Renascent urbanism: reviving derelict structures in the wake of the crisis

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the environmental and social challenges that emerged in Spain in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. The high dependence of the national economy on the inflated construction sector led the country to a sudden recession when the real estate market collapsed. The consequences were manifold: On the one hand, the number of evictions increased dramatically as households without regular income could not repay their mortgages. On the other hand, suburbs were filled with ‘ghost towns’ of unfinished buildings and empty estates, which were abandoned by bankrupted developers. This article presents a feasible solution for both problems. The strategy is based on the temporal colonization of unfinished buildings to provide affordable accommodation for evicted families. The existing structures will be retrofitted with low-cost and high-performance solutions based on thorough environmental analysis. These architectural interventions will qualify the urban environment while responding to urgent housing needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Retrofit
• housing
• prefabrication
• modular
• adaptability
• low-cost
• reactivation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Jorge Rodríguez-Álvarez http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3141-3046