Madrid (ES)

Population 3,275,195, with a population density of 5,418.47 inhabitants/sq. km
Strategic site The dimensions of the study and project areas are variable. They are defined in each case by the surrounding urban environment, which influences and shapes formal, visual and also social aspects. The relations and dialogue with the built-up environment, with the people who live there, the existence or, where appropriate, the creation of useable or meeting spaces, the possibility of distributing local products, etc., must all be taken into consideration.
Project site The competition site plots have the following areas:
- Plot G, Gran San Blas: 5,557.48 sqm
- Plot F, Gran San Blas: 11,137.24 sqm
- Las Rosas Plot: 36,329.38 sqm
- Plot in old part of Fuencarral: 1,085.85 sqm
- IFEMA roofs: 242,552.37 sqm
These plots are presented as examples of urban morphotypes in which most of the productive nodes of the Producer Districts project can be implemented. ha

Site proposed by Directorate-General of Strategic Planning, Urban Development Area, Madrid City Council
Actors involved Madrid City Council
Site(s) Owner(s) Madrid City Council. One of the plots is still pending the outcome of the property process. The roofs of the trade fair precinct belong to the IFEMA Consortium, in which the Madrid City Council is a participant.

Commission after competition Several options are considered, depending on the scope, content and characteristics of the winning project:
- Commission for the project on one or more of the competition sites.
- Production of a brand manual or design guide for the Producer Districts projects to be implemented in the city, with the approval and standardisation, where appropriate, of the elements which may be given this status.

Urban City Strategy

The ‘Producer Districts project’ responds to these multiple urban voids of various origins and turns them into productive nodes where agricultural activity is integrated with the city. At the same time, they become zones of coexistence for their immediate environs.
The competition will be used to create a model of urban horticulture or a productive space, including the design of all its elements, which will be scalable and capable of integrating with the city’s territorial diversity, while at the same time being an expressive, unifying resource for the project that will give it an identifying image.
The proposed sites are located in urban land in Madrid city. The dimensions of the study and project areas are variable. They are defined in each case by the surrounding urban environment, which influences and shapes formal, spatial, social and economic aspects. The relations and dialogue with the built-up environment, with the people who live there, must all be taken into consideration.

Site Definition

The proposed study sites are the following:
1. Plot in a marginal district with a dense, open-block design in a central inter-block position on Plot G, Gran San Blas, in the San Blas - Canillejas District
2. Plot in a marginal district with a dense, open-block design in a perimeter position on Plot F, Gran San Blas, in the San Blas – Canillejas District
3. Plot in the urban periphery, a recent expansion zone of Las Rosas, San Blas – Canillejas District
4. Plot in the old part of Fuencarral district
5. Roofs of buildings in the IFEMA trade fair precinct, Barajas District
Nevertheless, the designs for the model and the components designated for the competition are intended to be applicable in every part of the city where the “Madrid- Barrios Productores” (Madrid-Producer Districts) project is implemented. Only one of these sites can therefore be chosen to develop a complete replicable implementation project 

How Must Metabolism and Inclusivity Be Developed and Connected?

The choice of the competition plots is linked to the Madrid City Council's project, “Barrios Productores” (Producer Districts). The aim is to progress towards a change of model in the way we work on the city based on the recovery and regeneration of urban voids in empty or misused plots through a strengthened dialogue between city and nature.
We seek to integrate food production with the urban fabric, which will give rise to a dual effect: the renaturalisation of dense urban fabrics and the involvement of residents in initiatives that will collaborate with the conservation of public spaces, improve their everyday landscape and potentially be sources of employment.
Urban gardens are thought of as a complex program of uses capable of answering all the dimensions that the program seeks to embrace: social gathering, educational purposes, experimental ones, short-circuit food production, participating to the enhancement of environmental conditions and biodiversity, recycling and efficient water use, reduction of the so-called “heat island” effect, the use and production of renewable energy, etc., without missing its landscape component, helping the social validation of the inhabited surroundings and actually producing new ecosystems, half-way between nature and culture.
The ‘Producer Districts’ project has more than 250 plots available, most of them located in the city's peripheral districts, with a wide diversity of urban landscapes. This competition proposes five sites with different typologies and sizes, which can serve as examples for analysis.