Urban+Renewal

...URBAN RENEWAL...


 * - Do you know an example that represent this concept? **
 * - What is your interpretation of the quote "...urban space improvement and recovery... should be an ongoing concern for all cities"? **

Urban Renewal is about the redevelopment or rehabilitation of real property in a city or in other words redevelopment of urban areas in large-scale. Generally is making when want a city replanning to of towns or urban centers to modernize them and provide access for traffic. More recently it has tended to imply a renewal of urban fabric damaged through neglect or inappropriate intervention. Urban renewal means a cooperative effort by private developers and local government. An example of urban renewal we can see in many countries and cities throughout history; means the transition usually to a better city, as is done to solve local problems of cities, likes congestion, traffic, the fast population growth, or to solve problems of lack of services for the population, installation of aqueducts, drainages on the streets or urban facilities likes parks, schools, and others.

An example of urban renewal we have studied in this course, and is the enlargement or expansion of Barcelona, this movements meanings an example of installation services to the city and its citizens, also meaning an improvement in the quality of life and the city's image, pushing the insalubrity, congestion and pollution for a long time. Other example of urban renewal, we can found in Latin-American, specifically in Colombia in the city of Medellin, where it becomes the image of the suburb (barrio), to give a better image to the landscape, better life quality for the habitants with the availability of areas of entertainment, education and assistance of any type by local and national government.




 * NOTES **

**__ Barcelona Urban Development and Change __** Thus Barcelona provides an excellent example of urban growth, from the middle ages to the present. The city's landscape is clearly a product of its past and its present. It also reminds us that town planning is not simply a modern post-war phenomenon and that the intentions of nineteenth planners were no more likely to be fully achieved than those of their twentieth-century counterparts. Apart of all these Barcelona suffers from serious traffic congestion and has the unenviable reputation as being the second most noisy city in Europe after Sofia. **__ Years of changes in Barcelona (1980-2004) __** **1980:** The first one started right after the first elected City government –are the 80s–, and the City has urgently to begin a total urban renewal process and to improve its urban fabric. The heritage of the previous time is an important lack of public spaces, parks and facilities all over the city. The objective was to plan squares, streets and parks to achieve better quality in urban life and to establish a tradition and skills in this field since there was very little in the way of recent experience to relay on. It is important to remark that the production of these small projects is not only related to this period, on the contrary it is part of the everyday duties of the City Council. **1986 – 1992:** The 1992 Olympic Games provided a catalyst for a change of scale of interventions within the city. Therefore the facilities and infrastructures needed by the Games were carefully designed and located in the city to guarantee both, the specific demands and requirements of the event, while providing new investments for the city according to their current and future demands. Just to illustrate it, the Olympic Village was the starting point of the rehabilitation of Poblenou –an old industrial area of the city–, and of the waterfront of Barcelona. The construction of large-scale infrastructures –as the airport, a new ring-road around the city or the 35km under-grounded service gallery– allowed the city to take off and to face new challenges. **1993 – 2004:** The geographical structure of the Barcelona coastline is formed by the Deltas of two rivers, the Llobregat and the Besos separated by Montjuïc Hill. The greatly differentiated urban situations that result from this geographical situation are the basis of the latest transformation. ** Principals urban renewals in Barcelona ** ** Ildefons Cerda l'Eixample: ** The l'Eixample was planned using an extensive grid-iron pattern. The development rapidly spread to connect Barcelona to the outlying towns, which were incorporated into the city at the turn of the century. Cerda's grid, with wide roads and bevelled street corners was designed for the easy passage of the steam tram along each street. Today it produces a large number of traffic intersections, one of his plan's main failings. Other criticisms arise from the fact that some of his ideas were not properly implemented ** La Mina - a district with high social deprivation : **  In the period between 1945 and 1975, large areas of high-rise apartments were built along the major route ways and in parts of the urban periphery for immigrants from other parts of Spain seeking work in the city. One such residential district, La Mina, was built specifically to rehouse shanty town dwellers. Today this has a sizeable gypsy community and the greatest social deprivation in the Barcelona metropolitan area. ** Olympic Village - empty streets: ** The 1992 Olympic Games and the Universal Forum of Cultures 2004 have enabled the city to undergo a transformation more radical than perhaps any other city in western Europe. Radical transformation has also occurred in the Poblenou coastal district - an area of old manufacturing industry. In order to house the athletes an Olympic village was constructed on an abandoned factory site. The Olympic Village apartment blocks were designed along the lines originally envisaged by Cerda, but today much of the planned ground floor commercial space remains empty  A more recent development adjacent to the Olympic Village, the Diagonal Mar hyper-community, has even lower densities - 48 dwellings per hectare - and is seen by some as an urban development disaster, despite winning an Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence. According to Clos, such low density areas do not contribute to building a sense of the city. The organization of the Games permitted a complete change of scale of urban generation in Barcelona. If until then we had been speaking about squares, streets and gardens, after the Olympic nomination we were able to speak of new ring roads, seaports and Olympic Villages (Acebillo, 1990; Ferrer, 1994). The project was developed by a team of architects and planners led by Oriol Bohigas, one of Barcelona's most influential planners. The first decision was that the Games were to be the games of the city and in the city. So, four areas were chosen inside the municipality of Barcelona to locate the four Olympic areas (Millet, 1990):  - Montjuïc, where the stadium, the sport palace and the swimming facilities were allocated   - Diagonal   - Vall d'Hebron   - Poble Nou, Olympic Village   The starting point was that the Olympic Village was to be, after the Games, a normal area of the city perfectly integrated to it and with it. So, a normal neighbourhood, not an anomalous phenomenon, not a urban ghetto. ** Urban renewal for the olympic preparation: ** ** In Infraestructure: ** - Placing underground other railway tracks that were a barrier between the rest of the city and Poblenou area. - Rehabilitation of beaches  - New highway underground in order to avoid the creation of a new barrier   **In Morphology:** continuity of urban pattern, streets, squares, blocks, following the 19th century grid ideated by Ildefons Cerdà. **Uses:** not only housing but as wide commercial areas, shops, offices, recreation and so on. **__ Barcelona Tries Cultural Forum To Encourage Urban Renewal __** ''Barcelona has spent more than a century inventing reasons to do what is necessary with the city.” Oleguer Sarsanedas   The transformation to the preparation of the olympics 1992 in the catalunya have others sense today for the city. Pascal Maragall, the president of Catalonia, who presided over the 1992 Olympics as mayor of Barcelona, apparently felt he needed more than an arts festival to justify this expenditure. He therefore invented a new concept, a summerlong cultural-intellectual forum that, like the Olympics, would be held every four years in a different city. The presidents says that the intellectual input is as important as the entertainment, so the forum has invited a host of scientists, economists, writers, politicians and other experts from around the world to participate in a series of debates around three lofty themes: sustainable development, cultural diversity and conditions for peace. The 44 debates, called dialogues, have won the blessing of Unesco. Thanks to this, Barcelona has now come up with a fresh way of using culture to turn a dilapidated industrial zone into a desirable place to live and work.

** BARCELONA AND URBAN RENEWAL ** The idea was to unleashing a series of transformations to renew urban spaces Poblenou; they sought to create a system of connection between sports equipment with other equipment needed or demanded by citizens. Olympics allowed entry to the city economy would later serve to finance other renovations needed by the village, likes: Placing underground other railway tracks that were a barrier between the rest of the city and Poblenou area; also rehabilitation of beaches and new highway underground in order to avoid the creation of a new barrier. Apart of all these the idea was continuity of urban pattern, streets, squares, blocks, following the 19th century grid ideated by Cerda combining the different land uses (commercial areas, shops, offices, recreation and more).
 * What was the purpose of the Olympic Village? And what benefits did the different Olympic structures bring to the city/citizens? **

“…The starting point was that the Olympic Village was to be, after the Games, a normal area of the city perfectly integrated to it and with it. So, a normal neighbourhood, not an anomalous phenomenon, not an urban ghetto…”

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** How has Barcelona evolved since 1984? ** To accomplish a perfect city needs years of plans and projects, involving changes in infrastructure, politics, social conscience, and formation of a new culture that was adapted to new city and its spaces. The first step in achieving the objective was the creation and implementation of the expansion of Cerdá, then the transformation of the Olympic Village and plans on 22 @ Barcelona (Technology zone), and others as Port Vell (urban renewal), The Diagonal Mar, The Santa Caterina market, and others. The city is a changing system, depends on many factors: political, economics, social and cultural, and precisely because of all these factors, city is complex to study and even more complex when you are creating an urban plan that satisfies everyone. City plans are never the most optimal, and for this reason urban renewals never end, must be followed by molding to fit the needs and situations that are formed through the years. In Barcelona had to work for the construction of squares, streets and parks to achieve better quality in urban life, and create a good urban grid. However, despite all the work has been done, the city is currently experiencing problems of congestion, pollution, resulting from a rapid population growth and the different dynamics that are generated in the city, which is why Barcelona that much work still to do, a result of be one of the most important cities of Europe and the world.

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 * Name at least 3 new projects (space transformation) and mention what old structures they replaced, if mentioned, and what specific benefit(s) brought to the city and/or citizens. **

**The Diagonal Mar** Located on the waterfront and the new diagonal passing through Poble Nou, the Diagonal Mar project has led one of the most important urban transformations and brilliant Barcelona has undergone in recent decades. Diagonal Mar is because not only has led to the birth of a new neighborhood in the Sant Martí district but also the long-awaited opening of Barcelona to the sea and the consolidation of a skyline of luxury, typical of a city, modern and cosmopolitan. Diagonal Mar is a joint project combining residential developments for sale and rent, along with commercial activities, tertiary and civic organizations. Seeking to revitalize the philosophy of Cerda. media type="custom" key="8564736"



**Santa Caterina market**, which is located at the centre of an old neighbourhood carrying the same name, is a covered retail marketplace which houses restaurants and vendor booths. Mercat Santa Caterina strikes a magical balance between local producers and consumers, contemporary architecture and tourism. The redevelopment retains its original use as a retail food market. It is a way to give a new visual aspect to the Santa Caterina, in particular a better view of the citizens of the buildings around, as they saw before an ordinary market, which deteriorated the perception of the neighborhood. Now the canopy consists of a mosaic of 325,000 vividly multicolored hexagonal Spanish tiles set in mortar, "whose various colors recall a sill life of produce. media type="custom" key="8564866"

**22@Barcelona** is a project that aims to fully integrate Barcelona in the new technological revolution of the knowledge economy. The Poblenou district, the main hub of Spanish industrialization during the 19th century, has become the leading economic and technological platform in Barcelona and Eixample. So, terrain in the 22@ zone, which is basically the whole south-eastern quadrant of the city, from Gran Via to the beltway and from the Olympic Village to Rambla de Prim, which is the equivalent of 115 blocks in the Eixample, allows more construction, more public spaces or green areas and subsidized housing as long as the previous industrial activity is replaced by offices or other business services and equipment related to new technology and knowledge. media type="custom" key="8564924"

**__ Glossary __** ** Retail (venta al menor): ** to offer for sale to the public retail // its fabrics to consumers, offering them only to wholesalers and garment makers> Pronunciation: [] ** Canopy (pabellón): ** a raised covering over something for decoration or protection canopy // for walkers> Pronunciation: [] ** Sill (umbral): ** 1. a horizontal piece (as a timber) that forms the lowest member or one of the lowest members of a framework or supporting structure: as //a // **: ** the horizontal member at the base of a window //b // **: ** the threshold of a door 2. a tabular body of igneous rock injected while molten between sedimentary or volcanic beds or along foliation planes of metamorphic rocks 3. a submerged ridge at relatively shallow depth separating the basins of two bodies of water Pronunciation: []

**Barrier (barrera):** a physical object that blocks the way barrier // plastered with signs saying “ Keep Out ” around the trash compactor> Pronunciation: [] **  Drainages (drenajes):    ** 1. Is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies. 2.              The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the civilization were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in some areas of modern Pakistan and India today. All houses in the major cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had access to water and drainage facilities. Waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Pronunciation: [] 