Public space and mobility. The transformation of Madrid’s distrito centro

Abstract

The Central District of Madrid, the Distrito Centro, has seen profound changes in planning and mobility in recent years. Some of the key strategies to improve the habitability of the district include pedestrianising major shopping streets such as Calle del Arenal, Calle de Fuencarral, Calle de las Huertas and Calle de Carretas, identifying a number of areas for comprehensive refurbishment and introducing Resident Priority Areas (RPAs)—followed more recently by the launch of the Madrid Central scheme. The recent redesign of the Gran Via, remodelling of the streets in the Chueca neighbourhood and the creation of pedestrian-scale axes between the La Latina and Letras neighbourhoods and between Plaza España and Calle del Conde Duque by way of Calle de Amaniel, complement the initiatives set out in the in the “Plan A for Air Quality”, and are all intended to improve accessibility, promote sustainable mobility and reclaim the public space in the district for local people. Nonetheless, there has been no clear strategy guiding this transformation. It has not been set out in any one planning document, nor has it been uniformly developed; rather it has taken the form of a series of partial or isolated—and sometimes mutually counterproductive—actions.The purpose of this book is to analyse the intense transformation experienced by the public space over the last twenty- ve years, with all its attendant successes and failures, and to serve as a tool of analysis and planning for designing other actions in the future.