Benifairó de la Valldigna’s Urban and Sustainable Mobility Plan


Benifairó de la Valldigna’s Urban and Sustainable Mobility Plan

Benifairó de la Valldigna, like the rest of the neighboring towns and cities, has experienced in recent decades an evolutionary process of its mobility based on unsustainable parameters over time.

Often the high presence of private vehicles means that many of the other activities that take place in the street are relegated to the background, either because of the difficulty or danger of developing them simultaneously, or directly because of the lack of space.

It is in this context that this study is being developed, which aims to reverse these dynamics and establish a viable action plan adjusted to the needs that will make it possible and improve the quality of public space. To do this, a complete diagnosis of the current reality has been carried out, which contemplates both the analysis of the capacities and the intensities of use of the road network with different modes of transport, as well as the coexistence of these journeys with the other activities that take place on public roads, linked to the development of the daily life of its inhabitants.

Place

Benifairó de la Valldigna

[1.542 inhabitants]

Scale

Municipal

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Duration

8 months [2020-2021]

Promoter

Municipality of Benifairó

de la Valldigna

 

Team

*estel (Marc Deu Ferrer,

Arnau Boix i Pla, Konstantina

Chrysostomou, Alba

Domínguez Ferrer)

Pau Avellaneda

 

Collaborators

Neighbors of Benifairó

de la Valldigna

The empty spaces of La Llacuna


The empty spaces of La Llacuna

Given the existence of a series of empty premises in the municipality of La Llacuna, and with the desire to activate these resources, this project is proposed as a strategic document for municipal revitalization through temporarily activating these premises and other disused spaces; such as vacant lots or abandoned buildings. Specifically, we worked with the intention that the proposed temporary uses could become permanent.

The work process was structured around the following work axes: urban and territorial, social, economic, use, and legal. This multisectional approach made it possible to propose comprehensive reactivation strategies, so that, based on the network of spaces for collective use in the municipality, the “dormant” community capacities and opportunities of La Llacuna could be successfully activated.

Parallel to the analysis by axes, on the one hand, the cooperative carried out the mapping and inventory of empty premises and other disused spaces in La Llacuna. And on the other hand, the list of activities covered the needs detected in the municipality. In this way, it was possible to evaluate the best activation opportunities and in which locations it was convenient to test them.

The cooperative created numerous activities for the project, and they include: (1) the proposals to create affordable housing for people with economic difficulties; (2) the creation of an Environmental Resources Center that would incorporate both waste management and pedagogy on recycling and information on the natural spaces of the territory; (3) the qualification of areas for motorhomes; and (4) the promotion of a cultural festival linked to the history of La Llacuna or the facilitation of a progressive facility for young people.

The document proposes strategies to implement these activities in specific empty spaces of the municipality, considering their location, size, and state of conservation. It is not an executive or final project but rather a work tool for the political team and technicians of La Llacuna and its inhabitants. Based on the detailed files of each space analyzed and each proposed activity, and following recommendations and strategic criteria, the agents of the territory choose to launch the most convenient initiatives for everyone.

Place

La Llacuna 

[917 inhabitants]

Scale

Municipal

Type of project

Urban strategies

Duration

10 months [2021]

Promoter

Provincial Deputation of

Barcelona

Municipality of La Llacuna

 

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix i Pla,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Marc Deu Ferrer, Alba

Domínguez Ferrer)

 

Ara Muñío 

Enric Burgstaller

Pere Mogas

Raimon Soler

Mireia Peris

 

Collaborators

Technical and political team

from the City Council

Executive Participated Project for the Plaça del Sol


Executive Participated Project for the Plaça del Sol

The drafting of a Participatory Executive Project to redevelop the Plaza del Sol in Puerto de Sagunto was based on a collaborative work methodology between the municipal technicians and technicians, the drafting team, and the neighborhood and the municipality’s social and economic agents.

The resulting document incorporates, on the one hand, the political-technical and citizen perspective and the recognition of their contributions; on the other, management strategies, dynamization, or change planning. These strategies are proposals for interventions (short, medium, or long term) that do not necessarily involve works and that accompany the transformation process of the square but, above all, in the “meanwhile,” that transformation does not take effect.

This collaborative work, beyond the formal result of the new Plaza del Sol, has settled the decisions taken on, among others, the following agreements:

Design criteria: respect and reinforce the itineraries of passage and connection between neighborhoods and recognize the square as a crossing point. Promote living and permanency spaces, have urban elements that facilitate this and identify the square as a meeting place. Incorporate and apply the concept of climate shelter in the square and reuse or rehabilitate existing urban and material elements as much as possible.

Management criteria: promotion of co-responsibility with the maintenance of the square by involving the CEIP Nuestra Señora de Begoña so that the students promote dissemination actions on the importance of cleaning the public space or that include didactic units in the school curriculum related to the care of urban nature. Promote artistic interventions in the public space that reinforce the Plaza del Sol’s identity and facilitate the neighborhood residents’ feeling of belonging. Enable the permanent availability of public toilet services in the Municipal Market building.

Planning criteria: carry out public communicative actions related to the transformation process of the square, its calendar, and the final result after the works. Incorporate evolutionary or progressive shading elements to condition the plaza climatically while the new vegetation needs to acquire a sufficient size. A general performative activity of identity transition could also be carried out: a ceremony of removal and change of location of the statue of the worker, and putting into value the new character of the sun and the shadow.

Place

Sagunt

[67.043 inhabitants]

Scale

Neighborhood

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Public space design

Duration

6 months [2021]

Promoter

Ajuntament de Sagunt

 

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Marc Deu, Alba Dominguez)

SUC arquitectes

Maria Pedro

Ivana Ponsoda

AIG (arquitectura ingeniería y

gestión)

 

Collaborators

Sagunto City Council

technical team,

Neighbors and municipal

entities

Press

Read more at El Periòdic

Participatory process linked to the Urban Master Plan for the Agulla area


Participatory process linked to the Urban Master Plan for the Agulla area

“El parc de L’Agulla” and its surroundings is a large space located in the municipalities of Manresa and Sant Fruitós del Bages. It is an area of ​​great territorial interest as environmental, landscape, ecological, agricultural, and cultural realities converge. Patrimonial assets give it a great uniqueness and are the basis of the values ​​that become a strategic area for the entire Plan de Bages.

In the framework of drafting an Urban Master Plan, this participatory process has been developed, aiming to link the urban regulations with the reality of the territory, especially at a social level. The park’s expansion is inevitably planned and projected consistently with the needs of the people who use it daily (residents, farmers, park workers…) and sporadically.

For all this, it has been an intense and complex process, which has required a variety of spaces and channels for debate so that everyone has the opportunity to share their proposals with the rest of the agents involved. The information collected has been worked on in parallel with the whole team to find and define the criteria that will make the participants have an impact on future regulations.

Place

Manresa and Sant Fruitós

del Bages 

[ 78.192 and 8.936 inhabitants]

Scale

Supra-municipal 

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Duration

6 months [2021-2022]

Promoter

Direcció General d’Ordenació

del Territori i Urbanisme,

Ajuntament de Manresa,

Ajuntament de Sant Fruitós

del Bages

 

Team

*estel (Alba Domínguez

Ferrer, Marc Deu Ferrer,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Arnau Boix i Pla)

 

Collaborators

Neighbors of Manresa and Sant

Fruitós del Bages

Press

Watch the video at youtube

Urban and Sustainable Mobility Plan of Barx


Urban and Sustainable Mobility Plan of Barx

Barx, like the rest of the neighboring towns and cities, has experienced in recent decades an evolutionary process of its mobility based on unsustainable parameters over time.

Often the high presence of private vehicles means that many of the other activities that take place in the street are relegated to the background, either because of the difficulty or danger of developing them simultaneously, or directly because of the lack of space.

It is in this context that this study is being developed, which aims to reverse these dynamics and establish a viable action plan adjusted to the needs that will make it possible and improve the quality of public space. To do this, a complete diagnosis of the current reality has been carried out, which contemplates both the analysis of the capacities and the intensities of use of the road network with different modes of transport, as well as the coexistence of these journeys with the other activities that take place on public roads, linked to the development of the daily life of its inhabitants.

Place

Barx

[1.229 inhabitants]

Scale

Municipal

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Duration

8 months [2021]

Promoter

Municipality of Barx

 

Team

*estel (Marc Deu i Arnau Boix,

Alba Domínguez Ferrer,

Konstantina Chrysostomou)

Pau Avellaneda

 

Collaborators

Vecindario de Barx

Methodology for the Valencian Urban Agenda


Methodology for the Valencian Urban Agenda

The Generalitat Valenciana needed to propose a cooperative work process to draft the Valencian Urban Agenda. The urban agenda is a fundamental territorial strategic document to align the urban policies of the Valencian Country with the 2030 Agenda and the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals.

The Cooperativa *estel, together with MonoDestudio, carried out in close collaboration with the Department of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility of the Generalitat, a methodological document called “Participated drafting of the Valencian Urban Agenda: Methodology and criteria for defining the participatory process and the drafting of the Valencian Urban Agenda.”

The team created the document with the direct involvement of the General Directorates of different ministries of the Generalitat and the collaboration of an extensive cast of specialist professionals from the Valencian territory and the Spanish state. The document was made to guarantee shared writing, meaning the methodology cannot be separated from the process. The process is the way of preparing the contents of the Valencian Urban Agenda from the active involvement of the different sectoral, territorial, and administrative agents of the Valencian Country and all of its inhabitants.

The project has been a progressive and cumulative work, intending to continue in the following stages: the public competition and the Agenda preparation. For this reason, whoever is responsible for continuing this work will find a detailed reference in the document to develop it: documentary framework, map of agents, content structure, critical issues, and methodology for its shared writing.

The contents of the Urban Agenda were structured according to the thematic blocks Urban Economy, Territory, and City, Urban Governance, Urban Quality, and Health, Right to the City, and Connected City. But it was essential to incorporate integral elements in the participatory drafting process. Not as thematic or specific factors, but focusing on it from an integrated perspective, and therefore all the objectives, actions, and other contents of the Valencian Urban Agenda should implicitly or explicitly include Gender, Governance, Environmental Sustainability, and Social Justice.

Place

País Valencià

[4.975.000 inhabitants]

Scale

Supra-municipal

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Duration

6 months [2020]

Promotor

Generalitat Valenciana

 

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix i Pla,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Marc Deu i Ferrer, Alba

Dominguez Ferrer),

MonoDestudio

 

Collaborators

Technical staff of the

Generalitat Valenciana,

Independent professionals

from the Valencian Country

and the Spanish State

Presentation

Check the presentation at

Prezi

 

Study

Read the full report at the

web of the Generalitat

Valenciana

 

Press

Read more about the project

at ValènciaExtra

Cals Frares, NGOs’ House

Cals Frares, NGOs’ House

Tiana City Council promoted the participatory process for transforming the newly constructed buildings into new association equipment, co-designed with the municipal entities and the technical and political team. Over the last few months, we’ve worked on the proposal with Tiana’s associations and the municipality’s technical and political group. 

The “Cals Frares, NGOs’ House” is a municipal facility for the use of associations and non-profit organizations in Tiana, offering a model for creating a civic ecosystem. This equipment facilitates:

  • associative work, offering various spaces for its development,
  • collaboration in the growth and improvement of the associative movement
  • the possibility of an inter-associative relationship between the different entities.

The “Cals Frares, NGOs’ House” provides workspaces and opportunities for associations and groups to participate in socio-cultural activities, learn, explore and create. This site hosts various cultural, artistic, and educational programs and activities to foster creativity and community trust. It facilitates situations for people to get together and get to know each other.

The foundation and operation of the “Cals Frares, NGOs’ House” is based on a cooperative approach, from its creation to its function. This site serves as a tool for this cooperation model, as the members of the NGOs and groups are the most active part of society, bringing together people of all ages, professions, and nationalities. The association’s role in developing civil society is growing along with the municipality’s support for joint projects and activities.

With the transformation of the “Cals Frares, NGOs’ House” into a generator of social life for the municipality of Tiana, it is possible to achieve:

  • Strengthen local identity.
  • Generate an intergenerational social and cultural meeting point for the population that does not exclude anyone.
  • Democratize access to municipal resources and improve the quality of life for all.
  • Encourage community involvement and allow the community to act in their municipality through the House of Entities their resources to start new activities and services.
  • Create a third place that plays a significant role in the public life of the municipality.
  • Promote collaborations and exchange of knowledge between entities and groups.

Based on an analysis elaborated on the territorial, administrative and social context in which the new building is located and through a participatory process with the technical and political team and the entities, associations, and groups of the municipality, we were able to define the following:

  • the site identity,
  • the program of the use,
  • the distribution proposal,
  • the architectural intervention criteria,
  • the criteria for the incorporation of the gender perspective,
  • the management proposal and, 
  • the “meanwhile” activities.

Placd

Tiana

[9,009 inhabitants]

Scale

Municipal

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Duration

5 months[2022]

Promoter

Municipality of Tiana

 

Team

*estel (Konstantina

Chrysostomou,Roser Garcia

Piqué, Arnau Boix i Pla, Alba

Domínguez Ferrer, Marc Deu i

Ferrer)

 

Collaborators

Associations of Tiana

Presentation

Check the presentation at  prezi

Participatory process to expand the inventory of the cultural heritage of Terrassa

Participatory process to expand the inventory of the cultural heritage of Terrassa

The Participatory Process associated with the Advance of the specific Modification of the POUM to expand the inventory of assets of Cultural Heritage of Terrassa, has been carried out between September 2021 and January 2022. Highlight the city’s heritage of the city, and elaborate on a proposal of regulation that has the citizen’s knowledge that has opened this space of participation in an initial phase of the urban processing.

Terrassa is a city with remarkable heritage value. Noteworthy examples include: (1) the monumental ensemble of the Cathedral of Ègara which was founded in the middle of the 5th century with the Romanesque churches of Sant Pere and Santa Maria, (2) the Gothic altarpieces of the 15th century, (3) the Carthusian Castle of Vallparadís which is originally from the 12th century and was converted into a Carthusian monastery in the 14th and 15th centuries, and (4) the cloister of the Convent of Sant Francesc from the 17th century.

With the Catalan industrial revolution, Terrassa became a major center of the textile sector in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Factories, warehouses, and residential buildings are concentrated in the city during the period of Modernism, with such remarkable examples as Masia Freixa and Casa Alegre de Sagrera.

For the citizens of Terrassa, the patrimonial elements become elements of identity. It is an active citizenry concerned with conserving and preserving these assets that are relics of the familiar past and translate into citizen pride. The link is based on associations of residents interested in heritage, which have the support and advice of entities such as the Heritage Board and the Center for Historical Studies of Terrassa. Terrassa City Council gives them a voice to express their opinions and assessments in expanding the inventory of Terrassa’s Cultural Heritage assets. In short, a review and group reflection to continue guarding the heritage with the best possible conditions in a correlative legacy from past to future.

The objectives from which the participatory process is set are:

  • Facilitate the dissemination and understanding of the progress document of the MPOUM, and the background linked to the regulation of the Cultural Heritage of Terrassa.
  • Achieve a higher quality plan/project: Collect different perspectives and proposals on the elements to be regulated and the criteria to be considered.
  • Weave new relationships and improve governance with the affected agents of the territory, to facilitate their management and monitoring during the participatory process and the following stages of urban planning.

Place

Terrassa 

[218,535 inhabitants]

Scale

Municipal

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Duration

8 months [2021-2022]

Promoter

Municipality of Terrassa

 

Team

*estel (Marc Deu i Ferrer,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Arnau Boix i Pla, Alba

Dominguez Ferrer),

Fàtima López Pérez,

Pablo Tardio

 

Collaborators

Neighbors of Terrassa

Press

Read more about the project

at the participa.terrassa

Let’s activate the square Panikou Dimitriou in Cyprus

Let’s activate the square Panikou Dimitriou in Cyprus

In collaboration with the Mesa Geitonia City Council and the Municipal Open School, the Youth Volunteering team planned and implemented the “My Square” project. *Estel was represented by one of its members, providing the experience of participatory processes for transforming public spaces in Spain, adapting the *estel methodology in the socio-administrative context of Cyprus.

The project focuses on protecting the environment, the creative occupation and training of unemployed young people, and the reduction of juvenile delinquency through collective actions aimed at improving the square in the municipality of Mesa Geitonia in Limassol. This cooperative process for the co-design of the square has been carried out with the local community, applying sustainability and resilience criteria.

This innovative project for the context of Cyprus regarding incorporating the local community in decision-making for common spaces has a pedagogical character. Residents of different age groups and origins participate in the planning for the first time, assuming roles and responsibilities for developing the design and activating the space. The process involves each generation, not only during the procedure but also during the execution and activation. By doing this, the sense of belonging is increased, causing a reduction in vandalism in the space. This participatory process tests a new model for the design, management, and programming of public space, which until now was limited to the technical and political team of the city council.

The diagnosis of the needs and the design of this square is carried out jointly with the neighborhood, the children of the two nearby schools, and the Escola Oberta of the Mesa Geitonia City Hall. The actions that have been carried out (co-design workshops, plant care seminars, tree planting, memory and identity workshop, open-air cinema, etc.) focus on protecting the environment, creating employment and training unemployed young people, and reducing juvenile delinquency.

The project is funded by the European Program “European Solidarity Corps.” The project is in the spirit of the European Solidarity Corps, as it brings together young people who want to build a society with fewer exclusions, supporting vulnerable people such as those who are unemployed and addressing social challenges such as juvenile delinquency, and protecting the environment. At the same time, the administration learns and incorporates this new way of treating public spaces as common urban goods, encouraging the participation of citizens and young people in decision-making.

Through this project, the participants help their community, learn and develop, exchanging ideas and expectations. It is a project with European added value since a community and those who shared the square helped create the model.  

The project will result in a blueprint for transforming the square into a long-term series of strategies. These strategies will improve the square and its surroundings over time and are designed to be applied in the public spaces of the municipality. During the participatory process, improvement of the square and the promotion of belongingness are carried out by programs such as (1) planting trees, (2) installing outdoor exercise equipment, (3) creating open-air cinema areas, and (4) painting the park’s children’s area with bright colors.

Place

Mesa Gitonia 

[3,948 inhabitants]

Scale

Public space

Type of project


Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Public space design

Duration

12 months [2021-2022]

Promoter

European Solidarity Corps

Municipality of Mesa Gitonia

 

Team

*estel (Konstantina

Chrysostomou), Aristi Pavlou,

Georgios Makris, Argiro

Aristides, Crystalla

Theodoulou, Aggelos

Emmanuel , Nikoletta

Ioannou

 

Collaborators

Veïnat de Mesa Gitonia,

Entitats i associacions de

Mesa Gitonia,

Anoikto Sxoleio Mesa Gitonias,

Equip tècnic i polític del municipi

Press

Read more about the project

at project’s facebook and

l’instagram (gr),

Watch the project in the video (gr),

Read more about the project

in the press (gr) 

Strategic Plan for Urban Regeneration in the neighborhood of Cerdanyola


Strategic Plan for Urban Regeneration in the neighborhood of Cerdanyola

Urban regeneration has been a critical mechanism for the transformation and development of cities. It consists of intervention in consolidated urban areas to reverse the situation of those most sensitive territories and unequal peripheries. This will present the opportunity to respond to the needs of neighborhoods with deficiencies, as in the case of Cerdanyola. We must think that the city is where citizens live and, therefore, their needs must be guaranteed. This plan can be the instrument to implement the change to guarantee, in the future, the needs of the inhabitants of the Cerdanyola neighborhood, in this sense, the document pursues the following objectives:

  • Establish guidelines and priorities that allow coordination of interventions with the different City Council departments over time, with the common goal of improving the neighborhood.
  • Define a strategic plan so that the Mataró City Council can request external financing.
  • Detail lines of action to facilitate and guide transformation processes in which there is a collaboration between public and private agents in the neighborhood.
  • Identify specific transformation actions that can guide the administrative resources available to carry out viable actions in the short or long term.

Urban transformation processes offer the possibility of planning new forms of social inclusion, fostering more equitable environments in which access to services and new opportunities are facilitated, promoting citizen participation, and reflecting the cultural and social diversity of the neighborhood.

Cerdanyola’s regeneration plan should revolve around the principles of diversity, an essential aspect in the balance of any ecosystem; sustainability, as a basic component of any development; and identity, as a basic characteristic of any settlement (JLP).

Three principles to improve the daily life of the people who live in the Cerdanyola neighborhood, dealing with everyday and fundamental issues such as accessibility and mobility, social and economic activities, services, productive and reproductive tasks, and interior and exterior habitability.

The plan does not start from scratch, but from all the documentation and previous studies, so one of the first steps in this process will be to analyze all the information worked on. Afterward, and based on this documentary analysis, the fieldwork is carried out, and the sessions with the citizens generate a space for continued cooperation between the previous administrative work, the technical work, and the citizen’s perception.

On the other hand, this plan also focuses on providing the technical services of the city council with support and arguments that allow the daily needs of the Cerdanyola neighborhood to be aligned with European funding, as well as with the objectives of sustainable development, the urban agenda European and Spanish.

Place

Mataró, neighborhood of

Cerdanyola

[31.241 habitants]

Scale

Neighborhood

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Duration

4 months [2021-2022]

Promoter

Municipality of Mataró

 

Team

*estel (Konstantina

Chrysostomou, Alba

Dominguez Ferrer, Arnau Boix

i Pla, Marc Deu i Ferrer)

Pere Manubens,

monoDestudio,

FIKA

 

Collaborators

Taula de Pla Integral de

Cerdanyola,

Àrea de Qualitat Urbana de

l’ajuntament, 

Àrea de Serveis a la Ciutadania

de l’ajuntament

Presentation

Check the presentation at prezi