Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

A technical team comprising members of the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDU) of the AMB, of the Direction of Urban Planning of this metropolitan administration, and of the Badia del Vallès Municipality travelled last 4 and 5 of December to Marseille in the context of the ongoing work on the Sub-Urban, network, a project of the European program URBACT which promotes exchange and urban sustainable learning.

The purpose of the visit was to know in situ the main challenges faced by housing complexes in the Côte d'Azur, as well as the main plans for urban renewal scheduled by the public agency Marseille Rénovation Urbaine (MRU).

Rewarding compared experience

Accompanied by the technicians in charge of the projects of the metropolitan area of Marseille, several housing complexes in the city outskirts were visited, verifying their deficits, especially in terms of social and physical isolation, low habitability levels and lack of primary services, such as public spaces and facilities. In order to solve these shortcomings, the main strategy of the metropolitan area of Marseille is to apply integral renewal processes in the neighborhoods – funded by an important state funding – this meaning, in many cases, the total or partial demolition of the buildings.

< In the case of Badia del Vallès, it is a town formed exclusively by a fabric of blocks, with an ageing and declining population that, in addition, will have to face in the coming years (in 2023 specifically) the challenge of the end of the special dwelling protection regime of its whole housing stock (more than 5.500), with the consequential changes in the housing market –type of property, prices, etc.

In this sense, unlike the integral renovation strategies of Marseille, interventions proposed at Badia are based on what we may call urban acupuncture operations in order to open the town to its surroundings and improve public and private spaces, thus making it more attractive for its residents. But still, the compared experience of the two cities has clearly enriched the formulation of proposals.