Our proposal FROM FLOWER TO FLOWER, is based on the total renovation of the neighborhood dividing the project in three different scales (the building scale, the neighborhood scale and urban integration scale), and these are also divided into stages. This permits an economic and financial viability of the proposal, which along with citizens’ contribution, allows the completion of the quality space presently generated by Carlos III University, the sports centre and Getafe city center. A project with generic vocation for all types of degraded residential settlements built between the 1950s and the 1970s. To emphasize the values of this type of construction in blocks and to solve the problems they have at present
If we compare this proposal with other possible alternatives such as demolishing the whole neighborhood and rebuilding it again with less density, and moving some of the inhabitants to the newly planned areas on the outskirts of Getafe, the cost of the operation could be some 10 times higher than the present project. And even more so if we take into account the social conflict it would generate. The renovation of this neighborhood could become a paradigm in the field of urban remodelation, and be an example for other similar situations we can find all over Spain.
We will do the minimum, consisting in a metallic structure superimposed on the façade. This new structure will designed as new terraces added to the existing building. It will be totally open, with the necessary handrails, and it will only be closed with a series of perforated metallic sheets, the area corresponding to the utility rooms. Thus solving the problem of hanging clothes on the facade.
According to a catalog of prefabricated elements, each owner could, in the future, close the newly created terrace at their own expense.
One of the main problems of these blocks is that they do not have elevators, the staircases are very small and they do not fulfill the minimum regulations, and there are no ramps for disable people. Currently, the stairs do not have direct contact with the street. They are interior staircases and therefore do not fulfill the fire regulation. They only have an obligatory system of extraction on the roof. To be able to fit a lift into the building it is necessary to get rid of part of one of the apartments. To minimize this problem, the rest of the apartments will be extended as we will see in the next section. We propose eliminating the present stairs in order to put on a new one that fulfills accessibility and fire regulations. The proposed stairs only have one flight which is aired and receives exterior light. The new lift is inserted in the part corresponding to the smaller apartment. As we will see later, this loss of space is not only compensated but increased in return. We also propose the insertion of a ramp on the ground floor to give access for disabled people, which avoids the differences in level between the street and the blocks.
This intervention does not only affect the blocks, but also the urban space which is created. At present, there is no difference between the streets. They are all the same nature and the buildings are monotonous and repetitive. With this proposal, each street acquires its own character, emphasizing the underlying feeling of neighborhood.
The owners, at their own expense, could close the added balcony spaces through a system of prefabricated panels.
Urban decoration On the facades where doors are not located, Boamistura proposes an intervention based on Urban Integration and Social Cohesion. The objective of this proposal is to emphasize the feeling of neighborhood. -Public space is qualified through the intervention on the buildings’ facades with floral motifs according to the name of the street. -We transform the facades facing the perimeter of the neighborhood. These buildings’ facades configure what we can call ‘the neighborhood’s façade’ or the ‘image of the neighborhood’.
The result generates social cohesion and urban integration.
BOAMISTURA Las Margaritas is the neighborhood where Manolito used to play soccer in your street and Maria jumped a rope while her mother shouted loudly from their balcony so she would eat her mortadella sandwich. The neighborhood has changed, of course. Now, there is Moroccan Fatima who working as a maid; Abraham, who is a bricklayer; and Ernesto, who dreams about bringing his children from Ecuador to Spain. It is definitely a different neighborhood from the past because Antonio and Mariano, who used to play tiddly winks in Begonia Street, are now about to retire. But they still meet out in the street to smoke a cigarette while they talk about how difficult it is to park or how crazy is the world.
This is the essence of this neighborhood: street life. And this, the neighborhood life, is our source of inspiration. We will make these daily moments of street life into dozens of wall sized pictures distributed throughout the neighborhood. - Elderly people chatting - A boy flying a kite - A girl jumping rope - A mother calling the kids for dinner - Some women bowling - Or a child in front of a goal drawn in chalk on a wall.
Images of the flower neighborhood Where each street bears the name of a flower. Likewise each flower becomes a street, filling it with color and providing the thread of these stories. Essentially, our proposal is an aesthetic operation which encourages recovering of the street as a meeting place.
