This document proposes a holistic approach to revitalizing mass housing in the Orba neighborhood of Valencia, Spain. It involves reconnecting the neighborhood's natural, rural, and urban systems through strategies like restoring riparian forests and irrigation ditches, creating parks and green spaces, and implementing renewable energy and shared productive activities. At the urban scale, it proposes a new water cycle, mobility scheme, and business incubator. Housing would be adapted through flexible, modular additions of shared spaces using local wood and participatory design. The goal is to improve quality of life while increasing community and limiting costs through reuse of materials.

1. Recooperation

2. “… good housing is more common where it is
locally produced through network structures and
decentralizing technologies”
Turner, John F.C, Housing by People. Towards Autonomy in Building Environments, Marion Boyars, London, 1976

3. Recooperation is an holistic proposal for
urban revitalization of mass housing

4. Where?

5. Spain
Valencian
Metropolitan
Area
Valencian
Region

6. Valencia
City Center
Orba
neighborhood
4km

7. Context

8. Albufera
Natural
Park
Traditional
Orchards
Spread of
urbanization

9. natural
park
traditional
orchards
Disconnection of natural
ecosystems!
riparian
forests
traditional
orchards
coastal
lagoon
ricefields
dunes
riparian
forests
irrigation
ditch

10. 2744 housing units
4862 inhabitants
25% of empty houses
Aging population
Unemployment rate: 40%
Strong associative network
Wood industry = local know-how
Energetic inefficiency
49% of public space for cars

11. Each dwelling: 75 m2
Brick load bearing walls

14. Territorial
strategies

15. Connecting the natural, rural and urban systems
National ParkOrchards
Watercourse

16. Connecting the natural, rural and urban systems
National ParkOrchards
Watercourse
Intensificating the
productive
orchards
Restoring the
irrigation ditch

17. Connecting the natural, rural and urban systems
Recovering the
riparian forest
National ParkOrchards
Watercourse
Creating a
riverside park

18. National ParkOrchards
Watercourse
Stitching the eastern
wetlands
Connecting the natural, rural and urban systems

19. National ParkOrchards
Watercourse
Implementing a
green filter of
poplars
Connecting the natural, rural and urban systems

20. National ParkOrchards
Watercourse
The neighborhood as a landscape-connector
node!
Connecting the natural, rural and urban systems

21. Urban
strategies

23. Strategies for water, wood, energy and productive cycles
`Recycling´ = reinserting a cycle dynamics

24. New mobility scheme

25. New water cycle

26. New productive activities

27. New renewable energies

28. Urban
design

29. Primary school
Wood training
centerWater treatment
plant
Business
incubator
Kindergarten
Social center
Dissuasive
parking
Rehabilitated
rural heritage

32. Public space

33. The city may grow in terms of
quality rather than in square
meters!

34. Housing
strategies

35. New shared spaces
Spatial flexibility
Participatory process
Energetic adaptation
In-between spaces
Community exchange
system
Architectural upgrading
Reversible improvements
Wood and local know-how
Economically sustainable interventions
Manifesto

36. Low cost, modifiable,
non-definitive solutions
Structural elements,
enclosures and
furniture made in local
wood

37. SPACE
TIMEGOODS
Community
exchange
system

38. Inhabitants offer SPACE

39. Inhabitants obtain shared & private
SPACE

40. Inhabitants offer and obtain
TIME/WORK
GOODS/MONEY

41. Implementation

42. Self-promoted changes
for every 20 housing
units sharing 1 access

43. Adding layers of shared space

45. Ground floor

46. First floor

47. Second floor

48. Third floor

49. Fourth floor

50. Rooftop floor

51. Typological
diversity

52. Rehabilitation with wooden
elements and gallery
extension

53. Autonomous satellite room
with equipped furniture

54. Greenhouse extension on
the rooftop and shared terrace

55. Façade renewal with staircase,
new plugged-in bathroom,
equipped furniture and shared
terrace
+

56. Narrowing house with new gallery
and plugged-in kitchen and
bathroom

60. Thank you!

61. IMPROVISTOS
With the vital collaboration of
Orba Neighbors
Civic Neighborhood Association
Alfafar Municipality
Universities of Valencia and Madrid
Experts Consultants on Law, Engineering, Sustainability and Participation
Professors of Landscape and Architecture
music: ‘Entre dos aguas’ by Paco de Lucía
improvistosnuncavistos@gmail.com