Residential recycling: re-inhabiting the past

Abstract

The development model of cities, traditionally based on its infrastructure expansion, begins to respond to new approaches from increased awareness of limited resources. In Spain, one of the most vulnerable urban models is social housing estates built during the period between the forties and early seventies of last century, which are affected by factors like aging or abandonment. The obsolescence degree of these areas, have led to intervene with different strategies, determined by the state of the building and the urban structure, and the characteristics of their population. The joint assessment of these parameters leads to renewal or conservative actions, producing a very different effect on urban morphology and recondition level. Throughout the article, we will make a tour through distinct interventions that will help us to contextualize and understand the national scene, in terms of social housing regeneration.