Industrial Heritage as an Instrument for Urban Revaluation. The case of Caixa Fórum (Madrid).

Abstract

Although the Industrial Heritage falls within the so-called emerging, there are already numerous writings that emphasize the desirability of its recovery as a form of economic and social progress. In order to objectively assess the actual effect the recovery of an old industry has on the revitalization of the environment, and based on the old “Mediodía Electricity Factory”, it is carried out a theoretical and practical study of the variables that influence the design of the building itself as well as the urban space resulting from such intervention. The analysis of these parameters provides a starting point that allows to concatenate and expand a process that defines its true physical area of influence, to assess the actions carried out there and the impact that this results to the public space. In order to avoid the paradox of rehabilitating enclosures that generate devitalized areas around, and on the premise of considering the physical integration (build in context) as a key point for the real regeneration of the area, we settle the basis for the implementation of policies aimed at the revitalization in the local level.