Sorry, this is not

a* portfolio.*regular

WelcomeI am a reader, writer, painter, fact-checker, analyst, interviewer, communicator, legal advisor, jurist. I can be an urban strategist, social researcher, investigator, legal expert.

I am not an architect, but I understand architects, architecture and planning. Nor am I a designer, but I have a visually trained eye and I am fast mastering new softwares.

This is not a regular portfolio because I am none of those things above. Which does not mean I have not done (visually) interesting things.

Here’s an overview of some.

Nuria Ribas Costa

In the middle of Oslo’s maritime front, an old industrial area, Vippetangen, connects Pipervika and Bjørvika, becoming a crucial, unavoidable and exciting epicenter of the projected Oslo Promenade.

One of the most emblematic buildings within the area is the old grain silo, a majestic, enormous, almost disturbing construction. Núria Tarrés Rosselló, from ETSAB School of Architecture in Barcelona, is proposing its rehabilitation as her final thesis. I helped her with the urban planning side of the project, along with Oslo Kommune’s support.

The goal is to transform the silo into a cultural center. This transformation, inevitably, has to be aware of the contextual situation of the area: the most pushing challenges are the legal pulse between the Harbour Authorities and the Planning Agency, which ultimately affects the potential uses, the traffic fluxes and the current lack of public facilities.

We studied the character of the land and the possibilities of the surrounding buildings, bearing in mind the existence of cultural heritage protection rules on most of them. And we came up with the conclusion that the result shouldn’t be a cultural container disconnected from the area, but rather an attractive space, avoiding static functions, exciting and public enough so as to subvert the present target of people that visit the area (workers or ferry-takers).

We want children, grandparents, youth and middle-aged involved not only inside the building but also around it. And we want to attract them making the connections of Vippetangen with the City Hall and the Opera absolutely unmissable.

“Cities evolve and yesterday’s suburbs become the centres of today. These areas need to develop while preserving their identity.”

Núria Tarrés

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Where are we?

The last Factsheet on population, living and housing conditions in Stovner district, issued by Oslo Kommune in March 2017, highlights the problems below, along with overpopulation. Prior to the development of the project, thus, a deep transversal context study is required. Investigation and data gathering along with Public Administration, education institutions and neighborhood associations or networks will try to provide the full picture and define the goals more specifically. For example, the lack of access to educational help as a reason for dropping school could be addressed by providing an academic-help centre.

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Why are we here?

Within C40 cities, the goal is to build resilient, sustainable and innovative. Eastern Oslo deals with immigration, poverty and youth criminality, among others. The physical translation of these is a dry, solitary, formerly industrial area. Understanding the landscape enables to think critically what will and will not work. For example, a fancy, full-glass-window looking community centre may not work unless it comes along with a full reformulation of the whole area. Therefore, reverse thinking is needed: if the future zoning plan includes a swimming pool, offices, residential and healthcare facilities and public space; the question is: what can the project add to all this?

How are we going to do it?

Locals need to be involved. No d iscuss ion : a commun i t y -disconnected project will fail. Thus, it is crucial that the youth is challenged and their values highlighted, always from a socio-culturally sensitive point of view. Some examples of target-engaging activities and truly inclusive implementation would be regulating minorities/majorities at play, starting workshops, assembl ies or excurs ions, eradicating power roles and promoting self-managed routines.

Oslo International Hub x C40 Cities: Stovner Youth Community Centre in Reinventing the Village

Stovner district, in North-Eastern Oslo, is characterized, among others, by low education rates, unemployment and poverty. While Oslo Kommune tunes the details of the new zoning plan of the area, Oslo International Hub, along with Norske Helsehus, White Arkitekter, Cla Sweden, IOTA Foundation, More Anergy, COWI, and Worksonland Arkitektur go Landscape, submits a project within C40 Reinventing Cities competition to develop a 10.000 sqm plot of land in Fossumdumpa: Reinventing the Village. Its aim is to rehabilitate the whole area, turning its former industrial character into a livable neighborhood.

Within it, my aim at OIH is involving the youth at risk throughout the urbanization process by building an inter-generational community centre. Equipped with cultural, educational, sleeping and recreational facilities, as well as a cafe, Stovner Community Centre will target the biggest challenges faced by youths and will promote sensitive planning to accomplish the most adequate

What is this?

Making a city from its grassroots. When aware of the context (geographical, political, socio-cul tura l and physical ) , the planning process reveals itself as a powerful tool to change things.

‘NUCLIS RURALS’

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Is the Catalan wording to refer to one of the most pushing planning challenges in the Balearic Islands: urban settlements of mostly residential housing on rural land.

The first time the concept appeared in Balearic law was in 1997, with the Law of Rural Land 6/1997. Long before that, however, the proliferation of these settlements was already a reality.

Their or igins are diverse - sometimes construction works were carried out with all permissions in rule; other times the legal requirements were navigated more or less unlawfully.

The result, whatever the case, is the same among all four islands: a uniform depredation of their rural land, originally meant to preserve nature and territory free of construction.

Despite the undeniable historical link of nuclis rurals with tradition and country life; the collapse of the real estate market, the financial crisis and a seemingly unstoppable mass tourism have cont r ibu ted to the per vers ion o f the phenomenon.

The objective of my research is a critical analysis of these situations after the publication of the last Urbanism Law of the Balearic Islands.

After tracing back to the contextual and legal history of nuclis rurals, I seek to dissect the new regulation of the Urbanism Law 12/2017 of December 29th. I target and evaluate its weak spots, presenting the consequences of the legal gaps in a practical way.

By using expert literature and case-study based investigation, I seek to raise awareness about the underlying problematics of such a regulation that, in practice, freezes most of the existing nuclis rurals, impeding any potential zoning plan in the cases that do not follow the very restricted options of article 26 of the Law.

Ibiza is especially affected by this regulation. My goal is to suggest enforceable ways of navigating the legal gaps so that municipalities can address the problematics that nuclis rurals generate in their respective land while preserving the original values of rural areas.

Opposite page: Vision of Sant Vicent nucli rural, one of the study cases in Ibiza.

I studied laws, developed proposals, corrected the normative text of the Normas Subsidiarias, wrote reports on implementation of judicial modifications of planning. Overall, I studied the urbanization process and how it evolves in a whole municipality.

MASTERPLANNING

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Santa Eulalia City Council managed to approve, in 2011, the newest masterplan of the island.

When the rest of the municipalities struggled to pass modifications to plans from the 80s, the City Council of the Eastern part of Ibiza used a special instrument Normas Subsidiarias (subsidiary norms, in Catalan) to adapt its planning to the new age.

Seven years later, the landscape and society have changed. Planning in the Balearic islands is a permanent struggle between two big forces: the preservation of the land and the financially profitable activities. Tradition versus growth, said in a poetic way.

The relationship of Ibicenco people with the land has been so overrode that current masterplanning has somehow drifted towards preservation, although growth keeps playing a very relevant role.

In this context, the very important normative infrastructure of Balearic urbanism has evolved and increased requirements, created new protection tools via laws or administrative decisions and most of the times bureaucratized planning processes aiming at securing them against abuses.

My job at Santa Eulalia City Council (some of it) was to monitor all of those normative and administrative modifications that could potentially affect or require changes in the municipality’s planning instruments.

Santa Eulalia, Insular Territorial Plan (PTI) of Ibiza as seen via IDEIB visor

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