EMUVE research summary

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