Transforming Cities Opportunities and Challenges of Urban Regeneration in the Basque Country

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OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES Of URBAN REGENERATION IN THE BASijUE COUNTRY , EDITED BY RRANTKA RODRIGUEZ ANo JOSEBA JUARlSTI Center for Basque Studies Transforming Cities Opportunities and Challenges of Urban Regeneration in the Basque Country Edited by Arantxa Rodríguez and Joseba Juaristi Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno University of the Basque Country Euskal Herriko del Pafs Vasco Unibertsitatea II Current Research Series No. 11 Published in conjunction with the University of the Basque Country In memory of Sir Peter Hall, inspiring scholar of urban transformations Selections of the ongoing work done by the faculty of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), www.ehu.es Editorial Committee: Amaia Maseda (Chair, UPV/EHU), Arantza Azpiroz (UPV/EHU), Javier Echeverría (UPV/EHU and Ikerbasque), Jon Landeta (UPV/EHU), Sandra Ott (UNR), Joseba Zulaika (UNR), Santos Zunzunegui (UPV/EHU) Current Research Series No. 11 Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2015 by the Center for Basque Studies. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Translations by Robert Forstag, except chapters 1 and 5, English originals. Cover image: 1876 Extension plan for Bilbao designed by Achucarro and Hofmeyer architects. In black ink the plan shows the city as it was in 1876. Red ink shows the project to build the extension. Via Wikimedia Commons. _______________________________ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Transforming cities : opportunities and challenges of urban regeneration in the Basque country / edited by Arantxa Rodríguez and Joseba Juaristi. -- First Edition. pages cm. -- (Current research series ; No. 11) Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Collection of academic articles on opportunities and challenges of urban regeneration in the Basque Country”-- Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-935709-62-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Urban renewal--Spain-- País Vasco. 2. City planning--Spain--País Vasco. 3. Sustainable urban development--Spain--País Vasco. 4. Community development--Spain--País Vasco. I. Rodríguez, Arantxa, editor. II. Juaristi, Joseba, editor. HT178.S62T73 2015 307.3’41609466--dc23 2015012302 Contents Introduction ................................................................................ 9 Arantxa Rodríguez and Joseba Juaristi 1 A Model of Regeneration? Urban Redevelopment and Policy-led Gentrifcation in Bilbao ................................... 21 Arantxa Rodríguez, Pedro Abramo, and Lorenzo Vicario 2 Some Refections on Urban Revitalization and Regeneration in Central Asturias and Metropolitan Bilbao (1980–2010) .. 51 Joseba Juaristi Linacero 3 Urban Rehabilitation and the Necessity of Conservation: A New Approach ............................................... 79 Pilar Garrido Gutiérrez 4 RDI and Urban Sustainability: Te “Smart City” Model in the Basque Autonomous Community ..................... 95 Estibaliz Rodríguez Núñez and Iñaki Periáñez Cañadillas 5 Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration: Exploring Conditions for Renewal Efectiveness ..................................... 117 Beatriz Plaza 6 Cultural Heritage as a Factor in the Urban Regeneration of Victoria-Gasteiz.............................................. 129 Agustín Azkarate and Ander de la Fuente 7 Te Expropriation of Cultural Assets in Urban Regeneration: On the Ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Kozacoğlu v. Turkey, February 19, 2009... 145 Carmen Agoues Mendizabal 8 Urban Development and Commercial Invigoration through Cultural Clusters in Peripheral Neighborhoods of Bilbao..... 163 Gloria Aparicio and Jon Charterina 9 Power and Potential: Enclosure and Eruption in Bilbao ....... 179 Igor Ahedo Gurrutxaga and Imanol Telleria Index Introduction Arantxa Rodríguez and Joseba Juaristi Urban renewal policies enjoy a prominent place in contemporary urban planning. Te term encompasses a constellation of various activities, pro- grams, and strategies promoted by cities for the purpose of reversing physical, economic, and social decline in particular areas or neighborhoods—or in the entirety of an urban area. In general, urban renewal is associated with intervention in consolidated areas of the city that have lost dynamism and functionality as a result of crises and restructuring processes experienced during the past thirty years. In the cities of Europe and North America that underwent early industrialization, changes in the productive base, special- ization, and urban structure resulting from these processes have been par- ticularly intense, and have in turn led to serious social and economic problems, and to a yawning urban void that is both physical and functional in nature. Renewal policies are thus associated with a reaction on the part of the public sector to problems in urban decline that involve the development of new economic activities and functionalities by means of the recovery of those urban voids, and their transformation into dynamic and attractive areas (Rodríguez et al. 2001; Oatley 1998; Roberts and Sykes 2000; website http://www.ifresi.univ-lille1.fr/PagesHTML/URSPIC/URSPIC, 2001). Yet, even though urban renewal is commonly identifed with strategies designed to remedy the problems caused by industrial crises and decline, the origin of these policies can be traced back to the 1800s and the response to severe urban problems resulting from the initial industrialization of cities.1 1. Intervention in distress for low income families was, in many countries, initiated by wealthy philanthropists who rallied for laws and regulations to improve unsanitary housing conditions and infrastructure and raised funds for the construction and rehabilitation of housing for the poor. 10 Transforming Cities It is specifcally in these early initiatives in which the birth of modern urban planning can be found. However, it was not till the 1930s and 1940s that distressed neighborhoods as such became the focus of governments’ delib- erate intervention in places like the United Kingdom and the United States. Since then, urban regeneration policies have been an essential part of urban planning schemes in cities on both sides of the Atlantic. Urban Renewal: Te Origins and Validity of Concept Industrialization, Modernization, and Urban Reform Urban renewal was initially conceived as a specifc domain of urban planning concerned with actions undertaken in response to the deterioration of urban areas resulting from industrial development and rapid demograph- ic growth in cities during the industrialization process. Te intense growth generated by the industrial revolution, and the pressing need for cheap housing near industrial centers, radically altered the nature of cities, transforming old neighborhoods into expanding slums and ghettos. Demand for inexpensive housing made the construction of units designed to be rented to workers a highly proftable activity—one engaged in by speculators who, as a result of transportation constraints, sought to maximize the number of housing units within reasonable distance of production sites. Both increasing density and low standards characterized the new worker housing, as did a lack of basic sanitation provisions (namely, light, ventilation, bathrooms, garbage collection, free spaces, and so on). All these factors, together with the poor maintenance of the property, led to the spread of infectious diseas- es such as tuberculosis and cholera. Te cholera epidemics that devastated European cities during the frst half of the nineteenth century made the risks associated with these conditions all too evident, and cast a spotlight on the need to improve the sanitary conditions of cities and of life in working-class neighborhoods by adjusting the available urban space to the demands im- posed by industrialization. Tis was to be accomplished by means of legal, public health, and urban planning reforms (Hall 1999). Tis situation led to the approval of public health reforms that established the legal responsibility of local authorities in providing the infrastructure and services necessary to guarantee public health, and improve the living conditions of workers. In addition, specifc regulations were crafed regarding the construction and maintenance of cities and housing units, and measures were instituted to promote the publicly funded construction of housing for the working class (Frampton 1998).2 2. In Great Britain, the turning point was the 1833 creation of the Poor Law Commission headed by Edwin Chadwick for the purpose of investigating the origins of an outbreak of cholera in Whitechapel, a neighborhood of London. Te activities of this commission in turn led to the creation of the “Royal Commission on the Health of Towns” (1844) and the Public Health Act (1848). In France, approval of the law promoting the hygiene of unhealthy dwellings (the Melun Law of 1850) provided the legal basis for carrying out extensive public restructuring projects in the central area of Paris under the leader- ship of Georges-Eugène Haussmann (between 1853 and 1870). Along the same lines, the proposal to widen Cerdá in Barcelona was also motivated in part by a desire to improve Introduction 11 All this led to the new urban problems resulting from industrialization, poor sanitation, crowding, density, and so forth, becoming the key focus of social reforms, and of urban transformation and modernization during the nineteenth century. Te increasing prominence of public sanitation con-

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