosures, the design seeks to optimise solar exposure and natural ventilation. This project focuses on sustainability, integration into the coastal environment and improving the quality of life in one of the most residentially segregated areas of the island, promoting social cohesion and sustainable development in a predominantly tourist area.

Date

  • 2022: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: LLOC Arquitectes
  • Promotor: IBAVI
  • Promotor: Calvà City Council

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Palma de Mallorca
Country/Region: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Description

The commission consists of the construction of 48 public housing units and an underground car park in the area of Magaluf, Calvià, a municipality located in the south of the island of Mallorca, Spain, known for its coastal character and its urban fabric dominated by hotel and leisure typologies typical of the tourist model. This area is one of the most residentially segregated on the island and has clear urban development deficits. The project arises from a collaboration agreement between the Balearic Housing Institute and Calvià Town Council, assigning the management of 24 dwellings to each entity.

The proposal is organised in two precincts connected by an underground car park, with 24 dwellings distributed in two ground floor blocks plus two additional levels (ground floor+2) of 12 dwellings each. On the ground floor, the volumes are south-facing to maximise solar exposure and take advantage of the sea breezes. In section, a difference in height is generated between blocks that favours natural lighting and cross ventilation, minimising the visual impact and avoiding the screen effect.

The choice of construction materials follows criteria of sustainability and environmental impact. Locally manufactured brick walls are used on the ground floor, while on the upper floors walls are made of plywood, an organic, lightweight material which, in addition to reducing construction time and waste, generates healthy spaces with a positive environmental impact.

All the houses are oriented from south to north, coinciding with the direction of the prevailing winds. They have patios on the ground floor and terraces on the upper levels. Cross-ventilation is enhanced by the appropriate sizing of the openings, and solar radiation control and privacy is ensured by a system of roller blinds.

The use of passive design strategies that promote energy savings, the choice of materials with low environmental impact and spatial flexibility are the fundamental pillars on which these wood-framed, energy class A dwellings are built. The various typologies seek a diagonal connection of spaces through large interior openings and sliding doors, generating flexible spaces that adapt to the life cycle of the users.

The importance of a quality social housing project, integrated into the surroundings and respectful of the environment, is crucial in an area as touristic as Magaluf. This type of initiative not only improves the quality of life of the residents, but also contributes to social cohesion and the sustainable development of the community.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Pla de Barris, Barcelona

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Pla de Barris, Barcelona

Mismatches Functional adequacy Services Cultural suitability Vulnerable groups Climate change
Policies and regulations Local policies Building capacity Global frameworks Governance Public-private initiatives

Main objectives of the project

The Pla de Barris in Barcelona adopts a holistic approach to affordable housing, emphasizing not only the refurbishment of housing and public spaces but also addressing economic and social justice issues within neighborhoods. Originating in the early 2000s and reimplemented in 2015 with a community-driven focus, the plan supports local initiatives with institutional help, fostering collective action. It integrates housing actions with economic development, educational opportunities, and social services to enable residents to afford their living costs. Currently, the AMB is preparing to expand this initiative to a metropolitan level, ensuring broader impact across the entire city.

Date

  • 2015: Implementation

Stakeholders

  • Foment de Ciutat
  • Ajuntament de Barcelona

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Barcelona
Country/Region: Barcelona, Spain

Description

When we speak about affordable housing, we often focus solely on the buildings. This brick-and-mortar perspective, while necessary, is only a small part of the whole issue. Dwelling is not just about having access to a housing unit with an affordable cost; it also involves having the opportunity to progress professionally and personally within the neighborhood, thereby being able to manage the cost of living. This is the logic behind "el Pla de Barris" (neighborhood plan) in Barcelona.

The Pla de Barris takes a holistic approach to addressing the needs of the most deprived areas in the city. While emphasizing the necessity of housing refurbishment and enhancement of public spaces, it also addresses the economic and social justice issues within neighborhoods. Thus, the plan combines housing initiatives with social policies.

The origin of the Pla de Barris dates back to the early 2000s, focusing on the need to foster investments in public spaces where vulnerable populations lived. However, after the 2008 crisis, the Pla de Barris was cut off due to budgetary reasons. In 2015, it was reimplemented with a different perspective. Now, the Pla de Barris is community-driven, centering on actions that the community can implement themselves with institutional support. Hence, it has transformed into a collective action policy. For example, despite its investment in housing refurbishment, it does so with a holistic approach. While the public administration typically just offers a grant, the Pla de Barris also provides the tools for the community to manage the grant and implement the project (see “Finques d’Alta Complexitat” on this same website).

Additionally, living in a neighborhood means having the earnings to pay for your house and expenses. For this reason, the latest Pla de Barris emphasizes the need to foster economic development projects, educational opportunities, and social services. In addition, it puts the climate resilience of housing and neighbourhoods as a central objective, adapting the most vulnerable to the climate challenge in their homes and environments.

The Pla de Barris operates within the municipality of Barcelona. However, the AMB, the metropolitan government, is now preparing the metropolitan Pla de Barris, so that investments can be scaled to the required dimension, impacting the entire city.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Observatoire de l'habitat, Luxembourg

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Observatoire de l'habitat, Luxembourg

Mismatches
Policies and regulations Governance Data and monitoring Evaluation and impact

Main objectives of the project

Given the skyrocketing housing prices in Luxembourg, the Housing Observatory (Observatoire de l'habitat), established in 2003, plays a crucial role in informing housing policy and public awareness. It monitors property and land prices, analyzes housing dynamics, and studies socio-economic aspects of housing affordability. The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) partners with the Observatory to support its research and policy planning efforts.

Date

  • 2003: Implementation

Stakeholders

  • LISER (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research)
  • Département du Logement du Ministère des Classes moyennes, du Tourisme et du Logement

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Description

Given the skyrocketing housing prices in Luxembourg, the establishment of a dedicated observatory has become crucial. In fact, Luxembourg has one of the most expensive housing markets in Europe. This poses a threat to its most vulnerable population. Thus, to solve it, the first step is to have the whole information about the housing situation.

In 2003, the Housing Observatory (Observatoire de l'habitat) was set up within the Housing Department of the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, Tourism, and Housing to produce the information needed for effective housing policy planning and to inform the public about housing issues. Since its inception, its objective has been to collect, analyze, and disseminate information on housing. It also assists the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning in planning housing policy. The Housing Observatory is particularly responsible for monitoring property prices, rents, and land prices. Additionally, it analyzes land dynamics in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, conducts a census of building land for housing, and studies housing production dynamics. Furthermore, the Observatoire de l'Habitat examines the socio-economic aspects of housing issues, including housing affordability and the impact of public policies on housing costs.

The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) is a key partner of the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning in fulfilling the tasks of the Observatoire de l'Habitat. This public research center's mission is to conduct fundamental and applied research in the social sciences to advance knowledge, inform the actions of public authorities and socio-economic players, and educate society. Thus, as one of his objetives, is the responsible to collect and process the data of the Observatory. By doing so, a scientific approach is introduced to the Observatory. As a result, the open data can be consulted at their web regarding housing matters.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Système d'information géographique de la politique de la ville

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Système d'information géographique de la politique de la ville

Mismatches Vulnerable groups
Policies and regulations Governance Data and monitoring Evaluation and impact

Main objectives of the project

The "SIG de la politique de la ville" is an advanced online atlas that provides detailed statistical data and monitors policy implementation in France's priority urban regeneration neighborhoods, ensuring effective tracking of housing affordability and urban deprivation.

Date

  • 2015: Implementation

Stakeholders

  • Ministère de la Transition écologique et de la Cohésion des territoires
  • Agence nationale de la cohésion des territoires

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: France

Description

France has long recognized the challenges faced by its vulnerable urban areas and has taken proactive measures to ensure housing affordability while addressing the social issues in its most deprived neighborhoods. To effectively implement these measures, access to reliable information is crucial. This need led to the creation of the “SIG de la politique de la ville.”

The “SIG de la politique de la ville” is an online atlas that compiles statistical and policy information about the “quartiers prioritaires de la politique de la ville” (Priority Zones for City Policies). These are areas identified for active urban regeneration policies.

Before 2014, two distinct urban policy priority areas coexisted: the regulatory area, which generated tax benefits (known as the ZUS area), and the contractual area, which generated funding (or “Cucs” area). These intervention methods did not necessarily overlap. The law on programming for cities and urban cohesion, enacted on February 21, 2014, reformed the geographic prioritization of urban policy. Using income as the sole criterion, new priority neighborhoods were identified in mainland France, La Réunion, and Martinique through a detailed territorial grid. This method was adapted for the overseas territories and revised in 2024.

As a result, 200 priority neighborhoods were identified by the decree of March 27, 2015, focusing on areas with significant urban dysfunctions, which became priorities for the new national urban renewal program. In 2024, a new delimitation process is underway.

The SIG system monitors the implementation of renewal programs and tracks the evolution of statistical data in these neighborhoods. On the website, users can select an address or region to see the priority neighborhoods within that area. By selecting these neighborhoods, users can access 1) basic statistical information on urban deprivation, 2) details of implemented plans, and 3) the progress of these plans.

This SIG tool is among the most advanced systems globally for tracking neighborhood affordability and deprivation.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Downtown rehabilitation of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

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Downtown rehabilitation of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Mismatches Services Cultural suitability
Policies and regulations Local policies Global frameworks
Urban Design Modelos De Ciudad Urban fabrics Environments Quality Liveability

Main objectives of the project

Santiago de Compostela, the historic capital of Galicia, faces the challenge of rehabilitating its medieval centre, protecting its heritage and avoiding the displacement of residents due to the influx of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. Since the 1990s, a comprehensive programme has improved housing, facilities and public spaces, prioritising residential use and creating green corridors and pedestrian areas. These initiatives, financed in part by public-private partnerships, have raised the quality of life and fostered greater cultural identification and heritage conservation.

Date

  • 1994: Implementation

Stakeholders

  • Concello de Santiago de Compostela

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: Spain

Description

Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia, a region within Spain, is a medium-sized but ancient city. It has about 100,000 inhabitants. Known especially for being the final destination of the Camino de Santiago, Compostela is one of the main destinations for the Catholic community. This attracts many pilgrims and visitors, which has an impact on housing prices. This is particularly noticeable in its centre, where it faces the challenge of rehabilitating very old houses (some of medieval origin), protecting the heritage and ensuring that neighbours are not displaced. Hence, in the 1990s, a comprehensive rehabilitation programme was put in place, which sought to act on housing, neighbourhoods and neighbourhood support policies to enable a thriving city centre.

The main objective of the upgrading and recovery actions in the historic centre of Santiago has been to stabilise and improve the quality of life of the resident population. Therefore, the interventions have prioritised residential use as the central objective in the historic city, implementing comprehensive housing rehabilitation programmes.

These actions have been complemented by improvements in facilities and public space in various dimensions, such as the integration of peri-urban green spaces (corridors connecting the centre with the rural landscape) and the creation of a pedestrian priority zone. These strategies have increased the consideration of the centre as a meeting space. The strategic role of the historic centre as a space for residents is a topic of contemporary debate on historic centres which, in this case, has had a positive impact, contributing to improving the quality of the historic centre.

In addition, its environmental dimension is notable, with the integration of new green corridors in a compact historic environment, as well as the public-private partnership in its financing. Finally, the impact of the interventions has transcended the physical, as, together with the collaboration of a diverse network of agents, it has promoted the cultural identification of the heritage of the historic centre by the citizens, which has improved the quality of maintenance and a conscious use of the areas of the historic centre.

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Polígono Sur, Sevilla, Spain

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Polígono Sur, Sevilla, Spain

Mismatches Location Vulnerable groups
Policies and regulations Local policies Governance
Urban Design Modelos De Ciudad Urban fabrics Environments Quality Liveability

Main objectives of the project

The urban regeneration of Seville's Polígono Sur has been an ongoing process focused on revitalising one of the municipality's most vulnerable neighbourhoods. Actions include the improvement of housing, the urbanisation of abandoned areas, the creation of car parks and green spaces, and the improvement of accessibility. In addition, strategies have been implemented to encourage economic development through the incorporation of support facilities and training schemes. The improvement of public space has been key to promoting community identity and the integration of the neighbourhood with its surroundings.

Date

  • 2020: Implementation
  • 2006: Implementation

Stakeholders

  • Sevilla City Hall

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: Seville, Spain

Description

The urban regeneration of Seville's Polígono Sur, a process that has been going on for a long time, has focused on revitalising one of the most vulnerable neighbourhoods in the municipality, both in socio-economic terms and in terms of the quality of the buildings. The first project was launched in 2006. After the pandemic of 2020, further phases are being implemented.

Ongoing actions in this area have covered various lines of intervention. Improvements have been made to housing and public spaces, urbanising derelict areas, creating new surface car parks and green spaces, and improving accessibility in existing areas. At the moment, a 'pon' rehabilitation of empty homes is being carried out, guaranteeing access to social housing for the people of the neighbourhood, and the so-called "Central Vacuum" is being redeveloped as a large green lung.

Other strategies have been aimed at promoting the economic development of the neighbourhood, through the incorporation of support facilities (which facilitate the development of business activities and the consolidation of existing ones) and the implementation of plans for training and integration of the neighbourhood with its surroundings.

The strategy of improving the public space is particularly relevant for its intention to promote the community identity of the beginnings of the neighbourhood and its spatial and social openness towards the surrounding areas.

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Urban regeneration of the Albaicín, Granada

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Urban regeneration of the Albaicín, Granada

Mismatches Cultural suitability Diversity
Policies and regulations Local policies Governance Public-private initiatives Participatory processes
Urban Design Environments

Main objectives of the project

The Albaicín, one of the most visited and touristically attractive neighbourhoods in Granada, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007. However, its deteriorated state of conservation, with serious situations of substandard housing, led to the development of the Integral Rehabilitation of the Albaicín project in 2002. This project seeks to improve the living conditions of the residents and revalue the historical and architectural heritage, affecting 5,007 dwellings and combining the characteristics of the historical centre with urban growth. The plan promotes social and cultural diversity, gender equality and covers equipment, mobility and security needs, involving citizens in technical and administrative solutions.

Date

  • 2002: Implementation

Stakeholders

  • Granada City Hall

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: Granada, Spain

Description

The Albaicín is a neighbourhood located in the centre of Granada. It is one of the most visited and most touristic, with a high heritage value, classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 2007. However, its state of conservation, including serious situations of substandard housing, motivated the development of the project for the Integral Rehabilitation of the Albaicín. This project, initiated in 2002, seeks to improve both the living conditions of the residents and to revalue and recover parts of the historical and architectural heritage.

To this end, the plan establishes a comprehensive intervention affecting 5,007 dwellings, combining the unique characteristics of the historic centre with the growth of the urban fabric. The plan also focuses on maintaining the social and cultural diversity of the ethnic minorities present in the neighbourhood and promoting gender equality, while considering the needs of the inhabitants in terms of facilities, mobility and perception of safety.

The uniqueness of both the urban landscape and the architectural typologies in an environment with a high identity value makes it necessary to incorporate citizen participation in order to implement feasible solutions at a technical and administrative level in cooperation with the neighbours. The creation of a regeneration office to accompany the inhabitants and other actors in the process has been key to the development of the plan.

All of this has allowed the establishment of a "culture of rehabilitation" that has made possible the realisation of projects of high architectural quality with an impact on a larger urban scale, as is the case of the Kuna House, an example of contemporary architecture rooted in the particularities of the place. Casa Kuna is a sustainable community space in the centre of Granada, revitalising an empty 150 m² space. The project focuses on the sale of recycled second-hand goods and local craft workshops, encouraging coexistence between vulnerable groups and residents of the Albaicín. It has created opportunities and improved neighbourhood relations through workshops and training, responding to the growing discontent in the neighbourhood.

Thus the project demonstrates not only the need for housing rehabilitation for vulnerable groups, but also the importance of opening up community spaces, where people can meet and work together. Moreover, to do so in a space where the circular economy is encouraged.

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España