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ABSTRACT
In the 1990s, the suburbs of Madrid saw the substantial development of new housing. New plans provided for 200,000 new homes over 7200 Ha of land. These developments eschewed earlier modernist forms of suburbanization in favour of the perimeter block that superficially echoed the ‘traditional’ built form of the city. But the new perimeter blocks and neighbourhood design varied from their inner-city counterparts and have been the subject of near universal criticism. Some 10 years after their occupation, we reappraise the development importantly adding the perspective of residents. While many of the design failings identified in the past are confirmed, we also reveal qualities that residents value. The study demonstrates the value of post hoc evaluation after residents have settled in and leads us to argue for the importance of better integrating the everyday life (lived experience) perspective into evaluations to achieve better places.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their comments and insights which have helped improve the earlier version of the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Alan’s research interests include planning cultures and socio-cultural aspects of housing including second homes and suburban cultures. His planning based research is primarily focused on policy and practice in the UK, where his expertise is in green belt and density policy as well as community engagement in the planning process. He is an active member of the LSE-London research group. International collaboration includes shrinking suburbs with Hosei University in Tokyo; planning the compact city in northern Europe with the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, and; internal space standards in England and Italy funded by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Javier is an architect and urban designer with nearly a decade of international experience focused on the design of key new places. Ranging through different scales between architecture and urban planning, his broad experience provides a good understanding of the processes that build the cities and the ability to deliver through different stages. His research interests include planning and urban design theory in the UK and Spain, seeking to link the academic and the professional aspects of the field. He also co-founded Estudio Lunar where he was awarded on several occasions as a European young architect and urban designer.
Notes
1 Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de Madrid PG85.
2 See for example: Portela, “Los nuevos barrios de Madrid”; Brandis, “La periferia inacabada madrileña,” 111–20, 1–12; López De Lucio, Vivienda Colectiva, Espacio Público y Ciudad.
3 Portela, “Los nuevos barrios de Madrid”; Herraez Rodriguez, Ensanche de Vallecas: ¿un Ensanche Diferente?.
4 Carmona, “The Place-Shaping Continuum,” 4.
5 Chueca Goitia, Breve Historia del Urbanismo.
6 See for example: Bataller, et al.,Guía del urbanismo de Madrid: siglo XX; López De Lucio and Hernández-Aja, Los Nuevos Ensanches de Madrid; Sambricio, Madrid, Vivienda y Urbanismo.
7 Revista Nacional de Arquitectura (num. 119), November 1951.
8 INE: Instituto Nacional de Estadística.
9 Alvarado and Moratilla, “Cambios municipales en la Comunidad de Madrid (1900–2003),” 25.
10 De Lucio and Hernández-Aja, Los Nuevos Ensanches de Madrid.
11 Plan General de Ordenación Urbana 1985. Translated as the 1985 Madrid Plan.
12 De Lucio and Hernández-Aja, Los Nuevos Ensanches de Madrid.
13 See: Rodriguez, Ensanche de Vallecas; García Palomares and Puebla, “La ciudad dispersa”; García, “Criterios para cualificar y valorar los nuevos espacios públicos”; López De Lucio, “Morfología y características de las nuevas periferias”. A very extensive investigation of the morphological and functional attributes of Sanchinarro can be found in López de Lucio, Vivienda Colectiva.
14 See: Portela, “Los nuevos barrios de Madrid”; De la Riva Ámez, García, and Angulo, “Demanda De Vivienda”; Brandis, “La periferia inacabada madrileña.”
15 See: López De Lucio, Vivienda Colectiva; Vaquerizo Gómez, “La arquitectura de la «nueva periferia».”
16 See: Palomares and Gutiérrez Puebla, “La ciudad dispersa”; Miret García, “Criterios para cualificar”; Calvo, et al., La Explosión Urbana de la Conurbación Madrileña.
17 López De Lucio, Vivienda Colectiva, 249.
18 Vaquerizo Gómez, “La arquitectura.”
19 Jarvis, Pratt, and Wu, Secret Life of Cities, 74.
20 Monclús and Medina, “Modernist Housing Estates in European Cities of the Western and Eastern Blocs.”
21 Hebbert, “Town Planning Versus Urbanismo.”
22 See: Talen and Ellis, “Beyond Relativism”; Jacobs, Death & Life of Great American Cities; Lynch, Image of the City; Lynch, Good City Form; Jacobs and Appleyard, “Toward an Urban Design Manifesto,” 112–20; Gehl, Life Between Buildings; Cuthbert, “Urban Design”; Banai and Rapino, “Urban Theory.”
23 For an extended assessment, see Michael Southworth, “New Urbanism and the American Metropolis.”
24 Cuthbert, “Urban Design,” 177.
25 Jacobs and Appleyard, “Toward an Urban Design Manifesto.”
26 Cliff Ellis, “Process and Principles in Urban Design.”
27 Fran Tonkiss, Cities by Design.
28 Carmona, “The Place-shaping Continuum.”
29 Montgomery, “Making a City.”
30 Steiner, “Commentary: Planning and Design,” 215.
31 Talen and Ellis, “Beyond Relativism,” 39.
32 Karl Popper, “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” 78.
33 Ayuntamiento de Madrid. Seguimiento de la gestión en los nuevos desarrollos urbanos.
34 AVS: Asociación de Vecinos de Sanchinarro.
35 Attride-Stirling, “Thematic Networks,” 389.
36 Temple and Young, “Qualitative Research and Translation Dilemmas.”
37 Lynch, Good City Form.
38 Ibid., 112.
39 Ibid., 119.
40 López De Lucio et al. Madrid, 1900–2010: Guía de Urbanismo y Diseño Urbano, 304, 320.
41 López De Lucio, Vivienda Colectiva, 247.
42 Ibid., 249.
43 Portela, “Los nuevos barrios de Madrid.”
44 De la Riva Ámez, Palacios García, and Vinuesa Angulo, “Demanda De Vivienda,” 10.
45 Miret García, “Criterios para cualificar,” 224.
46 Pozueta and Lamiquiz, “Modelos urbanos,” VI.18
47 Albouy, Are Big Cities Bad Places to Live?.
48 U = f(QoL, w, t).
49 See for example Torres, Greene, and Ortúzar, “Valuation of Housing.”
50 López De Lucio, Vivienda Colectiva, 250.
51 Blanca, personal communication, July 9, 2016.
52 Miret García, “Criterios para cualificar,” 227.
53 Javier, pilot, personal communication, July 9, 2016.
54 Asela, architect, personal communication, July 4, 2016.
55 Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Memoria 2015 Calidad del Aire.
56 Ibid., 10.
57 The highest is another PAU, Ensanche de Vallecas – see Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Memoria 2015 Calidad del Aire, 25.
58 See: de Santiago Rodríguez, “Madrid ‘ciudad única’ (II). La explosión urbana en la región madrileña y sus efectos colaterales”; Calvo et al., La Explosión Urbana.
59 Metros Ligeros de Madrid, www.melimadrid.es
60 Ana, student, personal communication, June 30, 2016.
61 Lynch describes identity as follows: ‘[a] workable image requires first the identification of an object which implies its distinction from other things, its recognition as a separable entity. This is called identity, not in the sense of equality with something else, but with the meaning of individuality or oneness.’ Lynch, Image of the City, 8.
62 Laura, chemist, personal communication, June 29, 2016.
63 Jesús, professional, personal communication, July 14, 2016.
64 Lynch, Good City Form, 111.
65 Adriaanse, “Measuring Residential Satisfaction,” 291, Amérigo and Aragonés, “Residential Satisfaction in Council Housing.”
66 Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Memoria 2015 Calidad del Aire, 522.
67 Open ‘public’ space which was recently fenced off to separate public from private land.
68 López De Lucio, Vivienda Colectiva.
69 Ibid.
70 see: Palomares and Gutiérrez Puebla, “La ciudad dispersa”; Miret García, “Criterios para cualificar.”
71 Lynch, Good City Form, 134.
72 Javier, music student, personal communication, June 29, 2016.
73 Javier, architect personal communication, July 14, 2016.
74 Breheny, “The Compact City,” 81.
75 Luis Rodríguez-Avial, personal communication, July 4, 2016
76 For an overview of the debate on the compact see: Holman et al., “Coordinating Density”; Neuman, “The Compact City Fallacy”; Burton, “The Compact City”; Jabareen, “Sustainable Urban Forms”; Breheny, “The Compact City”; Echenique, et al., “Growing Cities Sustainably?”
77 Gehl, Life Between Building, 13.
78 Jarvis, Pratt, and Wu, Secret Life of Cities.