Development of the Project ‘Seeds and Vectors’, winning entry in the young architects competition Europan 9

with Alicia Gómez Nieto

Badajoz, 2011

 

The SEEDS AND VECTORS project, as it was presented at Europan 9, outlined an abitious process for the complete restoration of an area of some 200 hectares, the most vulnerable in Badajoz. It was an eminently strategic Project, set out as an open negotiation between the different parties involved in the development of the city.

The development of the Project began with the the commissioning of the first detailed diagnostic study of the whole area, qhich was carried out in April 2009. In thie study the restoration of the Santa Engracia UVA was identified as a priority intervention, so much for its urgency as its viability.

It deals with a neighbourhood of 800 homes, with a surface area of 13 hectares. The current planning was anticipating its demolition and replacement, whereas here we suggested a comprehensive restoration.

Facing a comprehensive restoration the Santa Engracia UVA drafted a ‘Special Interior Reformation Plan’ (Plan Especial de Reforma Interior (P.E.R.I)), to establish a framework for planning the restoration of the neighbourhood, and to undertake in the near future the process of regeneration.

The PERI proposals for the programme, public space and building the neighbourhood were organised around eight strategicically prioritised lines, which sought to restructure the neighbourhood and recover its relationships.

Strategic lines that link neighbourhood-inhabitants: IDENTITY, GENERATIONAL CHANGE and ACCESIBILITY.

Strategic lines in relation to the cultural environment: VISIBILITY, RECUPERATION y CONNECTION with the city and territory.

Strategic lines in relation to the natural environment: SUSTAINABILITY and LANDSCAPE

Peri was submitted in August 2011. It is still in progress and awaiting initial approval.

>Collaborators

Juan Murillo Arias, Roads, Canals and Ports Engineer

Almudena Cano Piñeiro, architecture student

Eva de Miguel Gómez, architecture student

Elena Martínez Goytre, sociologist

Daniel Sorando Ortín, sociologist

Miguel A. Martínez López, sociologist

Alberto Fernández, sociologist