Ernesto Martinez |
Bilbao (EFE) and also more public space.
Years ago, Valencia, Bilbao and Avilés achieved a “Guggenheim effect” that they still enjoy. Other cities failed in the attempt to achieve similar urban transformations.
Today, all the large populations, with Madrid and Barcelona at the forefront, and each one with its own problems, plan their urban changes paying attention to sustainability criteria.
Bilbao gave its name to this “effect”, which has already been studied internationally as a model of profound urban renewal achieved from an exceptional architectural project that also acts as a motor for economic development.
In the 1990s, still under the effects of the industrial crisis of the previous decade, the Basque capital took advantage of abandoned factory land on the banks of the estuary to build a Guggenheim Museum that has contributed decisively to the urban regeneration of Bilbao and its conversion in a city of culture and services known throughout the world.
After 25 years of activity, the avant-garde titanium, stone and glass building designed by the architect Frank Ghery has been visited by almost 25 million people, 61% foreign tourists, and has had a direct economic impact of more than 6,500 million euros. euro.
Valencia and the City of Arts and Sciences
Valencia achieved an urban revolution similar to that of Bilbao with the City of Arts and Sciences, designed by Santiago Calatrava and which has meant a before and after for tourism, leisure and culture not only in the Valencian capital, but throughout its Mediterranean area of influence, since its first major attraction was inaugurated 25 years ago.
The enormous futuristic-looking complex has favored the urban expansion of Valencia towards an area -the mouth of the old Turia riverbed, converted into the great green artery of Valencia 30 years ago- which until then was very far from everything and today, On the contrary, it is one of the most coveted areas, both for offices and shops and for residential areas.
Avilés achieved its own transformation with the Niemeyer Center (2011), built with the sketches that the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer gave to the Asturian council in gratitude for the award of the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 1989.
The Niemeyer Center turned the Avilesina estuary, punished by the environmental consequences of decades of industrialization, into an island of innovation, where degraded spaces gave way to a place of cultural and business excellence.
Other cities failed to put mega-projects of urban transformation on their feet, as happened with the Eurovegas game city in Alcorcón (Madrid) or, more recently, with “Little Dubai” in Salamanca, which turned out to be a ghost project.
more sustainable urbanism
At present, more than with exceptional architectural projects that serve as an urban revulsion, cities develop their urban planning with the reference of sustainability as an aspect that is repeated in all plans.
In recent times, citizens have been demanding more green and recreational areas, perhaps as one of the echoes of the confinement during the pandemic, and these aspirations are very present in the electoral proposals this 28M.
In addition, global warming makes it necessary to design buildings with energy efficiency. New technologies are also applied in urban planning with the aim of achieving “smart cities” and insisting on concepts such as the “15-minute city”, in which citizens have access to all essential public services within a quarter of an hour away on foot or by bike.
Supermanzan
An example of this sustainable urbanism is taking place in Barcelona, where the elections on May 28 will be a referendum on whether or not to go ahead with the urban transformation of the city with the program of superblocks or superilles.
The commons are committed to continuing with the program, while the rest of the political forces warn of the problems it generates, especially now that the project is approaching the historic area of Eixample, and demand to stop it and review it or, directly, put an end to it and reverse the works carried out so far.
The superblocks are a way of organizing the urban fabric that subtracts space from the automobile and gives it to the pedestrian inside, which contributes to developing a more sustainable city, although, on the contrary, the detractors of the measure stress that the superilles have repercussions negatively on traffic.
chamartin
In the Community of Madrid, after a blockade of almost three decades, the first works of the Madrid Nuevo Norte infrastructures have started, the old Operation Chamartín, which includes the construction of 10,500 homes and will transform the surroundings of the railway station.
Other large urban transformation projects appear on the horizon in various cities, such as Malaga, which is waiting to clear up the question -on June 21- of whether to organize the 2027 International Exposition, an event that would transform the city with an investment of at least 1,800 million euros and that they want to promote with the motto “The urban age: towards the sustainable city”.
industrial megaprojects
In addition to all these driving urban projects, Spanish cities and communities have outstanding industrial urban planning projects in their portfolio, with mega-projects aimed at various economic sectors.
These are the cases of the battery cell plant planned by Volkswagen in the Valencian municipality of Sagunto and, also in the automotive sector, the gigafactory of ion batteries projected for 2025 in Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres), which will be powered by a 100% green energy supplied by local sources.
Extremadura concentrates other outstanding future industrial projects also linked to this type of energy, such as a synthetic diamond factory, the first in Europe, in the town of Trujillo in Cáceres; an energy storage supercapacitor factory at the Badajoz logistics platform; and a green hydrogen production plant in Mérida.
Smaller investments, although also for outstanding initiatives, are planned in La Rioja, which will house the National Center for Packaging Technologies and the Intelligence Center for the New Language Economy.