European Network for Housing Research International Housing Conference. Reykjavik 29th June- 3rd July 2005

García, Lídia (University of Barcelona)[1] & Tapada, M.Teresa (Autonomous University of Barcelona)[2]

"Communities in transition; Dynamics of adaptation in an urban restructuring process"

  1. Introduction and framework

The main objective of renovation processes is to improve the urban environment, being complex and in constant movement. More concretely the main goal of the renovation is to improve the quality of life of the residents. The RESTATE[3] comparison project, that stands for “Restructuring Large scale Housing Estates in European Cities, has as its main objective the analysis and evaluation of the most important factors, that directly influence the outcomes of renovation projects. Also included is the urban policies implemented in various European cities. Based upon this analysis the projects mains goal is to improve the future urban policies in this field, resulting in more successful renovation projects, and finally improve the quality of life of the population.

The RESTATE project includes a survey of 31 neighbourhoods with public housing, all having the same basic characteristics[4] in common. However with different intervention processes and different social-politically contexts. In this paper, within the framework of RESTATE, the results are obtained from a social survey on the population of the neighbourhood of San Roc located in the city of Badalona (province of Barcelona).

The objective of the present paper is to study in depth the historical processes of each build environment, and the role played by some of those variables we could define as subjective ones, like the individual perception of the environment or place attachment. All of these variables play an important role during the renovation processes on a local level. Our hypothesis is that these qualitative variables are highly determining the dynamics of acceptation or rejection of the project. These processes of adaptation can be observed during the urban renovation processes. Taking into account that we are dealing with variables on a local level, we expect that in different magnitude depending on the case, these variables can influence the outcome of a certain strategy on a macro level. That is to say, we are not proposing to analysis the strategies applied or intervention tools used, which has been described and analysed in other papers within the framework of the RESTATE project. However we are proposing to analyse the perception of the residents, reflected in the survey, concerning the intervention and the possible impact on the final outcome of this type of urban renovation projects.

  1. The renovation process in the neighbourhood of San Roc; the framework

The principal hypothesis of this paper is that the variables related to perception of the environment play an important role in the renovation processes. Taking into account these variables before implementing any kind of urban intervention policy, we belief that this will certainly improve the urban renovation policies as such, independently of what type of intervention we are dealing with. During the implementation process of an urban intervention, the opinion of the residents concerning the expected results can influence directly the success of the applied policy. During the months of April and May 2004 a survey was held in the neighbourhood of San Roc in order to know the opinion of the residents concerning the urban policies applied. The survey formed part of the third phase of the RESTATE comparative project, and was executed after a socio-demographic analysis of the neighbourhoods that formed part of the project, including an analysis of the social policies applied[5]. The urban intervention in the Barcelona case is in sharp contrast with the historical tendency observed in most of the outskirts of the big Spanish cities. Only in the last years we observe that more attention is paid to urban peripheral areas, which used to receive little political attention. In the case of Barcelona the local authorities, being the “Generalitat de Catalunya”, started in the nineties an important urban renewal policy in the peripheral areas of Barcelona in order to improve the quality of life in these neighbourhoods, which is still in execution. The neighbourhood of San Roc is part of this important renovation plan. In the case of San Roc this plan implies for the time being the demolition of 918 dwelling of a total of 3.395, all effected by “aluminosis”. This means that in a timeframe of 9 years, between 2001 and 2010[6], a third of the housing stock will be substituted by new ones, in order to improve the neighbourhood by either directly or indirectly interventions. That is to say, directly, by the means of the new dwellings and, indirectly through the general improvement of the public spaces in the neighbourhood. The survey gathers the opinion of the residents concerning this process of renovation within the framework of the renewal of the neighbourhoods managed by he local authorities.[7]

It would be logical to expect that the residents would perceive the current renovation as positive, taking into account a high level of physical degradation of the old dwelling and the little success obtained in former renovation projects by the local authorities. Also it could be reasonable to think that their opinion concerning the future of the neighbourhood would be significantly higher in comparison with past, taken into account the increase in political attention by the local authorities.

The old dwellings in the neighbourhood are clearly showing physical deficiencies in the construction as such. We are here dealing with dwelling of between 32 and 60 square metres, suffering “aluminosis”[8] and with clear signs of degradation of the public spaces and a lack of basic maintenance services in the neighbourhood. Through the means of an important economical investment in new dwelling, substituting a third of the current housing stock, the local authorities are aiming to improve the living conditions of the residents. Taking into account all this, we could ask ourselves; “what would be the perception of the residents on the renovation process in the neighbourhood?

Expected scenario
It would be logical to think that the neighbours would rate lower the old dwellings and public spaces in comparison with the new ones, which have some physical characteristics that are objectively better. (more square metres per dwelling and installations like lifts)
Further more the sample population would positively rate the current situation of the neighbourhood in comparison with the old situation. (the survey refers to 5 years ago)
The neighbours would rate higher the future of the neighbourhood in comparison with what they did 5 years ago concerning the same aspect, taking into account the renewed political interest and the physical and social improvements of the neighbourhood.

Before going into more detail concerning the results of the survey, comparing the expected scenario with the real one, we would like to highlight some thoughts on the nature of relocation processes initiated by the demolition of the deteriorated old dwelling.

  1. Some thoughts on the urban relocation processes caused by demolition of the dwelling. The role of the qualitative evaluation of the build environment.

We can define the operation of renovation of dwellings as an opportunity to improve the quality of life of the effected community. In the case when the intervention implies a demolition of the old dwelling and moving the community to the new one, the relocation, implies de-attachment and adaptation to the new build environment. This process of adaptation and de-attachment has not always been recognised in earlier projects.

Some recent paper on the subject, insist on revising the deterministic hypothesis, in some case not explicit, that motivated the demolition of the dwellings and the move of the population, with the consequent problems of adaptation to the new environment. Especially in the case of moving the community outside the neighbourhood, the impact is even bigger. The analysis of the impact on the population concerning the relocation processes is the main objective of these papers. (Musterd, S. & Ostendorf, wim: 2004; Belmessous, F et alii: 2004). It must be mentioned that in the case of San Roc the relocation of the community has been within the same neighbourhood, in order to reduce the negative impact caused by de-attachment of place.

The main question of this paper is to find out if those interventions focused merely on the physical construction of the dwellings with the main intention to improve the quality of the construction, also help to improve the social conditions of the effected population. These time consuming adaptation processes are normally producing a variety of reactions, scaling from acceptation to rejection of the new environment. In this chapter we are not pretending to develop further more on this statement, however we intent to find out in what way these qualitative variables on a micro level can help to understand the complex and dynamic processes involved. Simultaneous we see that the relocation cases described from an anthropological point of view highlight the negative impact of the movement of the population, despite the opportunity for improvement as a consequence of change. (Cernea, M., 1992 and 1993)

The main contributions in the field of comparative analysis on the social impact of the relocation processes are considered as reference publications in this field, and are especially relevant in the cases of development projects[9]. Basically these papers are focused on the relationship between the build environment, from a social and cultural perspective, and the impact these variable have on the results of the relocation processes. The negative perception on the social impact of relocation project for a large extent is simply based on the fact that there exist more publications on the less successful projects then on the successful ones. Also the scattered information on these type of urban relocation processes, basically originated by the lack of recognition of the importance of these type of phenomena, are contributing to this perception. That is to say there does not exist a general framework on the processes involved, and only disperse information on the goals of the projects exists. (urban renewal projects, building projects of dams, or the construction of motorways)

But also the fact that we are trying to solve a social problem, through the building of better and higher quality dwelling, can explain the failure of this type of projects. Maybe the latest statement is partial hiding an architectural determinism that so far has not been made explicit. Never the less, a big part of the papers collected on the subject, is focused on the qualitative aspects of the lengthy process of re-adaptation. In this sense Scudder (1982) introduces the concept of, multidimensional stress of relocation, that express the effort the population have to make when they are moved from one place to the other, implying the rupture of the existing social network build up over the years. In this concept new variables like psychological and social-cultural variables are introduced in an extensive analysis of the relocation processes. Also Thomas Downing is highlighting the social cultural variables that are playing an important role during the relocation projects implemented in developing countries and explain the rupture in the established social networks. Even before the move of the population to the new dwellings, we are already able to observe a rupture with the established social networks, despite the fact that the economic organisation will not be changed by the move. This rupture can be explained by factors like uncertainty concerning the future and provokes a state of anxiety in the population. The conclusion of Downing, after analysing various relocation projects, is that the slow disintegration of the social identity of the group built up during a certain time and place, is the cause of the rupture This is the main drive for any population to shape its relationship with the build environment. That is to say that an involuntary move, like in the case of relocation projects, provokes a disorder in the social identity of the group in relation to the build environment and implies an adaptation to the new variables concerning space. Downing (1994: 6-10) mention some aspects that play an important role during this mechanism of adaptation. This mechanism consists of a well-established list of intangible concepts in the mindset of any individual concerning his or her relationship with the build environment. In this mindset the perception of the build environment and the real world directly interact between each other. The use of space is determined by this perception that is conditioned by former experiences on the use of a certain space and social demographic factors like age or sex. That is to say, a social identity relates directly with the build environment and the perception of space is formed during a certain timeframe and is different for different demographical groups.. Further more the use of space is determined by the culture habits of the group and has been considered by both architects and anthropologists. For example Noha Nasser explains that place, the physical dimension and the use of it are overlapping. This relationship between use and place is described by Nasser as: “This shift conceives culture to be in a constant state of transformation, in which everyday practice, social processes, relationships, experiences and understandings are continuously negotiating in new contexts. These are all part of what Bourdieu has termed “habitus” or a system of dispositions. The term demonstrates the extent to which “place” may be seen as a “practice” rather than a visual, geographic or topographic location. A process of transformation by which space is either “reclaimed” or “re-inscribed” as a network of actions, practices and relationships. Such cultural practices are further shaped by operations of globalisation (trans-nationalism) and relations of power in given historical conditions and particular locales” (Nasher, Noa; 2003; 10)

Place and practice are two dimensions of the same reality of the relationship with the build environment and human being. Both aspects should be taken into account in a dynamic context. That is to say the practice is constantly changing and during relocation process this practice is partly moved to the new environment and adopted. Use of space directly determines the level of satisfaction with the new environment. The use of cognitive maps that describe the cultural and social use of space can help us to understand better the interaction between the place and practice. For example in the annex of this paper we present the case of a cognitive map made by a young gipsy girl describing her physical environment that consist of one big residential block. However she draws her residential block in three separate parts indicating her perception of her residential block has three separate units. The division she makes is because she wants to express the social distance between the social groups she belongs to and the other groups.

In order to conclude this chapter we state that this dynamic process of perception and constant adaptation should be taken into account when analysing the outcome, and even more to influence the outcome, of relocation projects.

  1. General characteristics of the neighbourhood Sant Roc and the renewal process.

San Roc is located at the east of the city Badalona in the north east of the province of Barcelona. The neighbourhood was constructed between 1962 and 1965 by the public developer organisation called “Obra Sindical del Hogar. The goal of the project was to relocate the population effected by the flooding in 1962 and to relocation the population living in various slums in the region. The construction was done in a relatively short period and quit soon the low quality of the construction showed up. A few years after the conclusion of the construction a technical investigation showed that more then 50% of the dwellings experienced water leakages, and around 80% of the dwellings suffered humidity problems and in 59% of the cases the bathrooms were suitable for substitution. (Tuleda, 1995) The construction was divided into 6 types of different blocks from 5 until 14 floors, and dwellings of between 41 until 61 square metres[10]. The bad quality of the construction and the height of the blocks originated the name of “vertical slum” (Torredeflot, 2001). Like in the case of most of the construction from this period also the construction of Sant Roc suffered from “Aluminosis” which is a weakening of the construction caused by oxidation of the internal iron reinforcement of the cement building elements. Therefore San Roc also had to be included in the program of “renovation of the neighbourhoods” set up by the regional government “Generalitat de Catalunya”. Despite that 70% of the dwellings are privately owned[11] the regional government was obliged to take responsibility for the “Aluminosis” problem, mainly because the problem is originated by the use of bad material during the construction.

Also the neighbourhood is suffering from social problems; as the high level of unemployment and scholar absenteeism figures show. Especially in the case of the population between the age of 16 and 20 years, the absenteeism is high and in the case of unemployment figures the situation is even worse for the population of more then 40. (Pareja, M; 2003), (DEHISI, 2001). The wish to improve socially and economically pushes the population, those who are able to do so, to other areas of the city. This population is substituted by a new inflow of immigrants that occupy the empty dwellings. Some part of the population is blaming this new inflow for the decline of the neighbourhood. Also they are considered as direct competition in the case of social services and help. (Pareja, M; 2003). From 1990 several intervention programs were initiated in order to improve the living conditions of the neighbourhood, but all of them did not reach completely its objectives, mainly because of the lack of coordination between the different public bodies involved[12]. The current program consists of at least 4 different phases and is planned to last until 2010 and will substitute 30% of the dwellings for new ones. The partial renovation of the neighbourhood intends to directly improve the conditions of the relocated population, but also the rest of the population should benefit from the program. Until today there are no plans to build new dwellings for the rest of the neighbourhood.