Transcriber: Rania Mustafa Reviewer: Anna Sobota
Have you ever thought about reinventing a whole neighborhood?
Well, you will need a few ingredients:
an interdisciplinary team, some tools, a good structure,
but most importantly,
the people who you reinvent the neighborhood for.
Let me tell you about our reinvention
of the neighborhood Gran San Blas Sur in Madrid
and give you the tools to become an urban planner yourself.
So, where do you start?
Well, first things first, some coffee or actually chai
which is tea as our Indian colleagues would call it.
The core of each team is its team members.
For an urban planning project
but also any other project,
I would suggest going for a diversity in character,
profession and experience.
Our team consists of 11 students from India, Germany and Colombia,
and we have a variety of backgrounds.
We are from urban design, urban planning, architecture,
business, geography and civil engineering.
So you have your team, but what’s up next?
You will need a team name.
Let this be said, be creative.
Be able to identify and have some reference to the projects.
And here we go, the Barrio Catalysts was born.
So let’s get started.
But how?
In order to generate solutions for a neighborhood,
it’s most important to know the neighborhood
and to know that people who live there.
What do they like or dislike about their neighborhood?
What are its strengths?
What are its biggest issues?
In order to get to know that
you have to do research, research and research.
Sounds boring?
Not at all!
Since the global pandemic kept us all in our home countries,
in different time zones, without any possibilities of traveling,
we decided to take on that challenge
and put a lot of effort into getting to know Gran San Blas Sur
and its people.
That means walking the streets of Madrid with Google Street View,
sending out a questionnaire via social media,
and finding as much information as possible about life in Madrid.
You might wonder now, how do I identify the problem?
The typical process would be: problem, research, approach, solution.
In our case, the neighborhood of Gran San Blas Sur
has a lot of concrete and a lot of parked cars,
but also a lack of accessible public transport and greenery.
Does that sound familiar to you?
Reinventing a whole neighbourhood sounds like a huge project?
It is!
It also really is a lot of fun.
As my mom always says, when I feel like there’s too much to do
and I don’t even know where to start,
just look at the next week for now.
We've created four subgroups focusing on mobility, public spaces,
buildings and community engagement.
The mobility group focused on more accessible public transport
and sustainable ways of mobility.
The buildings and community groups were merged into the environment group
during the process and created green energy efficient solutions
while the group of public spaces created open, accessible,
illuminated plazas for social interaction.
We will then split the work
and have weekly meetings in which we update each other
and get feedback from the other subgroups.
How can we tackle so many different challenges?
Breathe and take a sip of coffee first.
Now, break it down into the subgroups and get creative!
Too many parked cars?
Create a parking lot with sports cords on top!
And move all the parked cars there.
Too much concrete and gray areas?
Let’s give a canvas to the local artist!
Or we could also take the kids around and create an urban gardening project.
How do we imagine a future neighborhood to be like?
Green, illuminated open spaces
where people can socialize, cycle and feel at home.
So, what advice can we give you as the next good urban center?
All the proposals and ideas, that we have, have one common goal.
We want to create a neighborhood
in which people feel safe, happy and comfortable to live in.
This goal can only be achieved
if the people that live in the neighborhood are involved.
That’s why we, the Barrio Catalysts,
hope that everyone will get involved
in the process of the development of their neighborhood
so we can create a sustainable and livable future cities.
So, what are you waiting for?
Let’s get started!