Hidden in Plain Sight: Reframing forgotten infrastructure through cultural narratives
Malaga, on Spain’s Costa del Sol, is infamous for its fantastic climate and sunny beaches. Those that have visited will also know it’s a city in transformation; more than the sun and sand it boasts stunning architecture, vivacious festivals and events, a history of art and culture, and some of the best food and wine in Europe.
But it also has challenges. Over-tourism and gentrification have increased prices and pushed locals out of the centre leading to protests. Whilst the city boasts beaches, it has a lack of quality green space — half the recommended amount per person according to EU guidelines. Growing inequality with 4 in ten kids at risk of poverty and social exclusion. And retail closures and poor connectivity infrastructure across the city — familiar sights for many modern cities.
However there is one sight that visitors can’t avoid and locals have been debating for decades. The Guadalmedina is a dry river that runs right through the heart of Malaga — connecting the hills and botanic gardens in the north of the city to the port 5km south in the city centre. Cut off in the 70’s by building a dam to the north, the dry river is still used as a run-off for city water — but little else. What’s left is a concrete channel cutting the city in two with patches of scrub and marsh land.
Of course, there have been decades of debate for turning it into a city park or urban greenway, following the success of nearby neighbours in Valencia. However these have struggled to get off the ground for very familiar reasons — too costly, taking too much time, political in-fighting, a lack of ownership or control, technical difficulties to name a few.
But perhaps the problem isn’t the technical or political challenges to overcome, but the fact that proposals say nothing about Malaga. The proposals all sit under the Urban Development department responsible for delivering what would be a mammoth urban infrastructure project.
But what if we reframed the river proposal to bring in some of the things Malaga is best known for and tackle some of the city challenges mentioned above? A Picasso art and sculpture trail that leaves room for new artists. A series of outdoor performance spaces that can be programmed with Antonio Banderas’ rising stars from his theatre interests in the city. An urban farm and allotments that community groups and schools can learn and access much needed green space. A series of connection bridges that mirror the activities, events, installations and lighting from major streets in the city such as Calle Larios or el Paseo Maritimo. An extended botanic garden that attracts new tourists and alleviates some of the burden on the old town.
In doing so we see an exciting vision for the future that says something about the city and more importantly the local people can get behind. But where it gets really exciting, is when the boring stuff comes back in!
By reframing the challenge through a culture, climate and wellbeing lens we start to see how the project can move beyond an urban infrastructure project to one that taps into local objectives of growing the cultural offer in Malaga, improving the health and wellbeing of citizens, improving community participation, developing new green infrastructure, supporting innovative tourism and so on.
Suddenly it becomes a project that even grass-roots groups can start to use as a catalyst to achieve their strategic objectives. The previous barriers mentioned start to reduce. It starts to cost less as it is not only the burden of the infrastructure department but the cultural, health, resilience and regeneration teams. Communities on the ground feel a part of the process and enact pop-ups and temporary activities for the site. Political support improves as it hits far more objectives than infrastructure alone. The public start to see progress and action, rather than 20 year strategic plans and visions.
People have known the answer to the dry riverbed has been an urban greenway for decades, however getting there has always been a challenge. Reframing the problem across cultural and wellbeing objectives is something we do across many of our projects to help major infrastructure projects become a reality. We think the Guadalmedina is no different — It might just need a catalyst, or spark to get started — and we’ve got some ideas for that too!
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This article is based on a presentation USI partner Jak Spencer did for The Living Room in Malaga. It marks an exciting time in USI’s journey as we start to expand from our learnings in Northern Ireland to projects in Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Australia and now Malaga — setting up a base in the city.
