2013 Strategies For the Post-Speculative City

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The case of VALLEC/KAS, Madrid
(AESOP, 2013) Benlliure, Jose; Janku, Eranda; Vlk, Tamara; Woutersen, Mischa; Zasina, Jakub; ; Lourenço, Júlia M.; Raventós, Teresa
In times when the economic crisis and different administrative problems are leaving behind ghost cities and abandoned extra-large urban projects, it is urgent to start reflecting to react. Provoking discussion among young urban planners and other related professionals is very important to open up more up-to-date and innovative solutions, by thinking about short and long term solutions for our cities and their future. The burst of the housing bubble in Spain has triggered a deep crisis for the city as a project. One of the most important casualties of the economic crisis, P.A.U de Vallecas - one among the main six large areas which were previously planned to accommodate overestimated urbanisation for the city of Madrid – was chosen as the focus of discussion and study during the 4th European Urban Summer School. By analysing and diagnosing the present situation, the main challenge of this project was to find urban design solutions for this area by assessing quality of life through physical parameters.
Open Access
Wastelands
(AESOP, 2013) Arana, Juan
Through the production process of the contemporary city, the left over spaces become, in opposition to the spaces of the formal city, a key aspect to understand our urban space. In its various forms urban waste space is inscribed in the cities as defining a fuzzy inner border. Its shape or lack of it equals to the negative of the city. It often marks the middle ground between urbanisation and the countryside, between infrastructures or between uses. As such, it is an intermediate space, a space that mediates between different spatial situations or a transition in time. In continuous transformation, its form and character are by definition imprecise. It shares qualities with the urban and the rural realms together with a very definite character on its own. In the absence of a defined function, residual spaces are occupied by residues, playful, ephemeral or marginal uses. Its universal use is that of the informal gathering of waste, as if fulfilling a spatial necessity of the urban context to expel out of its limits waste materials and activities unsuited for the formal city. In this way, they follow the logic of the excremental defined by Slavoj Zyzeck for the Untouchables “Not only dealing with impure excrement, their own formal status within society is excremental” (Zyzek 2002). Gilles Clément designates as Third Landscape the space left over by man to be colonised by nature (Clément 2003) He makes a political comparison when he relates the Third Landscape to the Third State paraphrasing Abbé Siéyès’ famous question: What is the Third State? Everything. What has it been until now? Nothing. What does it ask? To become something.
Open Access
Introduction. Concept and issues of the EUSS 2013
(AESOP, 2013) Franchini, Teresa; Arana, Juan
At a time of abrupt changes, when the old urban models are quickly becoming obsolete and inefficient, there is an opportunity to look into the future to envisage new strategies. We intend to work on the wounds inflicted on the city by speculative urbanism: there is a need to bring into question the existing model of urban growth, working from the present situation towards new visions to recycle our cities. This is the opportunity to put forward proposals to challenge uncontrolled urban growth; to review the situation of the new suburban territories, and to regenerate the consolidated fabric of the inner city. Conversely to speculative planning, new strategies may consider how to enhance citizen participation in the making of the city. Would a bottom-up urbanism be possible that deals in a more responsible manner with people’s needs? Instead of simplistic speculative solutions we need a multiple and diverse urbanism, capable of adapting to complex situations. New strategies may include reusing the city, rethinking the territory, generating activity, diversity, complexity and density. The 4th European Urban Summer School (EUSS), hosted by the Polytechnic School at the CEU San Pablo University in September 2013, has been an invitation to develop new ways of thinking of, and tools to respond to emerging issues about the future of post speculative cities. It aims to bring together postgraduate students, emerging and experienced academics and young and established design and planning professionals from all over Europe (and further away) to develop a better understanding of some of the most pressing contemporary issues related to the built environment and to amplify and strengthen the links between planning, design-relevant research and professional practice.
Open Access
State of the art in strategic physical planning
(AESOP, 2013) Leboreiro Amaro, Alberto
The urban reality of Europe is metropolitan, and good governance of Europe’s metropolitan regions is crucial for the future wellbeing and prosperity of Europe. The total population of the European Union is estimated at about 533 millions inhabitants, with 73% living in urban areas. The Urban Audit of Eurostat identifies 127 Larger Urban Zones with populations of over half a million. These are Europe’s metropolitan regions and areas. A Metropolitan Region is defined by at least 50,000 inhabitants in its core city and 500,000 inhabitants in the entire region (BBR, 2005; DATAR, 2004). From an economic point of view, deregulation policies are applied to the liberalised markets of metropolitan areas. In the global context, competition is emerging between all the cities and globalising cities require internal restructuring based on the information revolution. In the new information society there is a need to modify the spatial network which is concentrating people and activities in cities and financial centres, but dispersing activities in their peripheries. The Metropolitan areas are the engine of European development, the centres of economic, political and cultural life. They are also the centres of political and economic management, expressed in a highly developed infrastructure of specialised services. Acting as external challenge the globalised economy is characterised by the flow of people, goods, capital, services, ideas and information, as well as relationships between organisation and interaction. Metropolitan regions face serious structural transformations, economically, politically and territorially. (Blotevogel 2005a, OECD 2001, Sassen 1991). It is necessary to reconsider the process of evolution of both core cities and the periphery, the urban environment and rural space.
Open Access
Strategies For the Post-Speculative City : Proceedings of the 4th AESOP European Urban Summer School, Madrid, Spain, September 2013
(AESOP, 2013) Arana, Juan; Franchini, Teresa
At this 3rd EUSS, an initiative from the Netherlands government, which challenged young planners to find solutions to contemporary spatial planning problems, was integrated into the School: the Young Planning Professionals Award (YPPA). This is an annual, 3-year international competition (2012-2014) funded by the Directorate responsible for planning at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (mI&M). Its aim is to stimulate thinking and promote innovative ideas on how spatial planning in Europe can adapt its form and methodologies to take on the present-day challenges and transformations facing our human settlements. The underlying thinking is that it is largely the younger generation (< 35) of planning professionals who will have to come up with the answers, as it is they who will have the responsibility to plan and develop those settlements in the near future. The winners get free participation at the EUSS and present their papers at a special YPPA session. The papers of winners and runners-up of YPPA form part of the EUSS publication which is also generously supported by the mI&M grant. The theme of the Award is related to the theme of the EUSS, so for 2012 it was ‘Adapting cities to scarcity: new ideas for action. Trends, perspectives and challenges of spatial development in a phase of de-growth and decline in Europe’. This is the publication of the fourth EUSS held in September 2013 at the Universidad CEU San Pablo Polytechnic School, in Boadilla, Madrid, Spain on the theme ’Strategies for Post-Speculative Cities”. It includes the papers of the two winners of the 2013 YPPA – Clenn Kustermans and Veronika Kovacsova - on the topic ‘Ensuring climate resilient cities: innovative ideas for effective measures in a low-level investment environment’.
Open Access
From dream to nightmare: Madrid Eastern Strategy "mending or pushing through"
(AESOP, 2013) Ynzenga Acha, Bernardo
The present paper deals with the rise, fall and possible futures of the Madrid Eastern Strategy, arguably the largest urban operation undertaken in Spain in the last decades; probably the largest in Europe. The Eastern Strategy is the name given to a development proposal extending over close to 60 km2. (5.865 Has. 14.492 acres) on the southeastern fringe of Madrid. It was part of the 1997 General Master Plan of Madrid (Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de Madrid -PGOUM). It was designated for 158,000 dwellings and an expected population of about 450,000 people. The Plan also included other, smaller but not minor operations elsewhere which were supposed to attract their share of future population and push additional potential growth significantly. However and in dire contrast, when those decisions were made the total population of Madrid was less than three million people, and declining2. These numbers depict a panorama of unbounded development optimism, remote from demographic and urban realities.
Open Access
Strategies for the post-speculative city. Redressing the balance in favour of sustainable development
(AESOP, 2013) Ryser, Judith
Every cloud has a silver lining. The ghost quarters1 on the fringes of Spanish cities - ruins before their time due to frenetic property speculation - are shied by people. They want to live in urban environments where they have access to jobs and urban life, which is more crucial than ever during the economic crisis. Alternative ‘shelter’ is unsavoury though, as evidenced in the slums of the southern outskirts of Madrid, or in overcrowded garages and sheds around Heathrow airport and in the East End of London. This raises the question of whether it is possible to revitalise the speculative quarters in the middle of nowhere into liveable environments and to harness unused spaces within the city by turning them into liveable places. They offer designers a great opportunity to rethink urban regeneration according to ‘nested’ sustainable principles encompassing the environment, the economy and social wellbeing.
Open Access
Spanish coastal landscapes after the speculative tsunami
(AESOP, 2013) García García, Miriam
During 1997-2006, Spain led the European real estate explosion. This stage has been seen as the largest increase of urbanised space throughout Spanish history, transforming the landscape as no other natural or artificial phenomenon had done before, especially in coastal areas. That is why many authors called it the speculative tsunami. The construction fever ended when the real state bubble burst in 2008 and now is the time to analyse the causes and effects of an economic and social model organised around brick and mortar, without any respect for environmental, urban or landscape aspects. It is necessary to show the logistics that have fuelled real estate speculation to reach these limits and also the resulting spatial effects, with the aim to offer some possible ways of intervention to restore its territorial outcomes.
Open Access
Madrid Think Tank
(AESOP, 2013) Lahoz, Carlos
It is crucial to begin this article by making a reference to an undeniable reality: We are in a time of CRISIS. Having this word on mind, if we think about the nature of the term crisis itself, it is curious to see that while the Greek word (κρίσις) from which crisis is derived stands for a situation dominated by change, other cultures, older than the occidental ones, have come to deepen its meaning and implications. This is the case of China, where the ideogram for crisis is composed of two characters, one means danger and the other opportunity. This philosophy, this way of approaching reality, is what has driven the creation of the MADRID THINK TANK. Depending on how we face dangers or take advantage of new opportunities will be our future. However, we lack the tools to predict the future. Therefore, our only option is to propose bold solutions capable of addressing and providing answers to the different challenges and work for society to understand and endorse them.
Open Access
A long view on the European Urban Summer School in Madrid in 2013
(AESOP, 2013) Ryser, Judith
Taking a long view from inception of the European Urban Summer Schools, EUSS in Madrid marked a natural progression along a steep learning curve. Initiated through AESOP - with Izabela Mironowicz as the creative driving force - EUSS took off in 2010 with very high goals. In Wroclaw Poland, nine projects on ‘Urban change’ were tackling the city as a whole, conceptually transforming specific districts and making fine grain urban design proposals. A state-of-the-art publication supported by UN Habitat put EUSS on the global professional map. The theme of ‘Urban change’ ran through all the subsequent summer schools. They all focused on concrete sites while relating to time- and location-specific, often complex planning issues. They addressed ‘quality of space – quality of life’ in Lisbon, ‘times of scarcity – reclaiming the possibility of making’ in London, and ‘strategies for the post-speculative city’ in Madrid. Each EUSS took place in a large city, often a capital. Each had selected sites as a challenge to current planning wisdom which stretched the imagination of the participant young professionals. They delivered, in the very short time available, also in Madrid. A purpose of the EUSS publication series is to document these very rich and original contributions to pressing urban issues by young professionals from all over the world. Madrid after the property market collapse was a great opportunity for young professionals to think about alternative urban futures while making concrete proposals for the given sites within realistic constraints. They came up with innovative ideas for acity unknown to most of them. The three adjacent sites, starting from the heart of Madrid and reaching the southeast fringe with progressively increasing scales confronted the participants with a large range of issues. They benefited from well balanced formal contributions from academics as well as practitioners and were tutored by academics with both practical experience and local knowledge.
Open Access
About the workshops
(AESOP, 2013)
Aiming to bring young professionals together to discuss and work on planning issues, the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) launched the European Urban Summer School (EUSS) in 2010. From a great variety of backgrounds and countries, encompassing North and South America as well as Europe, a total of 15 young professionals started their work in Madrid, Spain, on 8 September 2013. This was not a random day; it was a Sunday, which showed how motivated and interested the group was on this course. Getting to know about the programme and its purpose the students had to register themselves, following the instructions, which were clearly stated on the official AESOP website. The event consisted of field work, lectures and team work, which after 7 days was transformed into a presentation of clearly identified problems and solutions. After one site visit and the theoretical part, at which local problems were critically presented, together with some background requests, the professionals were divided into 3 groups of 5 students, which the organisers divided according to the professionals’ formation to create diverse as well as balanced teams. During the week, it was not just the comprehension about the topic that got clearer, but also its complexity and the necessity to link the sustainable triad: social, economic and environmental. The groups were expected to articulate their life experiences with each other. It required time and an open mind when seeking to fill the gap that existed between individuals and their approaches. (Extracted from Delicias Group final report) The selected working areas encompassed three different urban circumstances: the Delicias Axis, a void of 23 hectares located in the inner city, requiring new ideas for its proper inclusion in the existing urban fabric; the Vallecas neighbourhood, a large development built during the last decade, when the sustainable principles specified at the end of the past century were mandatory; and the areas encompassed in the Southeast Strategies, the largest urban expansion ever planned for the city of Madrid which were facing a new meaning in the present period of stagnation. After a week working on their respective sites and hours discussing the situation they were involved in, the three groups produced fresh, stimulating and innovative proposals which are presented in the following pages.
Open Access
An example in Delicia’s axis, Madrid
(AESOP, 2013) Perepichka, Anzhela; Villamor, Jose Miguel; Lihtmaa, Lauri; Mathews, Mary; Pletsch, Mikhaela A. J. S.; Ryser, Judith; Franchini, Teresa
Measuring approximately 23 hectares, the Delicias Axis is an area of Madrid with great potential. It is connected by metro and train stations, and is not far from the central museum district. Furthermore, several businesses, such as Repsol, Spain’s major oil company, are moving into the neighbourhood, and there are several attractions such as the Planetarium and the Train Museum on the site. People from Madrid use the park for flea markets and social activities like dance. However, the Delicias axis does not currently garner the attention it deserves. The Delicias working group of the 4th European Urban Summer School made several proposals to improve access and connectivity of the area into the larger fabric of Madrid. Improved urban design features were envisaged to revitalise the area and make it a real destination for locals and tourists. Through field work and discussions, the group produced a development plan focusing on the goals of attracting tertiary activities and linking the area with the adjacent Tierno Galván Park, the largest green open space in south Madrid.
Open Access
Madrid, the Southeast Developments. The sun also rises
(AESOP, 2013) Maia, Camila; Kovacsova, Veronika; Kustermans, Clenn; Poulizac, Morgan; Sartori, Eleonora; Arana, Juan; Perea, Luis
The workshop aims to look at the landscape of the vacant and deserted territories on the city limits and think through what the nature of the actual situation is and venture into what the next steps forward could be. Within the socio economic context and with the framework of the revision of the Madrid Master Plan, the south-eastern fringe of the city presents a huge question mark. It is a place where planning is paralysed and poses a number of questions. What are the real problems that need to be solved once the speculative forces have faded away? What would be the role of the planner and the designer in such a territory? Should anything be done at all? Objectives: Research and development of possible strategies for a large area located in the city limits. Devising ways to approach this territory from different viewpoints. The objective is not so much to come up with a design but to think through possible strategies after grasping the complexity of the problems.
Open Access
Digital society and smart territories
(AESOP, 2013) Manuel, Jorge; García, Martín
At present, the massive use of information and communication technologies (often called ICTs) is changing everything faster than ever. We are living in a new revolution era that will bring us from the industrial society, characterised by the intensive consumption of energy to the digital society which uses information as a power to transform. These changes will affect every single aspect of our lives and, in the near future, no matter what our profession will be, we will need to understand, deeply, how to adopt and use these technologies. Our ability for adopting digital services will be crucial in the path to a successful professional career, even if our personal way of life is not very “digital” we will work, with and for digital citizens, and digital companies. It is not an option. We need to digitalise as much as we had to mechanise in the past, because it will help us to build a better world, and improve people’s living conditions. It is important, therefore, for everyone to understand what lies beyond this technology, and have a good understanding of what to do, and how to do it to incorporate these technologies in our field of expertise. As we will look forward, collaboration between professionals will be key for creating value in the future. For a better collaboration, a closer look at the ICTs and a better knowledge of the digital world could be useful.
Open Access
Urban design and quality of life. Lessons to be learnt from Madrid’s periphery
(AESOP, 2013) Franchini, Teresa
Academics and practitioners have elaborated a number of planning and urban design tools to understand the built environment and to provide guidance for physical-spatial interventions. Both tools are aimed to contribute to the improvement of the quality of urban space and the quality of life of those who use it. After so many years of trying to get well designed and sustainable neighbourhoods, it is possible to assume that there exist tool kits ready to be applied to practice. However, the existence of wide avenues, large green spaces, collective housing to achieve compactness, and dynamic commercial areas, does not ensure by itself the creation of urban spaces which provide quality of life. Practice shows that, in fact, there is a wide gap between theory and practice. Facing this situation, planners and urban designers face several questions when trying to realise their potential professional powers. Which urban design and planning criteria may lead to better urban places? What are the relations between physical form, functional structure and social aspiration to improve quality of life? Which spaces are contributing to urban quality: public, private or the links between them?
Open Access
Methods of measuring and assessing the sustainability of urban developments
(AESOP, 2013) Ryser, Judith
Sustainability, discussed in the sister paper in the context of regeneration and gentrification, is a very broad concept and goes way beyond the rescue of the planet. In its broadest sense it implies an equitably shared environment which becomes increasingly urbanised. There are tensions, exacerbated in cities, between the diverse needs and wants of those who use them, residents (citizens, voters), the working population, visitors, transient people, etc., compounded by subjective perceptions of such needs and wants. Sustainable development, management, maintenance and use of the city would require a system of government capable of upholding the principles of social and spatial justice to secure an equitable use of cities by all. It would require custodians of the collective good and the public interest, a method of holding decision makers to account, a public participation process which guarantees citizens a say, and third party vetted procedures to share out finite public assets equitably between all stakeholders while keeping the city open to all.
Open Access
Accessing quality of life through physical parameters
(AESOP, 2013) Lourenço, Júlia M.
As cities keep growing in size, it becomes more and more important that urban expansion takes place a planned way, so that cities can satisfy the needs of its population. Unplanned growth or planned growth with scarce implementation lead to environmental degradation, traffic jams, urban sprawl, pollution, low access to basic services and equipments, loss of identity, communities’ disintegration, pockets of poverty, etc. Urban planning is the set of tools through which interventions attempt to create urban spaces that contribute to the quality of life of citizens in the context of urban design. This can be defined as the relationship of inhabitants with the different elements that constitute urban space. Urban design determines, directly, the physical component of urban space, and indirectly, its socio-economic, political and cultural elements, influencing the relationship between the urban environment and its components.
Open Access
The European Urban Summer School (EUSS) and the Young Planning Professionals Award (YPPA)
(AESOP, 2013) Mironowicz, Izabela; Martin, Derek
In 2010, the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) launched a new annual event: the European Urban Summer School (EUSS) for young planning professionals. AESOP wanted to bring together young professionals and experienced academics and practitioners across Europe to discuss spatial issues. AESOP’s aim was to facilitate a better trans-European understanding of planning issues, promote an exchange of ideas and foster a debate on the most important planning topics. These aims corresponded with AESOP objectives set out in the AESOP Charter. AESOP offers its teaching resources at EUSSs. Members of AESOP – European universities teaching planning – host the event. The EUSS is not a commercial venture. It is meant as a platform of debate to be run on as low as possible fee for participants. Tutors do not get any fee for their work.
Open Access
Housing in The Netherlands
(AESOP, 2013) Martin, Derek
Housing policy in the Netherlands is an interesting example of how a traditionally (especially post World War Two) well-organised national structure of providing affordable and adequate housing has dealt with the transformations brought about by the neo-liberal wind of the past two decades. It has to be said at the outset that, because of this strong structure, speculation has almost totally been eliminated in the Dutch system. So this paper is not about housing in a post-speculative society but about how the Netherlands has continued to avoid speculation in housing even after the quite radical withdrawal of the public sector from this structure since the 90’s. The totality of the housing system has withstood these quite profound changes and the recent financial crisis reasonably well, the social housing sector more than the owner-occupancy sector, which has felt the impact not only of the gross irresponsibility of the financial sector but also of the shortsightedness of the major political parties who put short-term electoral gain before sensible policies.
Open Access
Madrid’s urban planning background. Some anti-speculative measures. The1985 Master Plan
(AESOP, 2013) Leira, Eduardo
The European Urban Summer School deal mainly with the consequences of the latest Madrid dealt planning decisions. Their consequences are what B. Ynzenga calls the “nightmare”. The students took a trip around the no-man’s land to see them. The EUSS course worked on what may be done with them. The situation will be difficult to mend. Those decisions were taken in the Madrid 1997 Plan. They were more than a “dream”, more properly a delirium. Those decisions emerged as a result of a previous evolution. Madrid, in respect to other major European metropolises is perhaps the youngest one. It has grown at the rate of developing countries, what Spain was, in fact, in the middle of the 20th century. It is therefore convenient to have at least some glimpses at the history of Madrid or, in a more colloquial sense, Madrid’s Story.