A year ago, on the occasion of the inauguration of the exhibition Suburbia. The Construction of the American Dream, I wrote in this same space about the benefits of urban density in contrast to the low-density residential model portrayed in the exhibition.
The article highlighted how the metropolitan region of Barcelona is one of the densest urban agglomerations with densities better distributed throughout the territory, although in some places, such as the area around the municipal boundary between L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Barcelona, densities reach the highest in Europe.
The issue of density is once again relevant at this time, because we have on the table one of the most important challenges we have faced as a society in recent decades: ensuring access to housing for thousands of people and, in particular, for people with low income levels. The plans of the Generalitat de Catalunya speak of 50,000 new public homes by 2030, but the estimates of the Sectoral Territorial Housing Plan, prepared by the administration itself, place the deficit at 375,000 homes by 2037.
Regarding demographic projections, those of the Barcelona Metropolitan Urban Master Plan indicate that by 2050 the population of the Barcelona metropolitan region will reach 5,871,725 inhabitants. Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, in its own projections foresees 6,635,094 inhabitants in 2050 in the province of Barcelona. This would probably place the population of the metropolitan region, once the rest of the provincial demarcation is discounted, in the vicinity of 6 million inhabitants, compared to the current 5.4 million.
How will all these homes and inhabitants be distributed throughout the territory? The plans we have do not resolve this question much. There is talk of an Urban Solidarity Objective to guarantee a distribution of affordable housing in all municipalities located in areas of strong and accredited residential demand. The recovery, through other formulas, of part of the Strategic Residential Areas (AREs) established in 2007, many of which remained undeveloped, is also foreseen.
The goals of building thousands of homes in the coming years involve, among other avenues, promoting industrialized construction and innovating in this sectorA new wave of urban expansion in single-family and semi-detached homes should be ruled out from the outset, although reflections are arriving from the United States about the impossibility of avoiding this model if the goal is to build a lot and cheaper. What seems clearer for now, therefore, is that the deployment of new housing must occur as close as possible to existing urban centersor, in any case, through redensification formulas everywhere.
What could these formulas be? We briefly review some experiences already tested or in anticipation here or in other cities around the world.
The most radical option is to build new enclaves that meet these density criteria. This is a solution contemplated, for example, by the British government: 12 new cities with about 10,000 homes each, for which a hundred potential locations have been identified. Beyond the volume of investment required to achieve this, the most controversial part of the plan has to do with sustainability, both in terms of direct impact due to the urbanization of new spaces and the need to provide these new developments with adequate public transport, understanding that, at least in an initial phase, it will be difficult to generate enough services and jobs for the people who live in them.
It does not seem at this time a very transferable option to our case, taking into account the usual resistance to significantly expanding urban areas without guaranteeing services (one of the reasons for the failure of the AREs) and those that would exist to develop in still unurbanized places. Surely, the operation underway in our metropolis that most closely approximates this idea, due to its dimensions, is the transformation of La Sagrera, in Barcelona, around the new high-speed station, with more than 3,000 new homes.
A smaller-scale alternative could be found in the transformation of already urbanized but abandoned spaces, usually associated with other uses, so that their reclassification must be carried out. These are mainly spaces occupied by old industries, or even entire obsolete industrial estates, shopping centers in the process of closing, etc.
There are currently projects along these lines in several municipalities of the five-million-strong city, such as the conversion of the AEG sector in Terrassa into 800 homes, a student residence, the headquarters of the Institut del Teatre, and facilities for the elderly by 2028, or the proposal by the Gremi de Fabricants de Sabadell to transform the Polígono Industrial Suroeste, known as the Zona Hermética, following a model similar to Barcelona's 22@, which also recently underwent a revision to incorporate more housing. As for actions in abandoned shopping centers in urban peripheries, we find them mainly, for now, in the United States, as is the case in the city of Rochester, New York, with the replacement of spaces formerly occupied by the Irandequoit Mall with apartment blocks for seniors.
A similar fate can be given to office buildings. Thus, the Sant Feliu de Llobregat City Council, with the support of the Metropolitan Land Promotion Institute, plans the mutation of an office block into 34 public rental homes, intended to address the municipal housing emergency.
The catalog of transformations of existing buildings does not end here, some not without some controversy. This would be the case, for example, of the division of large apartments into smaller units (called segregation), which is currently practiced more as a formula to generate tourist apartments than for new residents. There has also been recent talk of the possibility of allowing extensions on buildings, even with prefabricated penthouses, as well as importing the example from the United States of promoting greater buildability in urbanizations, so that single-family homes can be converted into multi-family homes with an upper floor or an annexed space. The Sant Cugat del Vallès City Council is one of those exploring such options.
What seems clearer for now is that the deployment of new housing must occur as close as possible to existing urban centers or through redensification formulas everywhereWithin this chapter of transformationsalternatives remain, such as ground-floor housing, although it is usually considered thattake lifeto the streets, by not generating the same effect as a commercial establishment. Precisely, another open debate is that of the recovery of back rooms, that is, the possibility of combining a commercial activity facing the street with the dwelling of whoever runs it in the back, as had been so characteristic in past times.
I leave for the end the most common and probably most immediate solution, although perhaps not the most massive, which is to build on vacant lots in the urban fabric. Here the existing brakes usually have to do with irregular legal situations, lack of will of the property, unfulfilled expectations or the cost of converting plots into building lots (that is, land suitable for building), but it is increasingly necessary to resolve these situations in terms of housing given the current emergency situation.
Once the corresponding obstacles have been overcome, and without intending to adopt a policy that facilitates the proliferation of skyscrapers in our cities (as New York is doing, already known for this type of building), we must look for alternatives that offer higher densities without breaking the balance of services and the urban quality of the corresponding areas.
In addition, we must find formulas that allow us to build faster, cheaper and more sustainably. If today building a standard home is considered to have a cost of about 160,000 euros, not counting the value of the plot, which is not negligible in a large part of the metropolitan territory, the objectives of building thousands of homes in the coming years involve, among other ways, promoting industrialized construction and innovating in this sector. Experiences such as those of residential buildings built with maritime containers have already been developed not only in Barcelona, but in other municipalities such as Caldes de Montbui.
It also involves making procedures and obtaining permits much more agile, especially if construction processes deviate from the most conventional, although that is a matter for another occasion. In short, a whole range of options that call for transforming the way housing construction has been conceived and that must be combined with many other measures for the more efficient management of both the resulting and existing stock, in line with what we propose from the Adequate Housing mission of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030.