Students from the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra presented last Friday, November 12, their proposals for the regeneration of the Old Town of Tudela during the XIV conference of Urban Rehabilitation and Regeneration held in the Navarrese city.

These proposals are part of the projects that the students carried out last year as part of the subject Urbanism II of the Degree in Architecture. These proposals were supervised by professors Esperanza Marrodán, Conrado Capilla and Efrén Munárriz from School of Architecture of the University of Navarra. Of all of them, eleven projects were selected to be exhibited at the XIV conference of Urban Rehabilitation and Regeneration organized by the City Council of Tudela and Nasuvinsa/ORVE Ribera.

"One of the topics we address in this subject is urban regeneration, with which we want the student to learn to work in the existing city, where there are areas of very different scale or nature that can be subject to renovation to provide them with urban quality," explains Esperanza Marrodán.

Specifically, the goal was to propose strategies for a area of the old town of Tudela which they call "the magic triangle", comprised between the place of San Jaime and the churches of San Nicolás and La Magdalena, and which includes in its interior the place Vieja of the city, with the cathedral and the town hall, says the professor.

Through this project, he adds "students learn that the city is not projected from a plane: that it is necessary to know the demands of the Username of the city -which is the citizen-, and that any intervention to be really effective must seek a balance between three dimensions: social, economic and environmental, whether physical or natural". For the realization of project, the socio-economic study conducted by the City Council of Tudela in 2019 was taken into account, and likewise a meeting was conducted with the neighborhood associations. educational "For the students it was very interesting to hear first hand the real problems of the neighbors of area", Marrodán points out.

A sustainable proposal

Among the proposals elaborated by the students is that of Nerea Bilbatua, María Rico and Gemma Borra, aimed at replacing the use of vehicles with other more environmentally friendly means of transport and "guaranteeing universal accessibility within the area of action," explains Nerea Bilbatua.

"We solved architectural barriers and created a series of specific routes with different characteristics to get from one point to another in the city. Our intention was to raise awareness among citizens and change their way of acting, encouraging alternative modes of transport to the car, thus recovering the public space invaded by cars, reducing pollution, improving the visual space of the environment...", adds the student. 

Likewise, the students proposed the placement of removable and equipped modules for the arrangement of bicycles in the church of the Magdalena, "in order to encourage the use of this vehicle and support our proposal". goal Following the same idea, the students proposed a covered bicycle car park in one of the abandoned plots of land in the city, with the aim of "reviving a lifeless space and giving more facilities to those who do not have room in their homes to store their bicycles".

In addition, they designed by the river a leisure area with picnic area, rest area with fountains near the bike routes, and proposed "to make the place a party", so "we provided a folding and removable structure through modules placed in the existing architecture of the place. Thus creating a place of leisure that could be an outdoor cafeteria , making the place the place of meeting of citizens and encouraging interpersonal relationships of neighbors," he concludes. 

The students who presented their projects are: Juan Álvarez, Álvaro Férnández, Leire Gómez, Andrea Arilla, Aitana Cascante, Meritxell Izquierdo, Inés Arellano, Teresa Trabada, Johanna Valdivieso, Nerea Bilbatúa, Gemma Borra, María Rico, Fabiana Perrogón, Lucciana Saavedra, María Inés Sandoval, Alberto Odio, Victoria Fanianos, Manuela Trompiz. Ángela Mena, Eduardo Ramirez, Lucía Ruiz, Elena Fernández Arribas, F.J. Rubio, Juan Sola, Juan Castro, María Gil, Teresa González, Álvaro Landete, Lucas Ortiz, Javier Rodríguez, Gonzalo López, Naomi Nicolau and Iker Sandoval.