We have read this week that other parts of Europe are also working on the water ways and how these can help better the lives of citizens and the cities which they articulate.

This time in Gothenburg, the most important city on the Swedish coast. Gothenburg shares with Sevilla very different aspects like being the administrative and political capital of the region, being located in the estuary of a river or having and industrial past with a strong presence in the naval sector. It is also very probable that the Vikings who visited us in the year 844 came from these nordic coasts.

Now, like here, there they are also looking for a strategy to orient the development of their city. Students from the Arcuitecture School of Chalmers in a course given by the Ana Betancourt, are working on a workshop where they learn about the river Göta with a common starting point: they deal with how to handle the threat of flooding due to climate change, the economic crisis which affected the industry, the lack of housing and social segregation (article from the Goteborg Posten translated)and also discover how these studies can turn into the new professional niches for future arquitects.

Definitively, it seems that certain problems do not have frontiers.

Last Monday in the Mexico Pavillion the Day of the Use of Tablada was held.

We have gathered a compilation of the news that was published regarding the event.

 2010-03-16 El Correo de Andalucía. Manual para blindar Tablada

2010-03-16 El Mundo. Fustegueras: “El debate sobre el uso público de Tablada está zanjado. No lo dudemos más”.

The next 15th of march, in the Mexico Pavilion, Citythinking will participate in the Conference over the Uses of Tablada: Perspectives and Opportunities.

This conference is organized by the Institue of Regional Development (IDR), University Foundation, during which 4 round tables with take place:
1st table: Academic perspective of the use of Tablada.
2nd table: Institutions and social organizations before the use of Tablada.
3rd table: The use of Tablada from the focus of the Organization of Territory.
4th table: Global expectations over the future use of Tablada.
Sergio Rodríguez, from Citythinking, is participating participará on the 2nd round table, from 11:00h to 13:00h

The entry will be free until the the spots are filled.
See the leaflet
More information at http://www.idr.es/

Like in 1996, again the rains have provoked the overflowing of the rivers in Andalusia. And it will keep on happening periodically.

The risk of flooding is not new in many areas of our community, and especially the river Guadalquivir and its principal tributaries, that are running wide these days, driving hundreds of hectometres of rainwater to its estuary in Sanlúcar.

What is more and more frequent is that these floods affect areas occupied by homes, it does not mean that these are residential areas.

Decades ago, the Rivers in the floods occupied the urban areas or the old sections of the cities. The defences built and other measures of protection avoid this nowadays…

…but now when they grow, the waters are limited to occupying the protection areas…¡of the rivers!… that this time have been occupied by construction.

In view of the possibility of the flooding of the valley of the Guadalquivir in the next few decades due to climate change (in the image we assume 6 rises of 50 cm) it is easy to imagine that each time we will have to face these floods.

The proposal to let parts of Tablada flood would help to mitigate the effects of floods in the most nearby areas. And the intervention such as those that are presently take place in the Charco de la Pava, on the contrary, would increase the above mentioned effects.

Today it is also news that the administration has decided to collaborate by contributing funds to help the families to endure the economic damages suffered, by all those affected, including those that occupy these dangerous areas illegally. In these times of emergency, the most important is to solve the personal drama of those who have lost their possessions due to the flooding of the rivers.  But it would not be too much to think of how to destine this investment of public funds to something more than just helping each family replace what the floods took away. We should be thinking of how to avoid repeating having to hand out these funds every now and then.

In the frame of climate change of the periods, they will also be shorter, and be more unbearable for any administration. When we go in search of a new sustainable economy, it becomes essential to avoid that the payout of damages becomes cyclical.

Perhaps we could try to fit in more creative steps…:

1. In the short term, perhaps it would be better to help the families affected to buy homes outside the affected areas, those that are completed and unsold, which abound nowadays.

2.We are reminded of the new project “Guadalquivir Turístico”, where it can make sense to have the affected enclaves controlled by a public administration, turned into recipients of tourists and new economic activities. To remove small land owners might result easier in the framework with the intervention of the Commission of Tourism, perhaps with the collaboration with that of the Environment.

3. If they are owners of land that flood, solutions could be found that are compatible with this situation that allows them other economic benefits that are not residential.

4. In the mid term it is necessary to plan the best territory and commit the necessary administrative or technical changes in the banks in order to protect them, not from the inevitable avenues but from the squatters…sanction them, force them to abandon their positions, and why not, demolish before the arrival of the next floods

Anything better than having to keep investing public money against nature.

Citythinking will be present at the  ”VII Real Estate Conferences”, that will count on a new more dynamic and participatory format, organized by the Business School ITAE of Extremadura in Badajoz, the next 2^nd of march.

The conferences will count on the presence of D. Jose Luis Quintana, Counselor of the Junta of Extremadura,  D. Mikel Echevarren CEO of the consulting agency IREA and with Jose Mª de Cárdenas on behalf of Citythingking. On this occasion it is expected that these conferences will be marked by the participation of the attendees: we have foreseen cases and practical workshops, workgroups and round tables of dialogue, in which the attendees interchange and discuss the problems with the real estate market first hand.

Last November, Eddea was invited to participate in the Sofia Architecture Week, SAW 09

In 2010 we start the year and open our new office.

We have created a different space inside Eddea Iddip´s office and now we sit right next to a big chalkboard surrounded by plants. In fact everyone that visits us for the first time brings us a new plant…

Next Thursday, January 20, día 20 de Enero,  the  “Eddea: Prosperity, Nature and Society” conference will take place, that will be given by three of the associates of  Eddea: José Mª de Cárdenas, Ignacio Laguillo and Harald Schönegger.
The address will take place in lecture room Manuel Trillo (Auditorium) of the Escuela Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla, at  12:00pm.

The past 13 of January took place at the Foundation Fidas, the round table “ Past, present and future of the terrain of Tablada”, organized by the Association of Architects Businessmen of Seville.
Participating in this round table were Ángel Díaz del Río Dean of the College of Arquitects; Manuel Álvarez, president of the Association of Businessmen Architects of Seville (Aases); journalist Javier Recio, , Fernando Sancho, university professor and spokesperson of Green Tablada; Sebastiá Olmedo, city planning lawyer; Francisco Guerrero, of the PP; Antonio Rodrígo Torrijos, of IU and Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis, of the PSOE.

See press kit