Tackling the Internet of People through Fortifying & Diversifying the economy in Viladecans, Spain
Introduction
Viladecans is a dynamic and thriving municipality with a rich history, diverse economy, and vibrant community life. Its strategic location, economic opportunities, and quality of life make it an attractive place to live, work, and visit in the Barcelona metropolitan area.
Strategic Advantages of the town Viladecans, Spain
- Proximity to Barcelona (a large market)
- Lower rents than Barcelona
- Up-to-date critical infrastructure
- Connected within the region via roads and railway
- Functional regional public transportation
- Historically successful for industrial production
- Agricultural land and local producers
- Innovative city brand
- Proximity to international airport
- Proximity to port
The Strategic Framework
Keeping this strategic framework in mind, we ideated upon different methodologies of applying the same.
The Industry 4.0 Education Center with the Tactical Urbanism System that we had devised, would come together to create a system that would bring about a wholistic fostering of the Viladecans Economy. The Viladecans economy has been primarily a service driven economy. We envisioned a future that would be different, or at least move in a more wholistic direction to foster different sectors.
What would consist of the Industry 4.0 Education Center?
- Industry 4.0 training equipments
- Energy efficient appliances and equipment
- Water storage and recirculation
- Build from sustainable materials
- Thermally comfortable shelter
- Accessible to citizens after hours
- Increase local green space
There would exist a participatory approach to the whole process as well. This would include a Curriculum developed in consultation with academia and with businesses and kept updated whilst taking into accounts global trends.
Location! Location! Location!
Deciding upon where exactly these centers would be a perfect fit for the municipality of Viladecans.
We took into consideration various factors for the spatial analysis of location. A weighted average was calculated to select the particular location. In this instance, the Weighted Average was taken between the area with the lowest rent, the best road interconnectivity based on a space syntax, and proximity to public transport.
The idea behind the selection of these particular parameters was to build the Center in a space that would be cheaper in terms of land acquisition and monthly rental overheads, whilst remaining in a place that is ideally central to the town, and is in accessible to the people to public transportation infrastructure.
Tactical Centers
The second main axis of Attract/Develop/Keep are the Tactical Centers. These are temporary public spaces that are deployed throughout Viladecans to host diverse programs/events that help activate local economies, and that provide safeguarding for the citizens from the adverse effects of climate change, such as heat waves.
To build up new temporary public spaces in outdoor locations that previously didn’t have the required equipment or any at all, the Tactical Centers rely on a catalog of furniture/equipment that is designed to serve many different purposes and from which different pieces can be selected based on the requirements of the program/event to host.
The furniture is thought through and designed with climate adaptation in mind. Besides functional ergonomics, elements of the catalogue are designed to ensure thermal comfort using low energy. One example is evaporative cooling.
The core of the urban furniture are it’s flexibility and reusability that ensure a multi-use approach. This ensures that the same furniture can be used in different locations and for different types of events.
Viladecans can use the furniture for any type of event. The furniture can be booked via an online platform and deployed to individual locations on demand.
Farmers Market_ ‘Tactical’ Produce Center
One fourth of the territory of Viladecans municipality is occupied by its agrarian land. According to the 2020 Agrarian census data the vast majority of that land is use for the harvesting of arable crops, and from this the biggest percentage consists of vegetables, melons and strawberries. Viladecans mostly horticulture production, positions the metropoli in a good spot to complete the municipality 4th challenge. In other to help accomplish it the Tactical Centers can adopt a Farmers Market program, a typology that by connecting local food production with the citizens, help activate local economy and reduce the ecological footprint of the city.
The first step to creating the Farmers Market with the Tactical Centers, is to analyse where in Viladecans the Tactical Equipment ought to be deployed. For that a series of spatial analysis are made to decide on an optimal location. In the case of the Farmers Market the neighbourhoods in Viladecans that are the most desirable are those that have a high population density, a high income per household and good interconnectivity (meaning that is easily accessible from the rest of Viladecans). The Tactical Centers also are meant to help with climate change, so in addition to the previous characteristics the location for the Farmers Market should also be one that is more vulnerable to climate change effects, so a temperature map and a NDVI map are also analysed.
LOCATION ! LOCATION ! LOCATION !
Having analyzed the Viladecans urban area for the desired characteristics, a set of four blocks is selected by using the analysis maps to do a weighted average.
With the location of the Tactical Center selected, a closer look to the space it will occupy is taken to understand better the space and how the Tactical Equipment should be place to make the most of the morphology of the blocks and of the event to host.
Cultural Events_ “Tactical’ Cultural Center
Another possible use for the Tactical Equipment is to host cultural events that would increase the footfall for local businesses. The municipality can host events like an local art exhibition that would drive people from both the neighborhood and outside of it to the place, and in term this added flow of people would bleed onto the commerce and restaurants that are close by.
Once again the first step for using the Tactical Center is to find a neighborhood to deploy the equipment. Since the objective of the art exhibition is to increase the footfall to drive the economy of local businesses, it is important to analyze where in Viladecans there is a high density of local businesses. In addition to the analysis of the density of amenities, as with the previous example the temperature and NDVI is analyzed to not only help the local economy but also have an impact on places vulnerable to climate change.
Taking in consideration the previous layers in spatial analysis, an additional layer of creating a heatmap of local shops/commercial stores in Viladecans, is used in a weighted average to get the location in Viladecans that fits the best to the cultural event’s requirements.
Finally after selecting the place where the Tactical Center will be deployed, a smaller analysis of the space is done to come up with the ideal way of placing the equipment to make the most of the area and cultural event.
Simulating Impact
The Simulation in action shows how people even from other neighborhoods visit and this increased footfall shows in the fact that local shops also have an increased flow of people into their shops. This thereby proves that there will be more revenue into business after the implementation of the Tactical Centers as compared to before.
Governance
The proper governance of the entire strategy would dictate the success of the tactical and strategic interventions on route to the goal of diversifying and improving the local economy of Viladecans, Spain. We bring back the strategic framework that was referred to earlier to dictate the direction along which the governance must proceed.
