ABC interviews José María de Cárdenas on EDDEA’s milestones and landmark projects
The newspaper ABC has published, in both its print and digital editions, an extensive interview with José María de Cárdenas, in which EDDEA’s founding partner looks back on the key milestones of the architecture and urban planning firm as it marks 30 years of practice, and offers his view on a number of planned developments and landmark projects in Seville.
The paper notes that over the past decade De Cárdenas, who founded the studio with his partner Luis Ybarra, has led the company’s international work, a field in which the firm has delivered projects on a very large scale, such as an urban extension of the megacity of Moscow and the Pop Music City in Taiwan.
It also points out that the architect has now returned to the helm of EDDEA as managing director, with major challenges ahead: the design of Seville’s future Port District, a new neighbourhood in Tomares for Insur and a residential scheme on the outer estate of the Cádiz Free Zone.
Among the company’s most significant recent milestones, the newspaper singles out the commission to plan and design the new Port District of the Andalusian capital, an initiative which, according to De Cárdenas, “will mean a radical change for Seville, a project that will be a landmark on the scale of southern Europe”.
“It has every sign of becoming an economic space that goes far beyond tourism, because of the decentralisation it will bring and its commercial use. And the fact that the south is growing makes it all the bigger: if you look on a map at metro line 3, the Ciudad de la Justicia, the pockets of housing and the Port District, you realise that we are transforming Seville in small steps, without a single great intervention like the Expo”, he adds.
During the interview he also highlights the creation of Citythinking, the think tank through which EDDEA has devised urban and territorial strategies on several continents. “It was an initiative launched in the hardest years for the profession, in 2009 and 2010, with very brilliant people from different fields working with us. The premise was that, by understanding the context and the territory, you can understand which economy is most likely to flourish in an area”, he recalls.
Implementing the General Urban Plan
The interview turns to the implementation of Seville’s current General Urban Plan (PGOU), and the architect warns that the slow pace of its development, together with delays in granting planning permits, is causing the city to lose inhabitants to its metropolitan ring. “Cities are like companies: if they don’t grow at 2% or 3%, they die. And a city that is already at zero or shrinking is a cause for concern”, he says.
“In Seville”, the EDDEA partner explains, “there is a PGOU that planned several extensions of the city as neighbourhoods, and to date, of the five or six, only Palmas Altas has been developed. El Pítamo, Santa Bárbara, San Nicolás and Buen Aire are still struggling with infrastructure. What has happened here is that, even where there is demand, plans sometimes make management very complicated.”
In his view, the success of the Aljarafe and Dos Hermanas lies in the fact that they “have managed to attract a great deal of attention, because they have had less ambitious general plans, far more focused on the growth problems of their towns”. “And they were fortunate that, once new investment began to arrive in 2014 after the crisis, those plans were ready and in place”, De Cárdenas stresses.
Attracting residents
As the factors that would draw residents to the city, he points first to identity, “which in Seville is very powerful”, adding that it should be “very well connected” and offer “liveability” (affordable housing, services and so on). “Almost all of it is going to the metropolitan ring. This needs to be solved by speeding up the plans that have been left undeveloped”, De Cárdenas states.
The head of EDDEA also believes that “we are very late with the metro, and we have a bus network that does not compare with other cities of our size and budget. We don’t manage to attract the same number of users, partly because waiting times are difficult. Seville is well equipped with hospitals, an airport, trains… it has everything, but it all needs to be better connected.”
De Cárdenas also gives his view on the debate over the development of Tablada, which he considers “a key piece of the city, unique because it has a natural value that can be exhausted”, while he favours a redevelopment of the Isla de la Cartuja rather than “abandoning this large area, so strategically located next to the centre, with hospitals, a theme park and university and cultural centres”.
Heritage assets
On the recovery of heritage assets such as the Atarazanas and the Real Fábrica de Artillería, De Cárdenas observes: “I think the PGOU contains an excess of public facilities and general systems, and there has been no one to develop them. Perhaps there is no tradition of public and private sectors working together.”
In this respect, he adds that “the Artillería is very large; everything fits: three streets, a public facility, a plot for commercial use, offices, a small hotel… and we would have created a far more attractive place than when we are monochrome, and one that is easier to develop. I would call for a revision of the plan so that this can happen.”
Finally, EDDEA’s managing director supports moving the Museo de Bellas Artes to the University’s Rectorate building. “Seville has a problem: the second-largest art gallery in Spain is housed in a building that is not up to the task, with its collections in the basement. The Museo de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Sevilla should be further hotspots of the city. The latter should be linked to the river, because we have lived our whole history on the water”, he concludes.
The full interview in ABC is available here: