The dwellings were developed as cheap as possible; therefore, the design of the dwelling was seen as an unimportant issue. The dwellings are very small; between 30 and 60 square meters, and were housed by families with 5 or 6 members, making family life hard as nobody had privacy Nowadays these dwellings are difficult to adapt to modern standards. Especially for the increasing elderly population accessibility problems occur, due to the lack of elevators.

Especially in Trinitat Nova, where dwellings are very small, public spaces for social contacts are important. The low quality of the public spaces influenced the social contacts in Trinitat Nova negatively. Poor design, bad technical quality and small surface make the dwellings unpopular in Barcelona’s housing market. However, improvements of the neighbourhood have a positive effect on the housing market and the small inexpensive dwellings are attractive for small families and people living alone.

Trinitat Nova is a working class neighbourhood built in the 1950s to house rural immigrants. Trinitat Nova has around 3,200 dwellings. Numerous dwellings in Trinitat Nova are in a bad technical state and show deterioration as poor materials were used for their construction. Just after the completion of the dwellings the first technical problems were experienced; dwellings suffered leakage and problems with the supply of water. Many dwellings suffer from ´concrete disease´ and will be demolished (around 800 dwellings). To substitute these dwellings Incasol (the construction company of the Generalitat) will construct around 1.000 (officially protected dwellings) dwellings. Besides, part of the stock is or will be improved by rehabilitation.

Trinitat Nova suffered from physically isolation as it was poorly accessible by car and public transport did not arrive in Trinitat Nova. With the majority of the population working far from Trinitat Nova, many experienced problems to arrive to their work.

The urban design of Trinitat Nova is very chaotic as no urban plan formed the base for its development. Buildings were placed by change, not taking into account the relation with existing buildings, future roads nor the need of public spaces. At the moment public space lacks structure and shows deterioration. Especially public spaces between blocks show a high level of deterioration.

In the nineties accessibility improved thanks to the construction of the motorways Ronda de Dalt and la Meridiana and the metro-connection Trinitat Nova (since 1999). At the moment Trinitat Nova is relatively well connected with Barcelona and accessibility by public transport will be improved as the neighbourhood will be connected with more metro lines in the near future.

Please answer the following questions:

Covered area: 

The area was selected for intervention cause of Physical problems (“concrete disease”).

Demolish affected buildings and rebuilding new ones.

Physical and urban planning measures which contributed to the enhancement of the living standards in the deprived area:

Rebuilding of dwellings.
Improving public spaces (micro urbanism): parks and spaces between dwellings. Residents were involved in some workshops to improve skills for working in the area. 

A Community Plan was established simultaneously to the urban regeneration of the area. The leading actors in a Community Development Plan are preferable to be the residents associations, public services (health and education) and the local politicians. The co-operation between community and local politicians works throughout CP.
In general the management of a Community Development Plan is done by a partnership, existing of representatives of associations and institutions in the neighbourhood. This partnership can be seen as a tool for management and facilitating the involvement of different associations in the management of the regeneration process. The comities and commissions are fundamental structures inside the Community Plans and important instruments for the community to reach agreements with the administrators.

Private investors are not involved.

The establishment of a Community Development Plan favoured the direct participation of inhabitants. This participation resulted in more political attention for the neighbourhood and the start of the regeneration project. Immigrants are not a large collective at the moment.

The physical strategies are the catalyst to improve the area and favour participation of residents and other associations.

Identification of inhabitants with the output of the physical regeneration through constant participation by means of the Community Plans.

Participation (relative) in the design and orientation of new dwellings.

Workshops for people to learn skillsto work in the neighbourhood (for instance, gardening).

Working together residents and representatives of public authorities.

Trinitat Nova has become an attractive location of the city (well connected and with some available dwellings) and internationally well-known as a model for taking into account residents’ preferences and partnership

Factors  wich contributed to the success of the project:

Residents involved in micro urbanism activities.

Financial resources (public and private)

Time-consuming activities with residents

Community Development Plan team
Ricard Fernández Ontiveros (General Secretary of Housing. Government of Catalonia)

//1998

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Citizens' participation