Detailed programme

Planning in order to transform: a new Master Plan for the capital of Honduras. SENER

The Central District Master Plan 2050 (PMDC) constitutes one of the most ambitious urban planning exercises in Central America, designed to transform the capital of Honduras into a resilient, orderly, and sustainable city.  The talk will cover how the plan is divided into eight structural points: mobility, water, housing, risk management, environment, governance, district development, and clean city, to respond to the decades of informal growth, demographic pressure, and climate fragility.  The integrated methodology used will be explained: multi-scalar diagnosis, prioritization models, risk analysis, scenario design, citizen participation, and follow-up tools such as the Monitoring and Evaluation System.  Finally, it will cover what has been learned in the process and its potential as a model that can be replicated for Latin American cities that seek to stop reacting and to start planning strategically based on data, resilience, and long-term vision.

A New Organisational Model for Large-Scale Retrofitting

Strategic planning is key to define and achieve the emissions reduction targets for building stock, which is absolutely necessary if building is to be decarbonised. Such planning requires coordination of the different decision-making levels – municipal, regional, state and European – that are involved in the retrofitting actions, along with having the necessary information to do so.
Based on a study for the Basque Government, an organisational model is proposed to generate the information and involve the agents in an organised manner, along with allowing the required resources and the deliverables to be defined and monitored. This organisational model is based on the tools that the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive establishes and promotes.

Aramotz, the Comprehensive Urban Renewal of a Neighbourhood with Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Nature-Based Solutions and Sustainable Drainage.

The Aramotz neighbourhood built in the 1950s was facing seriously construction problems, frequent floods and urban decline. The comprehensive urban renewal project was based on two complementary areas to reverse this situation.

On the one hand, MaaB arquitectura headed the comprehensive retrofitting of 16 buildings, by replacing the thermal enclosure, installing photovoltaic panels and guaranteeing accessibility by means of new glazed external lifts.

On the other hand, the joint venture (UTE) set up by MaaB and SOiL architectura del paisaje undertook the perimeter diversion and the rewilding of the stream. This intervention freed up the central courtyard and turned it into an environmental and social connector by means of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS).

In short, this ‘urban acupuncture’ has turned an obsolete neighbourhood and with multiple problems into an opportunity, by giving new dignity to the neighbourhood and creating a resilient and living ecosystem.

Domesticating within and outside the home

“Domesticating within and outside the home” is the leitmotiv that is repeated in the work of the young architectural firm Cierto Estudio, whose projects range from designing domestic spaces to their recent experience re-urbanizing Consell de Cent Street, in the heart of Barcelona’s Eixample district.

In their talk, they will try to explain to us how this melody or fundamental idea of “domesticating” works both in the home and outside it, because at the end of the day, both spaces are places where people live together.  And, by extension, so are spaces for work, recreation, lodging, learning, sports, or display.  But what does domesticating space mean?  How is it possible to project that which is domestic?

Rewilding the City

The paper will explore urban rewilding strategies in Bilbao, by highlighting nature-based solution, climate change adaptation and improving citizen wellbeing, with examples of green spaces, climate shelters and environmental integration in consolidated urban environments.

From Nippur to Bakio: Old Solutions for Old Problems

Flooding is the main natural risk of the Basque Country, both in terms of the population affected and of the financial impact. Flood risk management is a task that requires multiple stakeholders to be involved and which necessarily must include different approaches: prevention, preparation, protection and reclaiming.

The Basque Water Agency has embarked on implementing the ‘Flood Protection and Environmental Improvement of the River Estepona in Bakio by means of Creating Flood Retention Basins in the Bakea and Solozarre areas’ project. This project is a good example of the type of flood protection structural measures envisaged in the Food Risk Management Plans, which seek to reduce of existing flood risk in a way that is compatible with conserving and improving bodies of water.Apart from the need for works to protect existing vulnerable elements, prevention using urban and spatial planning tools is the most effective risk management measures.

Innovative Management of Empty Spaces at Local Level in the BAC

The proposal (developed within the framework of preliminary designs for integral eco-innovative solutions and potential impact in the area of soil protection and the circular economy in the Basque Country (IHOBE)) puts forward a methodological process aimed at defining and activating empty lots as a key strategy for soil protection and the circular economy in the Basque Country.  Starting from an analysis of the state of the art and recent cases in Europe, it builds an operating definition of these spaces and identifies the factors that condition their re-use.  The work confirms the consensus in prioritizing their use instead of occupying greenfield sites.  It proposes advancing towards a specific regulatory framework, the creation of detailed inventories that allow for the assessment of each case’s viability, and the design of financing and public-private collaboration models.  Moreover, it underscores the importance of integrating these mechanisms in urban planning as well as the process of raising awareness aimed at both institutions and citizens.

Presentation by Asier Abaunza

From Urban Regeneration to the New European Bauhaus: Shaping the Future of EU Cohesion Policy.

The New European Bauhaus (NEB) offers a transformative framework to connect sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion in urban development. In the context of climate challenges, it provides an opportunity to link architectural practice with European policy objectives, particularly in urban regeneration. This contribution explores how NEB principles can be translated into concrete actions, integrating energy efficiency, sustainable mobility and inclusive public spaces. It also highlights how NEB can guide future investments under Cohesion Policy. In particular, it opens the door to proposals within the ERDF regulation to link sustainable urban development objectives with NEB criteria, ensuring higher quality and long-term impact.

Presentation by Ana Beatriz Jordao Carneiro-Monteiro

Mapping Urban Renewal: The Three Rs

Urban renewal is gaining a firm foothold as a means to address contemporary challenges. The Three Rs – renewing, refurbishing, repurposing – propose flexible interventions on

the existing fabrics, by coordinating building, urban and spatial planning. Architecture thus assumes a fundamental ethical role, by fostering threefold equity: professional, aesthetic and environmental. The climate crisis has intensified this responsibility, as cities produce 75% of global emissions and are, paradoxically, more vulnerable to its consequences. The ‘ruralisation of the city’, where the urban-rural frontier is blurred, has emerged as a transformative renewal strategy, where mid-size cities will play a crucial role in structuring the local, regional and global scales.

Renewing the urban space also means reclaiming the public space as a democratic Agora to build community. Otherwise, democracies run the risk of perishing.

From strategy to transformation, Three approaches to urban regeneration

From strategy to transformation: mechanisms of the Barcelona Metropolitan Urban Master Plan to promote the adaptation processes of urban settlements via three levels of intervention.

In a context of protection of open spaces and limiting urban sprawl, the regeneration of existing settlements is proposed as a key tool to meet the needs of adaptation, growth, and land use, avoiding models of expansion.  From this perspective, the city is understood to be an organism in continuous transformation, where progressive regeneration processes are promoted without turning to tabula rasa operations.

In this framework, the Metropolitan Urbanization Master Plan proposes three complementary levels of intervention.  The urban strategies establish guidelines to guarantee territorial balance, urban cohesion, and sustainability.  The areas of urban regeneration, both residential and commercial or industrial, lay out a road map to implement said urban strategies.  Finally, the areas of opportunity set out more profound transformations, oriented to the reactivation of fragmented or underutilized spaces with the potential to turn into new central spaces that complement the surroundings

The Train as an Opportunity for Urban Renewal in the Basque Country

ALL IRON and Promenades of the River Estuary: Urban Renewal for Sustainable Mobility

The path that was used in the past by the women who towed the barges along the estuary is going to soon become the bedrock of sustainable mobility. The path, together with the opening of the All Iron walkway, will connect the two sides of the river for cyclists and pedestrians.

A change of scenario that has been supported territorially thanks to the Bizkaia Sectoral Territorial Plan of Cycleways and to the Metropolitan Bilbao Partial Territorial Plan, instruments arising from the DOTs (Territorial Planning Guidelines) and which set up two competitive links in the transport system and a balcony to plan the potential of the river estuary in the Bilbao Metropolitan area.

The interinstitutional cooperation between Bizkaia Provincial Government, the Bilbao Port Authority and Erandio Local Council has led to agreements regarding these renewal actions of the river estuary area to serve the citizens of the 21st century.

Liveable Streets: Projects and Strategies for a Care City

Nowadays, the debate about reclaiming ‘street space’ as a place for everyday life and active mobility is one of the main challenges that contemporary cities are facing. We will use some projects in Spain, Italy and Colombia to consider strategies and approaches to achieve more liveable streets and that encourage meeting spaces for urban life. The study to transform the cross streets of Meridiana Avenue in Barcelona, Spain (2018-2020); integrating the public space and the boundary streets in the Hangar Creativi urban renewal project in Livorno, Italy (2024-27); and finally, the Gobernación del Cesar park-square project in Valledupar, Colombia (2015-2018), are 3 examples of exemplary project approaches. New pedestrian-oriented Care City models will be presented, with backing by the public administration and the social groups involved, that coincide with the need to offset the impact of the road infrastructures to foster environmental improvements in streets and public spaces.

Rail Projects to Build the Cities of the Future

Abando: Towards a Sustainable Cross-Cutting Mobility Model

The Abando operation is structured around converting the existing surface railway station in the centre of Bilbao into one underground; this is a strategic intervention to create a new central urban space. This action will allow uses – green areas, residential, tertiary and commercial – to be combined in order to revitalise the urban fabric.

The project envisages a continuous system of green spaces connecting the neighbouring districts with the centre by means of internal mobility and pedestrian routes, thus fostering the interaction between work and leisure activities.

Furthermore, the area is known for its great accessibility, underpinned by a multimodal public transport network (tramway, commuter, AVE high speed and coaches). Reusing the station’s hall will also open the way up for it to be the venue for supra-local events and cultural uses.

Overall, it is a strategic opportunity space that is establishing itself as a new urban activity hub, thanks to its central location, density, greenery, sustainability and functional diversity.