Program for the integral and participative regeneration of the Olot neighbourhoods

In a world of growing inequalities, where the climate crisis and geopolitical conflicts are certainly going to intensify the tension between countries and migratory flows, coexistence is going to be one of the greatest challenges of Humankind –especially in a convulsed scenario where the rejection of otherness has an increasing social and political adherence.

Therefore, living together is going to be a great challenge; or, according to Galeano, a utopia that allows us to move forward. And this challenge, like that of sustainability, will be resolved in cities, where, as it is well known, most of the world’s population will be concentrated. And the way in which we think, design and transform our cities will also define whether we are capable of living together.

This new form of urban planning we are claiming, and which is supported by the 2030 Agenda and the Urban Agendas, regenerates neighbourhoods where the inhabitants living there have a voice and participate to collectively create comprehensive plans that allow them to improve the environments they inhabit.

One way of working involves firmly facing the environmental impact deriving from our way of life in cities, planning how to turn them into kind, fair, caring and healthy places. Not surprisingly, urban planning and urban regeneration are two powerful tools for social transformation against inequality in cities while promoting coexistence.

And this is what we could verify with #OlotMésB and the Comprehensive Plans for Improvement Actions (PIAM, in its Spanish acronym) of Sant Miquel and Nucli Antic (Historic Centre) neighbourhoods of Olot. Through an innovative, comprehensive and participative regeneration methodology, we have implemented a form of urban transformation for the realization of neighbourhood micro- utopias that guarantee good co-habitation.