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Reference Date: 26-07-1998
Experience selected in the 1998 Dubai Award for Best Practice, and catalogued as GOOD.
(
Best Practices Database.)
País/Country: Spain
United Nations Region: Europe
Ecological region: Coastal
Activity: Neighbourhood
Partnerships: Local Government. Regional Government. Central
Government. Community-based organisation (CBO)
Themes = Architecture and Urban Design: affordable/ecological
design; sustainable community design. Housing: access to housing
finance; affordable housing; land tenure and security. Land Use
Management: development incentives; urban/suburban renewal.
Main contact:
Pere Serra Amengual
Oficina de Remodelación de Barrios
Almansa, 43 bajos.
08031 Barcelona
Spain
Tel: +34-93 27 63 372 /93 276 34 92
Fax: +34-93 359 11 12
E-mail: pereserra.sl@coac.es
Partner:
Antoni Paradell
INCASOL (Institut Catalá del Sól)
Córsega, 289
08008 Barcelona
Spain
Tel: +34-93 228 60 00
Fax: +34-93 228 60 01
Administrative, financial, political and technical support
Partner:
M. del Carmen Gil González
Ministry for Development (Ministry responsible for the public
works). (Central government)
P. de la Castellana,67
Ministerio de Fomento
28071 Madrid
Spain
Tel: +34-91 597 66 58
Fax: +34-91 597 67 04
Financial support
Partner:
Antoni Santiburcio
Ajuntament de Barcelona (City Council)
Pi i Molist, 133
Ajuntament
08031 Barcelona
Spain
Tel: +34-93 291 68 00
Fax: +34-93 291 68 86
Technical and financial support in the urbanization of public
spaces processes
Organización Nominadora
Marta García Nart
Comité Nacional Español
Paseo de la Castellana, 67
28071 Madrid
Spain
Tlf: +34-91 597 75 72
Fax: +34-91 597 86 04
E-mail: mgnart@mfom.es
A new plan was designed together with the Neighbours' Association,
with the undertaking to keep everybody in the same quarter and the
objective to standardise it socially and as an urban area. So, the
new streets intermingle with the nearby ones, the new squares are
open instead of closed, and some old flats that were empty were
renewed to house some of the neighbours temporarily.
To execute the plan, which started in 1992, a private team
specialised in managing was contracted. This team, placed on the
spot, directs all the operations of expropriating, pulling down,
transferring families, integrating, etc. It also answers queries
about social or personal difficulties and problems to integrate,
which is as important for neighbours as their housing.
Once 50% of the program is executed (it is planned to end in 2002)
the results can already be seen: 239 families have a new flat, new
commercial activity is starting, and illegal activities have
disappeared. An episode of degradation that should have never
occurred starts slowly to vanish from the people's memory.
1. Situation before the initiative began
The public Administrations in charge of public works acted on "The
Governor's housing" as a result of strong claims by neighbours,
based on the fact that the area had become a ghetto in which people
lived in inhuman condition of social degradation. "The Governor's
housing" was improved because different politicians had the
political will to solve the problem and worked on it. The existence
of such a degraded zone so close to an Olympic newly built area
(Valle Hebrón) and next to a new freeway (Ronda de Dalt) was
something to be avoided. This is what made three public
Administrations with very different political views reach an
agreement to improve the neighbourhood. The complex of 900 flats
built as provisional housing in 1952 had followed a process
parallel to the evolution of official housing policies. The first
years of Franco's dictatorship provided quick and massive housing
for thousands of immigrants who arrived in the city and had no
other choice but to live in shacks in the slums. Several areas like
"the Governor's housing" were built. During the years of
technocracy there were early social protests, which were solved by
making people living in the slums owners of their own houses.
During the first years of democracy there were stronger social
protests and the passing of time produced two effects: the
population became older and more economically and socially
degraded. The wealthiest neighbours left the area and only the
poorest stayed. The city boomed and surrounded the area ignoring it
at the same time. Shops closed and 20 sq. metre flats remained as
an insulting testimony to a degrading way of life. Drugs and
delinquency appeared and settled in.
Information and priorities
Once an urban development plan had been drawn and the neighbours
affected had agreed to it, a strategy was developed, based on
permanent presence of the Administration on the spot to guarantee
the fluency of the operation and its co-ordination.
The process of participation of the associated entities originated
after the covenant of 1990 and the pressure made by the Neighbours'
Association. The roles to play by every part were made clear: the
Ministry would give funds. The Catalan Government would manage the
enterprise and also help economically. Barcelona City Hall would
make the necessary investments to build on the quarter resulting
from the operation. A Follow Up Technical Committee was established
to guarantee proper co-ordination, and it still meets twice a year.
The Catalan Government, responsible for the management, established
a permanent relationship with its social interlocutors. The
organisation in charge of executing the plan was the Institut
Catal. del Sól (INCASOL) that contracted with a specialised firm to
work in the area on the basis of delegate management. This firm
manages the project and maintains the links with the Neighbours'
Association and with several departments of the different
Administrations on behalf of the INCASOL. Everything is done from
an office on the spot.
Once the different organisations were identified (INCASOL, Ministry
in charge of public works, Barcelona City Hall, Follow Up Technical
Committee, and the Management Office) and the plan to develop was
accepted, the priorities were established quite easily. All
residents at the moment of starting the operation were entitled to
a new flat (in order to avoid speculation). There was no expelling,
not even from the provisional housing. The program was designed to
be realised at major speed. There was general financial help to
access the new flats and alternative arrangements for poor or older
people who could not afford them.
2. Objectives, strategies and resource managing
The basic objectives are two: a) to provide dignified housing for
700 families who lived in degraded 20 sq. metre flats, and b) to
recover an area that had remained absolutely isolated from its
surroundings.
The complementary objectives are:
3. Process
Previous phase (92-93)
A census was made and the social, economical and urban development
bases were established. The main problem was to reach a balance
between what the Administration offered and the neighbours'
demands. It was also very important to avoid speculation.
Execution (from 94)
Once the action program was agreed and its different phases were
defined, the main problem was to find the solution to temporarily
allocate the first families whose houses had to be pulled down. It
was agreed to fix all the empty houses (around 100) to transfer the
families there provisionally till the new houses were finished.
In the normal process, the most important problems come from the
difficulty to co-ordinate several necessary administrative
interventions of various departments and divisions of the different
Administrations. Another problem is the pressure of the families
included in the last phases of the program because its speed is
limited by the capability to lodge families temporarily.
4. Achieved results
In December 1997 the forecast investment has been made and the
impact of what has been done is remarkable:
Transferability
It is possible to transfer the experience to other areas with
similar problems, in which rebuilding is unavoidable in order to
recover a degraded area. It has been said that this model has been
transferred to two more areas and that it is planned to start
remodelling a third area in 1998.
The most relevant lessons of this good practise code may be
summarised in two main principles: commitment with the idea and
proximity to the administered. Commitment with the idea means that
the team of people in charge of the program execution -on top of
being experts- must believe in the work they do and its social
interest. Proximity to the administered requires being on the spot
permanently and therefore, accepting that more requests and help
will be claimed than it was actually expected.
This type of integral operations make it necessary to attend not
only urban, economic and financial problems, but also social and
personal problems. In this sense, a multidisciplinary working team
is essential. Nearness requires to limit the number of
professionals -no more than 10 or 15 are recommended- so that all
of them may participate in each one of the problems that arise
while managing the program.
The experience in numbers
Financial profile
| Year | Regional Government | Central Government | Local Government |
| 1998 | 250 | 250 | 50 |
| 1997 | 250 | 250 | 10 |
| 1996 | 250 | 250 | 50 |
| 1995 | 250 | 250 | 30 |
| 1994 | 200 | 200 | 10 |
| Total | 1200 | 1200 | 150 |
References
Lleonart, Pere and others (1996) "Viviendas del Gobernador" (in
Proyectos inmobiliarios excelentes, n. 15. N. pages: 6)
Serra, Pere (1997) "Las Viviendas del Gobernador" (in Project Urban.
Ministere de l'Equipament, des Transports et du Logement. N. 11.
September 1997. N. pages: 1)
Serra, Pere (1996) "Renewing a district. Erasing memory" (Papers of
the XIX Congress International Union of Architects-Colegi
d'Arquitectes de Catalunya. Communication FORUM P167. Barcelona,
July 1996. N. pages: 16) .
Since 1992 the local newspapers often publish news and events that
are summarized in the annual Management Office Memory.
| 1998 Spanish Best Practices selected by the International Jury > http://habitat.aq.upm.es/bpes/onu98/bp437.en.html |