From Vertical Slum to Sustainable Neighborhood by Community Self-empowerment

Background Information

The process involves a series of projects, starting with the inspirational Trinitat InNova, the document outlining the conclusions of a bottom-up process to fix ancient mistakes by constructing vertical slums. Afterwards it started to be followed by other programs: Community Plan, PERI (Urbanistic Plan of Integral Renovation), URBAN (ERDF), School Agenda 21, Barcelona + Sustainable (post Agenda 21), Urban Heart (WHO), Climate Change Compromise signed in Paris COP-21 and recently the UN SDC Indicators 2030. 

Goals of the Initiative

Even if the main goal was to provide safe and decent dwellings to residents, the integrated and bottom-up approach includes a wider set of goals:

•Move toward an inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable neighborhood;

•Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all;

•Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

The three axes across the actions are:

•Quality of life and community facilities;

•Identity and residents;

•Physical environment. 

Parties and Partners to the Initiative and Resources Used for Implementation

Parties and Partners to the Initiative

The project has been developed managing multi-stakeholders and funders for a long period. The initiators of the process were the neighbors, but over time administrations, experts, universities and multilateral organizations got involved in. 

Thanks to the Barcelona Council’s proactive and conciliatory leadership, the neighbors’ claims were kept alive and the actions were successfully taken across several subsequent projects (Community Plan, PERI, EcoCity-EU, URBAN-ERFD-EU). It has inspired a regional government law called “Neighborhood’s Law”, enacted in 2004 with an unquestionable success and impacting slum population all over the Catalonia region.

Resources Used for Implementation

•Axis Quality of life: €3.1 million

•Axis Identity and Residents: €1.1 million

•Axis Physical Environment

•Public space improvements: €12.6 million

•Demolition and construction of the new dwellings: € 60million

•Connection by metro: €156 million 

Innovation for the Initiative 

Along the process, both evolutionary and revolutionary actions were taken:

a)Participation. The bottom-up process considers the citizens as a protagonist in the remodeling process. Thanks to the presence of international experts in the participatory processes and the use of EASW methodology, we could learn and spread it as good practice. They also inspired the guidelines for new urbanism programs and protocols such as the Catalonia´s Neighborhood Regional Government Law, named the Best Practice in the International Award of Dubai in 2012. 

b)Evolutionary initiatives involve aspects like the connection with the rest of the city by metro, the humanization of big infrastructures as a highway and its bridge, improving green areas in public space, social measures to minimize the exclusion, and increasing employability. All these improvements are results from a continuous learning process from past social actions projects which have taken place in Barcelona.

Innovation has been applied in

•Technical process. The simultaneous demolition and construction of the buildings to relocate the affected neighbors and recycling materials considering the technical and administrative complexity it requires resulted in an “urbanistic surgery operation”. This kind of process is used when demolishing buildings and accommodating people in other parts of the city, spreading the neighbors and losing the sense of community. In this case, the neighbors were kept close to each other, which gave them the possibility to take part in the reform management as a united community.

•Governance. Implementing it by fitting several programs and different administration funding requires a high-level governance, transparency and communication. Thanks to a good job the program won the award of “Good Communication Practice 2012” by the EU.

•High quality and sustainable social housing. Providing 100 percent accessibility, bioclimatic, renewal energy, lifts, design and high quality materials for the construction of the new social buildings was revolutionary in Barcelona. 

Obstacles and Solutions for Innovation

The main obstacles in implementing this innovative process were -- the initial administration resistance in adopting the participatory document guidelines; the mutual distrust between citizens and administration; the complex management of different stakeholders and programs; the long duration of the process; the integration of different administrations funding and the challenges imposed by citizens for the process. 

Outcomes achieved are as follows:

•Quality of life:

a)Refurbishment of patrimonial heritage as urban facilities;

b)Professional training for women: 31 percent employment from 108 women;

c)Socio-occupational integration projects for collectives with disabilities: 57 percent employment from 164 participants;

d)Revitalizing commerce;

e)Creation of new associations. 

•Identity and residents

a)Program to strengthen social cohesion;

b)Community participation and revitalization;

c)Information and publicity. 

•Physical environment

a)Improvements in housing

 9,000 new dwellings;

 206 dwellings with accessibility improvements;

 431 dwellings with eco-efficiency improvements. 

b)Improvements of public space

 8,000 beneficiaries;

 35,607 sq m;

 14,033 sq m of humanization of a major infrastructure. 

c)Improvements of mobility

 two subways ;

 Car parking bays (1,000 lots);

 Pedestrian priority bridge;

 Bus-HOV Lane.

Methods Applied

•Bottom-up, transversal and integral approach;

•EASW participation methodology;

•Own methodology to establish the relocation order prioritizing the active participation in the process;

•Construction-relocation-demolition process in situ and in parallel;

•Demolition waste recycling for construction purposes in situ;

•GIS data in the indicators and use of geoportals (Open Data; Smart City);

•Without previous knowledge, we have been following the Dragon’s

Dreaming Methodology, applied at World Bank Programs to regenerate our environments and fostering strong supportive communities; 

Benefits to Other Cities

Barcelona shares with many other cities around the world the problem of neighborhoods constructed rapidly to host waves of immigrants or refugees seeking better life conditions for their families. Most of them are slums or substandard housing, with no urban planning, infrastructures, community facilities, basic services, transport connections and frequently with structural pathologies. 

The collective dream can be grown oriented by experts in participatory processes and urban planning, creating think tanks to develop the draft guidelines to remodel their own neighborhood and formalize the presentation of selected solutions. The results can be presented ready to be endorsed by the council, adopting their goals as their own, including the actions proposed in the necessary Urban Plan. 

This was the process undertook in Trinitat Nova, and it has been key to its success. Besides, it has had a multiplier effect being transposed into regulations to be implemented in similar cases in the future in the region.

The challenges adopting a bottom-up process capable of integrating the slum’s citizens on the refurbishment designing process of their own neighborhood, based on their own priorities. This process must include basic infrastructure while creating a sustainable and inclusive neighborhood, such as good connection with the whole city and better housing conditions.