https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1672-4965
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ABSTRACT
Mass housing estates are one of the main urban landscapes associated with postwar urban development in Western cities. Despite their historic and cultural value, they often suffer from urban obsolescence and require regeneration. Contrasting with the uniformity and similarity they were designed with, these such housing estates have evolved along disparate trajectories since their initial construction 50 years ago. Thus, based on a study using the UR-Hesp methodology to evaluate spatial accessibility—and how it reflects urban quality—in this paper, we employ a retrospective approach to discuss some key ideas regarding urban design strategies for housing estate upgrades. To explore the role of street network spatial accessibility in housing estate evolution, we evaluate where housing estates are located within their urban or metropolitan area (global integration), their relationship with their surrounding area (permeability) and the capacity of their inner spatial structures to promote pedestrian movement (local choice). The study involved 28 mass housing estates in the Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the anonymous reviewers of this journal.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2022.2123342
Notes
1. Normalized integration or choice are selected as the size of a study area does not influence such analysis (Hillier et al., Citation2012).
2. Furthermore, a regression analysis between normalized choice (R = 800 m) and normalized integration (R = 800 m) with the spearman method has given satisfactory results with correlation levels between 0.67 and 0.77 in the study areas.
3. A quintile divides a data distribution into five equal parts.
4. Data were downloaded in early 2019.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Sergio García-Pérez
Sergio García-Pérez (MArch, PhD in Architecture) is Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. Funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (2015-19) and Ministry of Universities (2022), his research focuses on urban morphology and the analysis of its quality, considering the regeneration possibilities of different urban tissues at different scales. As practitioner, he has worked for the urban planning office 300.000 Km/s (National Prize for Urban Planning awarded by the CSCAE in 2019), collaborating on projects related to urban analysis, housing and urban regeneration (2020-22). Research stays at Universidade do Porto (2018, 2022) and Université Paris I-Sorbonne (2019). His research has been published in journals such as Cities, Sustainable Cities and Society, ACE, Territorio or Zarch.
Borja Ruiz-Apilánez
Borja Ruiz-Apilánez (MScEng, MArch, PhD in Territory, Infrastructures & Environment) is Associate Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Castilla-La Mancha School of Architecture in Toledo, Spain. He has an educational and professional background in Architecture and Civil Engineering, with internationally awarded and published practice. Borja investigates the relationship between the physical urban environment and human activities, with a focus on public life and public space at different scales and from different perspectives. He has lectured in European and North American universities and has been visiting scholar at the Centre for Public Space Research (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen), The Bartlett (University College London), and the Department of City and Regional Planning (University of California, Berkeley). He is Secretary and founding member of the Hispanic network of the International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF-H). His book A pie o en bici is open access.
Javier Monclús
Javier Monclús Dr. Architect. PhD at the Catalonia Polytechnic University, 1985. Former professor at Barcelona School of Architecture (1980-2005). Professor of Urbanism. School of Engineering and Architecture (2009-2022), University of Zaragoza. Head of the Architecture Department, School of Engineering and Architecture, University of Zaragoza (2009-2016). Emeritus Professor University of Zaragoza. Author, coauthor, editor or co-editor of about 200 professional and scientific publications on urban planning theory and urban projects. Director of ZARCH, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Urbanism since 2013 and a member of the Planning Perspectives editorial board since 1990. Ciudad de Bloques. Reflexiones retrospectivas y prospectivas sobre los polígonos de vivienda “modernos” (Abada, 2021). Urban Visions. From Planning Culture to Landscape Urbanism (Díez & Monclús, eds.) Springer, 2018 (Spanish ed.: Abada, 2017). He is now President of the International Seminar of Urban Form-Hispanic (2021-present).
Carmen Díez Medina
Carmen Díez Medina Degree in Architecture from the Madrid Polytechnic University (ETSAM UPM), 1989. PhD. at the Technische Universität Wien, 1997. Full Professor of Theory and Architectural History at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza (Spain). Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano (2022). More than 150 publications in books and scientific reviews. Recent books (with J. Monclús): Ciudad de Bloques. reflexiones retrospectivas y prospectivas sobre los polígonos de vivienda “modernos” (Abada, 2021). Urban Visions. From Planning Culture to Landscape Urbanism (Díez & Monclús, eds.) Springer, 2018 (Spanish ed.: Abada, 2017). Research stays within the frame of research projects at Politecnico di Milano (2017, 2009) and ETH Zürich, GTHA (2007). Collaborating architect at Rafael Moneo in Madrid (1996-2001) and previously at Nigst, Hubmann & Vass in Viena (1989-1995).