MITTELMEERLAND ALEXANDRIA – EGYPT LECTURE 04.04.13
MAPPING GAME PLANS: EURO-MEDITERRANEAN URBAN VOIDS ECOLOGY (EMUVE) Dr Cristian Suau Dr Federico Wulff
3D GAME PLAN. Source: Suau, 2009
EMUVE (Euro Mediterranean Urban Voids Ecology) focuses on the existing voids produced by current shrinking cities at EuroMediterranean coastline These cities, developed in the last 50 years as the main tourist destination of Europe, are now transformed in empty landscapes stopped by present economic crisis: A deep wound in the Mediterranean Landscape and in his local population
GAME PLANS
MAPPING STRATEGIES (*)
Mappa (1979) by Alighiero e Boetti . Source: Tate, 2012
REALM 1: NEW VOIDS & URBAN INORMALITY
Giza as an informal void. Source: Suau, 2013
REALM 2: INFRASTRUCTURAL URBANISM
Crossing the Delta Nile. Source: Suau, 2013
REALM 3: ECOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE (HYBRID?)
Brick kilns and farming along the Delta Nile. Source: Suau, 2013
EMUVE PREMISES
EuroMed Crisis Landscapes: Undeveloped Places, Voids . Source: Google Earth, 2013
These voids are not only understood as the spaces that were not developed, but also as the thousands of square meters of real estate speculative developments that remained half�built, converted in future ruins
Future Ruins . Source: Hans Haacke , 2012
Coastal abandonment of tourist development . Source: Hans Haacke , 2012
Demonstrations against coastal housing development in Spain. Source: El Pais, 2012
CASES
Euro-Mediterranean Littoral Case Studies
Murcia Deep Depression Case Study
Decline of the Spanish tourism Industry based on unlimited housing growth Stock of 29,684 unsold homes completed in 2009 39% higher value to the average in Spain Murcia ecological footprint: 2.45 times the regional area in 1995 4.47 times the regional area in 2004 Murcia socio-economic indicators: Unemployment rate of 27% >200,000 unemployed, increasing tendency Young unemployed people rate under 25 is over 50%
EU Actions: SHIFT, PAYS MED URBAN (EU‐MED Program 2007‐2013)
Vertical Informality: Torre David. Source: Urban Think Tank
Urban Spaces Occupation: Campo de la Cebada (Madrid). Source: Wulff
Ecological recovering of urban voids. Source: Suau-Wulff, 2012
Ecological recovering of urban voids.
Ecological recovering of urban voids. Source: Suau-Wulff, 2012
Ecological recovering of urban voids. Source: Wulff, 2012
Ecological recovering of urban voids. Source: Wulff, 2012
THEORY
Constant Nieuwenhuys's "New Babylon“. Source: Vague Terrain, 2013
Constant Nieuwenhuys's "New Babylon“. Source: Vague Terrain, 2013
Participatory game plans. Source: Wul
VOID CONDITION
Mediterranean shrinking urban landscape (Spain). Source: Internet, 2013
American shrinking urban landscape (US). Source: Internet, 2013
Abandoned verticalism. Source: Internet, 2013
REPAIR
The Recovery Interventions should: 1 Promote global and regional perspective on SocioEconomic and Environmental Control of Intervention Strategies 2 Address to the complexity of the problem with a equally complex and multiple range of integrated solutions 3 Maintain the vitality and richness of the Mediterranean public space 4 Make compatible the tourism activity as an indispensable source of wealth for the Mediterranean littoral, with the integrity, social and formal adaptation of these opportunity spaces
Objective 1: Field Work: Comparative and analytic research study on case studies along the Euro-Mediterranean littoral
Types of urban voids:
Industrial ruins Inner vacant lots
Abandoned frames
Diffuse void
Objective 2: Analysis on Good Practices in Landscape recovery interventions on voids for economical and social reactivation purposes
Samples of recovery landscape. Source: Suau 2011
Objective 3: Landscape and Eco-Urbanism analytic and project instruments to understand the different territories and contexts and explore the adequate intervention recovery systems at the Mediterranean Littoral
Objective 4: Development of Proposal Phase
FINALE
EMUVE Search for recycling intervention strategies for these large areas of abandoned voids from a renovated environmental culture, as a tool for local/regional social development and territorial cohesion This can be the first step for the landscape recovery and economic reactivation of the deeply degraded Euro-Mediterranean littoral
Mint tea in Sadat, centre Cairo. Source: Suau, 2013