Featured - *estel

Rescuing the Rambles of Barcelona

40_1711_Rambles_Seminaricanaletes-38 còpia

40_1711_Rambles_RamblesSeminaricanaletes

Les Rambles’ cooperative process was a proposal of the kmZero team that won the International Competition convened by the Barcelona City Council in 2017 to revitalize and remodel the Rambla de Barcelona. The aim is to return to the citizenry one of its historical and most symbolic axes in a cooperative way, so this transformation becomes, on the one hand, a global improvement of the city’s main urban space and on the other, a better experience for the people who live, visit and enjoy it.

This process was developed as a cooperative work between technicians, citizens, and administration for the implementation of an urbanization and redesign proposal. With this innovative methodology as such, the aim was to make Rambla a diverse, flexible, sustainable, inclusive, accessible, consistent, secure, smart, contextualized, and comfortable place to be. The project is an inheritance and relief from the work done previously by entities, neighbors, and administration. With this process, the various agents worked jointly in order to rethink Rambles and extend this debate throughout the city.

The process for defining the improvement actions for “Les Rambles”, with its necessary physical and social interventions, proposed by the kmZERO team, is based on a diagnosis and agreed objectives between citizens, administration, and expert technicians.

The document resulting from the cooperative work is composed of strategies set that accompany the redevelopment of Rambles, which will be carried out between 2020 and 2026. Once again, the main challenge will be to do it as a joint task amongst the city’s agents.

Place

Barcelona

[1,620,343 habitants]

Scale of the project

Public space

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Public space design

Duration

12 months [2017-2018]

Promoter

Muicipality of Barcelona,

Foment de Ciutat,

BIMSA

Team

UTE kmZERO: (AYESA –

Lola Domènech – Espinàs i

Tarrassó – Itziar González –

Arnau Boix)

Team kmZERO: Itziar Gonzàlez,

Arnau Boix, Lola Domènech,

Olga Tarrassó, Jordi Quiñonero,

Paul B. Preciado, Josep Selga,

Ole Thorson, Sergi Cutillas,

Ernest Cañada, Alberto Conesa,

Sebastià Ribot, Cristina Pedraza,

Julio Alcobendas, Esteve Boix,

Miquel Cañellas, Fernando Casal,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Pablo Cotarelo, Pablo Feu,

Iolanda Fresnillo, Nacho Guilera,

Gema Jover, Sira Llopart,

Eulàlia Miralles, Pere Mogas,

Jordi Parés, Daniel Pera,

Mireia Peris, Ignasi Querol,

Javier Rentero, David

Rodriguez, Francesc Sánchez,

Cristian Tapia, Anna Terricabras,

Carlos Utrillo, Javier Valencia,

Xavier Valls, Susanna Àlvarez,

Joan Escofet

Collaborators

Neighbors of Rambles de

Barcelona,

Agents and entities of

Barcelona

Presentation

Check the presentation at Prezi

Premsa

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

Featured project

Participatory process at Barcelona-Sants (railway station)

The transformations of essential infrastructures in a city like Barcelona are like performing an open-heart surgery. The urban operation is performed on a specific point, but it is precisely where you find the main arteries, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system of the organism. In addition, the various community tissues that converge there must be opened, operated and sewn on again.

The remodelling that ADIF will carry out in Barcelona-Sants train station and all its surroundings (the current bus station, Països Catalans square and Joan Peiró square) is a very important change in its socio-urban dynamics of the site, but also a huge opportunity to redefine human connections and significantly improve the quality of the urban ecosystem.

Thus, this participatory process, promoted by Barcelona City Council, has sought to include the perspectives of residents, and the different associations in Sants neighbourhood and the rest of the city, so that this urban transformation has the criteria of quality and vitality that guarantees that the daily life of the surroundings of the railway station are healthy, diverse and safe, and that they facilitate the different uses of the public space.

The participatory process has had two phases of debate: the first, based on the presentation of the general intervention criteria for the transformation of the environment of Sants railway station; and the second to hold a discussion about the specific characteristics of the urban space in Països Catalans square and its surroundings.

Given the existing mobility restrictions at the time of its implementation (Covid-19 sanitary emergency), this participatory process has been carried out mainly digitally, integrating different digital apps to achieve the established objectives, and to facilitate the full participation of the people and associations involved.

Place

Barcelona

[1,620,343 inhabitants]

Scale

Public space

Type of project

Citizen cooperation

Duration

5 months [2021]

Promoter

Municipality of Barcelona

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Marc Deu, Roser Garcia)

monoDestudio

Collaborators

Espai Coneix

Citizens and associations

from the neighbourhoods

Sants, Hostafrancs and

Eixample.

Presentation

Check the presentation at

prezi

Study

Read all the documents

of the participatory process

Press

Read more about the project

at Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Watch the preliminary project of

the transformation of Barcelona

Sants on YouTube.

Featured project

Superblocks for Barcelona’s Eixample

Superblocks for Barcelona's Eixample

The great urban transformation that will take place in Barcelona’s Eixample had to be built from and for the residents of the district. The ambitious municipal program “Superilla Barcelona” (Barcelona Superblock) will mean a 180-degree turn in the city’s urban policies, reorganizing the flow of road traffic by literally putting pedestrians in the center of the street, and forcefully promotes the renaturalization of the public space.

Together with MonoDestudio, a diverse participatory process was proposed in terms of methodological techniques, and with a high degree of adaptability to the progression in the drafting of urban transformation documents and to the different events linked to the city’s political agenda.

The greatest challenges of the participatory work had to do with the socio-territorial scope of the “Superilla Barcelona” program, which had to combine the previous theoretical bases generated by the Driving Group, the necessary pedagogical dissemination of the principles of the superblocks, and the incorporation of the perspectives citizens, especially from a qualitative point of view.

Thus, the participatory process “Superilla Barcelona a l’Eixample” included outings on the street to explain to the neighbors the social and environmental improvements that were expected, and to answer questions or collect suggestions regarding the transformation of the ‘Eixample. Sessions were also held with specific groups to complete the holistic vision that the transformation projects needed: urban walks with residents of the territory, exploratory marches with women, workshops with children and young people from the educational community, and specific interviews with all street vendors affected by urban transformation. And workshops open to all citizens were also held where the progress in the drafting of the different urban transformation executive projects was presented, to clearly expose the criteria used and to incorporate the observations and suggestions of the people attending.

This participatory process is part of the drafting of the architectural and urban projects prior to the material transformation of Barcelona’s Eixample around the main axis that is Consell de Cent street, and which involves Rocafort, Comte Borrell, Enrique Granados and Girona. Barcelona City Council also foresees new participatory processes linked to subsequent phases, during and after the urban transformation.

Place

Barcelona

[1.636.762 inhabitants]

Scale

District

Type of project

Citizen cooperation

Duration

6 months [2021]

Promoter

Municipality of Barcelona

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix i Pla,

Konstantina Chrysostomou,

Marc Deu i Ferrer, Alba

Dominguez Ferrer),

Belén Iturralde,

Martina Capdevila,

MonoDestudio

Collaborators

Political and technical team of

the City Council,

Neighbors of Eixample,

Entities and associations of

the Eixample

Study

See the full process at

Decidim Barcelona

Press

Read about the exploratory

walks of the process in the

newspaper Ara,

Confluence in Valencia’s Central Market

Confluence in Valencia's Central Market

The proposal Confluència was the winner of the competition organized by the Generalitat Valenciana in order to remodel Bruges square and other public spaces around the Central Market of the city of Valencia. The project, led by the architects Elisabet Quintana and Blanca Peñín, opted for a transdisciplinary and participatory approach, with the firm intention of facilitating the creation of a space of coexistence around this commercial node, the Central Market, which is a historical symbol and a landmark for the inhabitants and visitors of Valencia.

The conception of public space as a natural extension of the Market itself, and vice versa, respects and reinforces the social, cultural, and commercial dynamics of the urban environment. The final proposal addresses the neighborhoods’ socio-territorial circumstances not only through urban design, but also through social strategies to visualize the different human realities that enclose an important social building such as a public market. These strategies range from proposals for neighborhood programming to public spaces that strengthen human connectivity with the Velluters neighborhood, to measures for reversing the gentrification process in Valencia in general, and the Ciutat Vella district in particular.

The Confluència’s team transdisciplinary context has allowed the incorporation of diverse perspectives throughout the process of reflection, proposal, and writing, which include considerations on governance, citizen participation, and gender.

The redevelopment is expected to begin in 2020.

Place

Valencia

[794 288 inhabitants]

Scale of the project

Municipal

Public space

Tipus de projecte

Estratègies urbanes

Disseny d’espai públic

Duration

6 months [2018]

Promoter

Generalitat Valenciana,

Municipality of Valencia

Team

UTE Quintana-Peñín (Elisabet

Quintana i Blanca Peñín)

Equip transdisciplinar: Peñín

arquitectes, Espinàs i Tarrassó,

*estel, monoDestudio, Inés

Novella, Planifica Urbanismo y

Gestión, Enrique Giménez, Joan

Seguí, María Pedro Ferrer

Collaborators

Local entities and associations

Press

Watch the video of the project

here here

¡Pónle Guinda!

¡Pónle Guinda! is a process of citizen and administrative cooperation in order to carry out a participatory diagnosis and agree on proposals for the transformation of the public space in an area of Guindalera neighborhood (Madrid), popularly known as Guindalera Vieja. The work process in Guindalera Vieja comprised three distinct phases: start-up, participation, and preliminary drafting phase.

During the first one, group meetings and interviews were held with municipal technicians and political representatives of the Madrid City Council (Salamanca District), as well as with a representation of the neighborhood’s associative network.

During the second phase was held the urban and social analysis, fieldwork, and observation mapping of the public space along with the open workshops for every neighbour who wanted to participate. That phase closed with conclusion elaboration and its subsequent communication to all the people participating in these workshops.

Finally, it was elaborated the drafting of the prioritized projects from the previous phases: the proposal of a sustainable mobility model for the neighbourhood; the establishment of a “toolbox” with general criteria for the design of Guindalera`s public spaces; and the drafting of two preliminary projects, corresponding to the Béjar street, and to the May 28 square and its surroundings.

The decision-making was based on the experts’ knowledge arising from the fields of sociology, urbanism, and architecture as well as from the neighbours’ shared experiences who have been implicated in the participatory process. This process marked the guidelines for the subsequent redevelopment work of the neighbourhood.

Place

Madrid

[3,223,334 inhabitants]

Scale

Neighborhood

Type of project

Urban Strategies

Citizen cooperation

Public space design

Duration

10 months [2017]

Promoter

Municipality of Madrid,

Salamanca District

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix, Mireia Peris,

Konstantina Chysostomou,

Soledad Viteri)

MonoD estudio, Urbanins,

Inés Novella

Collaborators

Neighbors and neighborhood

organizations in Guindalera

Presentation

Check the presentation at Prezi

Press

Strategic Plan for Urban Regeneration in the neighborhood of Cerdanyola

Estratègies-d’actuació-i-actuacions-específiques

Proximitat-a-xarxes-de-transport-alternatiu-a-l'automòbil

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

Featured project

Joan Miró square

04_Els gegants Pere Anton i Bartomeu a la plaça_ Dansa de la Batalla_setembre 2017

03_ Públic esperant l'inici de l'esdeveniment_Dansa de la batalla_setembre2017

02_La plaça Joan Miró després de l’ intervenció_ joc lliure a la plaça al final de l’estiu 2016

05_Petant la xerrada_ Tarda d'hivern_febrer 2018

06_Jugant amb el skate_tarda d'hivern_febrer 2018

07_Fa fred fora de casa_ Nit d'hivern__febrer 2018

08_ La plaça Joan Miró abans de l’intervenció_estiu 2014

The criteria that lead to the definition of the square are the result of a close collaborative work carried out by the *estel team with the municipal personnel and politicians, the neighborhood residents and the entities, and the city’s associations. It is, in fact, the joint decision of all these agents, the engine of its renovation and transformation into an open stage.

It is proposed the construction of some stands surrounding part of the square. This changes the directionality of the space, which can now be conceptually and materially extended to the adjacent section of Jacint Verdaguer street. The new layout varies the scene of the Dansa de la Batalla, an important Giants event held by the Festa Major, which is dignified by the renovation of the space, and organizes massive crowd increasing comfort and security of the event.

The challenge of hosting this annual event should not diminish the daily use by the neighbors of the square neither of the citizens nor the visitors of Montornès in general: it is, therefore, a public space that still works as an urban square. The proposal, however, modulates the intensity of its use as a play space to allow and enjoy a wider range of age groups. The new square reinforces its identity with a mural inspired by Joan Miró that renews the old one, with a reinterpretation designed, agreed, and carried out by the Venus local art association. The square thus reclaims the lost historical protagonism, consolidating itself as the end of the civic axis that will unite it with the square Pau Picasso.

Place

Montornès del Vallès

[16,263 inhabitants]

Scale of the project

Public space

Type of project

Citizen cooperation

Public space design

Duration

12 months [2014-2015]

Promoter

Muicipality of Montornès

del Vallès

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix, Mireia Peris,

Marc Deu, Ara Muñío,

Esteve Boix, Claudia Villazón)

Itziar Gonzàlez, Elena Guim,

Antoni Elvira, Carmela Torró

Collaborated

Neighbors of Montornès

del Vallès,

Colla de Gegants de

Montornès,

Art Venus Association,

Neighbors of the Plaça

Joan Miró,

Sant Sadurní School,

AAVV Montornès Centre,

Centre of the study of

Montornès del Vallès,

Unió de Botiguers,

Bar Chucu-chucu

Presentation

Check the good practices bank

Study

Read the full report at issuu

Press

Read more about the project at

Mostra d’Arquitectura Catalana,

somMontorès

Featured project

Let’s activate the square Panikou Dimitriou in Cyprus

Proposta-de-distribució-arquitectònica

Diagrama-de-generadors-de-vida-quotidiana-

Diagrames-de-tipus-d’espais-i-tipus-d’activitats

Proposta-de-distribució-de-plantes-i-arbres-

Mapa-d’agents-vinculats-a-la-plaça-Panikkou-Dimitriou

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.

* Finalist project in the New European Bauhaus Awards, 2023 (more information)

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)

Featured project

The Pine’s plaza

The Pine's Plaza

19_PE1707_PPB_Minifairo_02_estatActual_Prop

19_PE1707_PPB_Minifairo_04_identittat_taller

19_PE1707_PPB_Minifairo_01_Benifairo_planol_general

The project for the reformation of the square (plaça) del Pi at Benifairo de la Valldigna incorporated since the beginning the inhabitants, especially children. The square holds an important part at the village’s entrance, creating a “bridge” between nursery and primary school and hosting el “Pi redó”, an emblematic tree which during the years turned into a meeting place -physical and symbolic- for every inhabitant.

Initially, collaborative work took place including agents related to the project so to identify the main deficiencies of the space and define strategic lines for the future project. Once agreed, these ideas were specified progressively in order to create an urban design project.

During the process, various participative techniques were used: from group interviews with the city’s technical-political team and with professionals linked to the school, to workshops with children, recording of memories regarding Pí redó and its surroundings, and open sessions in the public space with inhabitants.

The proposal redefines the mobility circulation at the entrance and exit of the village, eliminates part of the parking space that is underused so that many square meters are freed up creating spaces of quality to pass time and play both for adults and children.

Place

Benifairó de la Valldigna

[1,580 inhabitants]

Scale

Public space

Type of project

Urban strategies

Citizen cooperation

Public space design

Duration

Collaborative Diagnosis:

6 months [2017]

Urban design project:

3 months [2017]

Site management:

3 months [2018]

Promoter

Muicipality of Benifairó de

la Valldigna

Team

*estel (Arnau Boix, Marc Deu,

Konstantina Chrysostomou)

Monodestudio, Urbanins,

Siete arquitectura más

ingeniería s.l.

Collaborated

Neighbors of Benifairó de la

Valldigna,

Children and educational team

of James II el Just primary

school

Featured project

Rescuing the Rambles of Barcelona

Methodology for the Valencian Urban Agenda

Participatory process at Barcelona-Sants (railway station)

Superblocks for Barcelona's Eixample

Confluence in Valencia's Central Market

¡Pónle Guinda!

Strategic Plan for Urban Regeneration in the neighborhood of Cerdanyola

Joan Miró square

Let’s activate the square Panikou Dimitriou in Cyprus

The Pine's Plaza

Legal Terms – CC *estel