Más Que Espacios San Cristóbal (+QE San Cristóbal) - More Than Spaces San Cristóbal
Más Que Espacios San Cristóbal (+QESC) is a project developed by Madrid Borde Sur in the San Cristóbal neighbourhood in Madrid and funded by the Rey Juan Carlos University. The +QE project, developed between 2021 and 2022, focused on three main lines of work: recovering citizen participation after Covid19, improving the perception of the San Cristóbal neighbourhood (the most vulnerable in the city of Madrid) and executing pilot tactical urbanism actions including the two previous points.
Local
Spain
Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Junta Municipal de Distrito Villaverde.
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-06-01
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Madrid Borde Sur Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Laura Inés Last name of representative: Braojos Bueno Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Function: Project coordinator Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: C/Arboleda 8, 4C Town: Getafe Postal code: 28901 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 638 15 46 59 E-mail:hola@madridbordesur.com Website:https://www.madridbordesur.com/category/proyecto-san-cristobal-urjc/
Our cities need to become more equitable, livable, and resilient to be prepared for the new challenges. That starts with small-scale changes, neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street. This is the commitment that Madrid Borde Sur has acquired with his project “Más que Espacios San Cristóbal”* (+QESC), a project located in the most vulnerable neighborhood of Madrid, the capital of Spain.
Developed between 2021 and 2022, it focused on three main lines of work: recovering citizen participation after Covid19 (inclusion), improving the general perception of the San Cristóbal neighborhood (aesthetics), and executing pilot tactical urban planning actions that would serve not only to improve the quality of life and urban image of the neighborhood but also to adapt to climate change (sustainability)
The project includes several actions from citizen participation (to detect and study the existing problem) to the implementation of prototypes (to activate these degraded places in the neighborhood).
The +QESC project was funded by the Rey Juan Carlos University within the Development, Global Citizenship and Human Rights projects. The initial funding for the project was 7,000 euros for 12 months, financed entirely by the University. Today, the germ and the approach to improving the neighbourhood continues to be active in the hands of the social and institutional agents of the neighbourhood thanks to the emergence of new projects and financial agents who have expressed their interest in the initiative.
social cohesion
urban regeneration
public spaces
diversity
participation
The key objectives of the concept in terms of environmental sustainability are:
-Creating multifaceted environments for living, including creative responses to climate, ecology and resilience.
The different actions aim to transform vacant interblock spaces improving the social and urban environment while applying strategies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. For example, the Garden in Motion Action transformed an interblock space by planting a sustainable urban garden with native Mediterranean species This action has managed to improve soil infiltration and air quality in a city where levels of air pollution are very high.
-Reconnecting people with the places that they inhabit and the environmental system that surrounds them.
Actions like the Garden in Motion return nature to urban spaces and raise awareness about the importance of conservation of the biological diversity that surrounds us. Valuing our environment makes its protection and care possible.
-Giving value to the recycling of everyday objects that serve to improve the experience of our public space.
In each intervention, we try to recycle used materials: from fruit boxes donated by neighborhood merchants to used pallets in the nearby industry. we need to embed in the collective ideology that old and useless things can be reused to beautify our cities and homes.
The key objectives of the project, linked to the above concepts, are as follows:
- Ability to enrich the daily life of people through extraordinary beauties actions that take place in front of their doors.
Through different walks through the neighborhood with neighbors and associations, we were able to discuss and identify their needs. The residents quantitatively evaluated the proposed spaces and identified what they feared or could not enjoy in these urban spaces.
With simple actions such as the sanris-visors or the intervention made by the intercamp youths, we managed to draw the attention of the citizens to the aesthetic possibilities of these spaces that they see continuously from their windows.
- Capacity to transform degraded places into quality public space that contributes to dignity, a sense of belonging and wellbeing.
Through different actions and with the participation of different social groups (children, the elderly, etc.) we have managed to give dignity to some of these degraded spaces.
We have selected the interblocks with the greatest potential to improve the cohesion and perception of the neighborhood. These spaces were identified and scored by the residents during the walks. Subsequently, we organized workshops to collect urban proposals that would improve these spaces, identifying the elements that could be key to their activation (seats, plants, lighting, etc.). Finally, 4 pilot actions were carried out: Intercamps, Sancris-visors, Bit-box platforms and The garden in Motion. There is currently another urban art performance pending by the international artist SpY Urban Art whose installation will take place in the coming months.
The key objectives of the concept in terms of inclusion are:
-Improving the urban and social cohesion of the neighborhood:
After Covid19, participation, trust, and social cohesion in some neighborhoods were particularly affected. In San Cristóbal, one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods in Madrid, this situation was especially vulnerable considering the conditions of housing and public space. The project aimed to resume social participation and integrate different profiles and perspectives to identify the potential for improvement of the neighborhood and its public spaces, trying to excite the citizens and strengthen their sense of belonging.
-Foster holistic thinking, collaboration, and building shared visions that are rooted in place.
Various neighborhood associations have been involved in the project, linked to immigrants, elderly, and young people groups, as well as workgroups and municipal technicians. More than 40 meetings were held with social entities, neighborhood technicians, and neighborhood representatives to learn about and identify the different points of view and needs. The objective was to integrate the greatest number of different profiles, allowing different visions to be contributed to the project.
A representative selection of these social entities:
Casa San Cristóbal: a social center linked to activities and services for migrant families, managed and in collaboration with Fundación Montemadrid - Caixabank
CINESIA San Cristóbal is a social center self-managed by residents and neighborhood associations, with activities mainly for young people.
We collaborate with groups that work with adolescents and children like "Junior San Cristóbal" and "Intercamps", the summer camps that are held in the neighborhood with the children who cannot leave Madrid for economic reasons, carrying out a pilot action to improve the urban space with paintings and ephemeral elements.
The main objective of the project is the identification and approaches to improve the degraded interblock spaces of the neighborhood, something that affects all the citizens of the area.
Citizens are the most relevant source of knowledge and their experiences and feelings must be taken into account in every action. In addition, it is essential to inspire and motivate residents to share their creative ideas for the community.
The +QESC project has analyzed, understood, and proposed improvements in these spaces between blocks, emphasizing and making visible the administrative difficulty of their neighbors to act in these spaces due to a property problem. This situation has led to their progressive urban degradation and the neglect of public spaces in a large part of the neighborhood.
The actions that have been carried out so far are as follows:
-42 meetings -3 neighborhood walks -3 proposal workshops -4 pilot actions -1 urban art action in progress -1 closing event and work lines
All this with significant dissemination on social networks (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook), but also through billboards, always used and placed at strategic points in the neighborhood: access to the school, health center, nursing homes, train station, or neighborhood associations, among others.
The impact of all these actions and participation in the project has been doubled:
Quantitative
PARTICIPATION: participation of more than 30 children from different cultures in a pilot action with Intercamps, more than 50 people attending the closing event of the project, and more than 250 neighbors participating in the different actions.
IDENTIFICATION: 8 interblock spaces in the neighborhood have been quantitatively evaluated.
Qualitative:
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES and solutions from the different points of view and participant profiles (children, adults, the elderly, gender perspectives) for the generation of solutions and strategies to improve the interblock spaces.
From the original approach of the proposal, an attempt was made to have a variety of partners that would allow the implementation of comprehensive solutions and actions:
Madrid Borde Sur: main partner and executor of actions. Collective and Academic Research Group specialized in the urban field with 9 architecture and urban planning professionals
Nave Boetticher Platform: project partner in the area of neighborhood participation and perspective, with several years of experience in the South zone and the implementation of projects with Fundación Montemadrid.
Fundación Montemadrid: non-profit foundation belonging to Caixabank that finances social actions such as Casa San Cristóbal.
Neighborhood Association La Unidad de San Cristóbal: historic neighborhood association with more than 30 years of history.
Throughout the project, other entities were incorporated, such as:
Villaverde District Municipal Board: collaboration and participation in neighborhood technical roundtables with technicians and municipal officials.
CINESIA San Cristóbal: community space managed by the Neighborhood Association La Unidad de San Cristóbal together with neighborhood groups and entities.
Education, Culture, and Solidarity (ECyS): association focused on care and response to migrant families in the neighborhood.
Raíces del Ecuador Association: association of people of Ecuadorian origin who live in San Cristóbal.
SpY Urban Art: an international artist specializing in urban art projects and proposals.
Meetings with political parties and neighborhood representatives.
The inclusion of these entities through the tours, workshops, and activities of the project has made it possible to include their demands and needs identified throughout the process of identification and ideation of proposals. In addition, because of the execution and implementation of the actions, the collaboration between entities has been essential to ensure the influx of the public and their dissemination.
Throughout the development of the project, 3 main disciplines have been involved:
SOCIAL DISCIPLINE
On the one hand, participation and social action, relying on local groups and organizations that have been working in the area for decades. The implementation of the project after covid 19 allowed this implementation to partly reactivate the associative fabric of the neighborhood, rethinking its public space.
TECHNICAL DISCIPLINE
The analysis and neighborhood participation were complemented with the technical and methodological perspective of the Madrid Borde Sur research group, thus allowing the integration of qualitative comments and quantitative analyses of the mixed methodology. This allows us to obtain more accurate results regarding the neighborhood perception of the spaces and the analysis by architecture and urban planning professionals.
LANDSCAPE AND ARTISTIC DISCIPLINE
The perspective of people and organizations with expertise in the urban landscape, vegetation, art, and ephemeral architecture has made it possible to combine the two previous perspectives in actions and the development of specific proposals on the ground, giving rise to spaces that improve the quality of life of the neighborhood's residents.
The three disciplines have been intertwined throughout the project, giving rise to different types of solutions in collaboration with leading companies and entities in the urban planning and city sector such as Escofet, Nave Boetticher, and the Montemadrid Foundation, among others.
Summary of project figures:
42 project meetings with entities and associations (until Dec 2021)
3 neighborhood tours of the neighborhood (total attendance of about 30 people)
3 face-to-face workshops (2 Cinesia + 1 Casa San Cristóbal) (total attendance of about 25 people)
3 Pilot actions in public space: Intercampas (July 2021), Signage (Artifacts), and improvement of access to a school with Escofet (complimentary at the end of 2021-early 2022). Also Urban Art Proposal Spy Urban Art.
+20 PDF deliverable documents (minutes, plans, compilation documents)
1 Closing event with 6 speakers with neighborhood representation, professionals, institutions, and collaborators (total audience of 53 people)
5 permanent members of the team +QESC + 2 collaborating members
4 Project promoter entities (URJC, MBS, PNB, FMontemadrid)
10 direct collaborating entities of the project (AV. La Unidad de San Cristóbal, Cinesia, Educación-cultura y Solidaridad, Mercado de San Cristóbal, Municipal District Board, Sustainable Urban Development Area, Ciudad Huerto, Junior, QuedaT and Raíces del Ecuador)
+40,000 direct impacts of the project on social networks (Ig, Fb, and Tw) (until Nov 2021)
+10 Articles in the press and digital dissemination of the project (until Dec 2021)
Project investment: €7,000
The development and execution of the project were not easy, neither because of the limitations of Covid, nor because of the social casuistry of the neighborhood, with more than 70 nationalities and socio-demographic profiles with employment and structural integration problems; but, without a doubt, we can be satisfied with the result of the enormous effort made by all the people who have participated in this project (4 entities and a total of 6 people regularly, with a participation of 250 residents of the neighborhood in all the phases, actions and events and an impact of 40,000 views on social networks).
The main point of the innovative nature of the project is the ability to bring together different entities from the social, business, and private spheres without losing the focus on participation and the sum with the work previously carried out from the social fabric, integrating the methodology of the new project in the pre-existing demands.
These networks are capable of generating the necessary synergies for the development and implementation of urban proposals in vulnerable neighborhoods that have been proposed after an in-depth participatory analysis involving associations, neighbors, social entities, technicians, the public sector, and private entities.
Building cities that function in terms of inclusiveness and sustainability requires intense coordination and participation of the different actors. This task is not always feasible and, when it is, it involves an effort that is difficult to tackle by a single group, which is why it is essential to have the support and collaboration of entities rooted in the social fabric. That is why it is important to carry out projects such as +QESC that are capable of bringing together all the agents involved to demonstrate that there is another way of making a city in which technicians, administrations, neighbors, and social entities collaborate through an agile, flexible methodology and, above all, one that makes it possible to generate results that encourage and favor participation.
The proposed methodology consists of four phases:
PHASE 0: TECHNICAL FRAMEWORK
at this stage, the objectives of the project are defined. For this purpose, an initial collection of information is carried out through indicators and mapping. contact is made with the actors involved. In this first stage, the first contact is made with the actors involved on the site. Some of the actions that take place in this phase include contact with the association fabric or technical research,
PHASE 1: PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT
In the first phase, the indicators and technical mapping accomplish are contrasted with the experience of the citizens. For this purpose, a reconnaissance of the place is carried out through neighborhood walks in which different agents and residents of the neighborhood are invited to participate. Then, with all this collected information, we started to think about different possibilities to improve the perception and use of the analyzed spaces. Some of the actions that take place in this phase include neighborhood walks and workshops.
PHASE 2: IMPLEMENTATION
Once the potential of the proposals has been studied, their feasibility is studied and their implementation begins. To this end, specialized teams are organized with technical staff and neighbors.
PHASE 3: RESULTS EVALUATION
Finally, a presentation of the project is made and the results are presented to receive feedback. A summary document on the process is also produced for dissemination and follow-up actions are established.
The participatory component is always taken into consideration during the entire process.
The work methodology and the transferability of the proposal to other areas of Madrid, as well as to other municipalities, is included from the beginning, responding to a modular and adaptable approach of the methodology phases, always linked to the pre-existing social fabric.
In the case of the continuity of the project in San Cristóbal, on the one hand, an initial phase of contact and generation of the fabric was developed with the entities of the neighborhoods in which action was to be taken, and on the other, joining the social processes and demands that already existed before the start of the project. This is the only way to ensure active participation and identification of the project as their own, giving continuity to the project and its assimilation by the social entities after the end of the implementation process with funding from the University.
In this sense, the steps of contact with entities/participation/identification/proposal/implementation allow this same process to be adapted according to the needs of any other area, adapting it to the reality of each neighborhood or urban environment. The very name of the Más Que Espacios +QE project suggests that it can be replicated in other places, starting with San Cristóbal, but with the aim of replicability and the addition of other agents in the southern area of Madrid.
Through this type of neighborhood-scale project, Madrid Borde Sur seeks to respond to a greater metropolitan fit, based on social inclusion, city cohesion, the development of sustainability and redistribution strategies, and the improvement of the living conditions of those who live in the most vulnerable areas of the South of Madrid.
All these objectives are framed within the framework of the 2030 Agenda, the Spanish Urban Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals, following criteria of equity, sustainability, and participation, especially in Goal 11 of the SDGs.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
The approach is based on the most unequal neighborhood in the municipality of Madrid, making it possible to respond to the social need to implement measures that prioritize the reduction of inequality through participation and neighborhood identity, fostering actions of cohesion, beautification, and respect for common environments that in turn allow the promotion of social movements and neighborhood networks to support vulnerable groups against inequality.
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
Goal 11 is undoubtedly the leitmotiv of the project, intrinsically linked to goals 3 and 10. The aim is to develop urban actions of urban planning and social cohesion that allow the promotion of more inclusive neighborhoods involving the whole community and the greatest possible number of profiles within the participatory phases, safe, taking into account gender perspectives, biases, and possible spaces that respond to the needs of the youngest and oldest, as well as resilient and sustainable, taking into account the need for flexible solutions that adapt to social needs and their translation into urban designs and proposals derived from the characteristics of the neighborhood, meteorology, and reduction of the heat island in places where it is considered of interest (such as squares or schools).
