Opening Gijón to Future: The Limited Revision of the Official Urban Catalogue

Gijón, also known as Xixón, is an important city that rivals Oviedo, the historical capital of the Autonomous Region and Principality of Asturias (Spain), in historical demographic and economic terms. It has traditionally been a port and, more recently, an industrial city, which experienced very rap...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jorge Latorre, Jesús Sola
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia 2016-10-01
Series:VLC Arquitectura
Subjects:
Online Access:http://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/VLC/article/view/5747
Description
Summary:Gijón, also known as Xixón, is an important city that rivals Oviedo, the historical capital of the Autonomous Region and Principality of Asturias (Spain), in historical demographic and economic terms. It has traditionally been a port and, more recently, an industrial city, which experienced very rapid population growth and with little planning. After the industrial crisis of the 80s, the city wanted to become a tourist location more than an industrial harbor. Both its privileged location and the historical urban heritage that still remain are corner stones to make this change possible. However, the late and strict legislation (improvised to protect the last remains of a previously uncontrolled development) impeded a necessary urban re-design in order to shelter the new touristic supplies. This paper proposes some urban solutions to selectively modify the catalogue according with the cultural and touristic potentials of the city. These solutions were agreed by the working group set up by Gijón City Council and ERDU (Estudio de Renovación y Desarrollos Urbanos -Urban Renovation and Development Studio).
ISSN:2341-3050
2341-2747