Madrid reinvents itself by transforming four disused spaces into models of sustainability and urban resilience

More than 200 participants have attended  Meet-Up Madrid, an event of the global competition Reinventing Cities to bring together companies from different sectors to promote the creation of multidisciplinary teams to develop urban projects that regenerate four spaces in Madrid.

Initiated by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and made possible thanks to the support of EIT Climate KIC and ofo, Reinventing Cities is an unprecedented global competition to drive carbon neutral and resilient urban regeneration. Reinventing Cities is a great opportunity for cities, urban development stakeholders, and citizens to benefit from this ‘open source’ and international contest designed to accelerate decarbonised, resilient and sustainable urban environments around the world.

Madrid participates in the content with four locations, identified in the Urban Regeneration Strategy Action Plan od the city: an unbuilt plot located at Vicálvaro District, in southeast edge of the City, one building and an unbuilt parcel located in Polytechnic University of Madrid (Vallecas Campus), the building of the municipal market at the centre of Orcasur, in Usera District, and an unbuilt plot in the Villaverde Industrial Estate, in the south of the City.

In the meeting the participants had the possibility to visit, transported by electric buses of the Municipal Transport Company of Madrid, these locations and to know the selected spaces in order to solve doubts with the technicians of the City Council and C40.

The meeting was opened in Madrid by José Manuel Calvo, councillor for Sustainable Urban Development of the Madrid City Council, who was accompanied by Jean-Louis Missika, Councillor for Urban Development of the City Council of Paris, Demetrio Scopelli, Chief Staff for the Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning of Milán, Anders Rǿberg-Larsen, Secretary Vice Mayor of Oslo and José Luis Muñoz, director general of EIT Climate-KIC Spain.

With the participation of Madrid in the international content Reinventing Cities it opens a new form of urban planning, which is sustainable and innovative because it crosses the boundaries of architecture and proposes an unprecedented model of public-private collaboration,” said Calvo in his intervention, who explained that through this call “we invite artists, investors, environmentalists, neighbourhood groups, architects and innovators to form multidisciplinary groups and recover spaces in disuse of the Madrid periphery, carrying out demonstrative projects of responsible use of the territory, based on environmental sustainability.”

For José Luis Muñoz, general director of EIT Climate-KIC Spain, which supports this initiative, this type of public-private collaboration allows the transformation of talent into innovative products and services at the disposal of citizens and, at the same time, to tackle climate change with new economic opportunities and new employment opportunities.

Helen Chartier, Senior Advisor Reinventing Cities C40 had participated in the event in order to resolve doubts about the competition. Chartier had explain that “19 cities from all over the world, such as Paris, Milan, Oslo, Chicago, Vancouver or Madrid, are participating in the competition. They are leading the sustainable commitment and will be an international reference for the achievement of environmental sustainability in cities.

In order to facilitate the formation of consortiums and multidisciplinary teams, the participants have been divided into working groups for each of the four Reinventing Cities spaces in Madrid. The attendees, led by Climate-KIC coaches, had the opportunity to meet other companies interested in the same spaces and identify ideas together. Representatives of construction companies, financial institutions, architecture studios, landscape designers, urban designers, managers of innovative activities, political parties, universities, entrepreneurs, start-ups are some of the profiles that have taken part in this meeting.

Reinventing Cities

The initiative is inspired by the successful Reinventing Paris scheme, launched by Mayor of Paris and C40 Chair Anne Hidalgo in 2015. Today 22 public spaces, covering 250,000 square metres are being transformed across the French capital.

“Think local, act global, is the 21st century state of mind. By launching this global competition, we make this philosophy very concrete celebrating the most vibrant innovative solutions to environmental challenges,” said Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40. “Reinventing Cities will set new standards of sustainability in cities and who better than our citizens to imagine the future of their cities? I am convinced that the winning projects will surprise us all and present innovations we are unable to imagine today’.

The competition will serve as a model for cities around the world, demonstrating how the alliance between cities and business can shape the future delivering healthier, greener and economically viable urban development.

The competition’s criteria will favour bids from creative teams that deliver innovative climate solutions in combination with striking architecture and tangible benefits for the local community.