REASONS FOR AND ELEMENTS OF THE TRANSFORMATION

The reason for the change

The plan for the urban regeneration of the capital city of Bizkaia,Bilbao, was not conceived as a mere decorative improvement.Bilbao's economic activity underwent an imperative change,and this led to an exponential transformation, notably alteringthe look and the feel of the city today.

In order to understand this, we must take a look at the historyof the city. On 15th June 1300, Bilbao was granted a charteras a town. It remained a mediaeval metropolis until 1511 andthe was founding of the Consulate of Bilbao, predecessor tothe modern-day Chamber of Commerce of Bilbao, effectivelyturning the metropolis into a mercantile town providing Castilea corridor to the sea.

More than 300 years were to pass before Bilbaobecame an industrial city with the construction ofthe first blast furnace in 1850, signalling the arrivalof the industrial revolution and shifting economicactivity almost exclusively to the iron and steelindustry and ship building. It was, in fact, this lackof diversification which eventually would result indire consequences for Bilbao during the industrialcrisis of 1975.

Thus, faced with the alarming predicament of 30%unemployment, city authorities set about lookingfor novel formulae to stimulate business andpromote job creation, as it had become painfullyevident that this was no temporary problem, butrather a structural crisis of a deeper nature.

In urgent response to this do or die situation wasborn the Bilbao of service and cultural industry,metamorphosing into a cross-cultural city of businessand tourism. Bilbao is today a post-industrial citywhere it is quite usual to see a crowd of tourists bythe river bank near the Guggenheim Museum, ona boat motoring past the Euskalduna ConferenceCentre, walking past the Basque Health ServiceBuilding, designed by architect Juan COLL-BARREUor the new Miribilla Sports Centre.

Elements of the transformation

The city by the beginning of 90's has nothingto do with Bilbao at present. That changeis based on four basic points.

The first one is improving exterior accessibilityand interior mobility. So then, the Port ofBilbao was enlarged and so was the Airport…and about mobility for our citizens, the Metroline and the tramway were set in work and,adding to this, new avenues and promenades.

Regeneration of environment and urbanquality were essential in contributing to thetransformation of Bilbao. It is especiallyrelevant the works to improve water conditionsin the river Ibaizabal - Nervión, its oxygenation,and arranging both banks. In that industrialBilbao, the river was the main artery forthe city's economic activity and, so that, itwas acting as a wall between its watersand residential areas too. On that samedecolonized river banks, in the place offurnaces remains, abandoned shipyards anddebris of collapsed buildings, right now, nicepromenades line along singular buildings andenvironment-friendly means of transport.

Before

After

Before

After

As a result of water quality improvement,the city leaned again on the “Ría” and thatinfluenced significantly on architecture ofthe new Bilbao. Let's take as a sample theconstruction of Guggenheim Museum closeto the “Ría”… And we can take for grantedthat giving culture a boost through raisingup exceptional buildings, as aforementionedMuseum or Euskalduna Palace, wasanother engine for changing the city, astheir activity had direct and indirectrepercussions, not only in the economy ofBilbao, but in the whole Basque Country.

Both, investing in human resources and intechnology innovation, were a clue for thetransformation, because they became themean of supporting secondary activity,through a competitive and environment-friendly industry, in the line of highproductivity and with the added value ofwell trained workers.

Although it is not placed in Bilbao, theTechnology Park of the neighbouring village,Zamudio, is the best example of this

dynamic.

So then, that joining of four complementaryfactors gave way to a new city, turned intoa worldwide window. We can attribute thesuccess of such a magnificent urbanoperation to the multidisciplinary characterof all this pushing on to carry out theproject. Public and private enterprisesjoined their strength all along thisproductive decade. Even more remarkablewas synergy declared amongst publicadministration competent in different fields.