Los barrios de autoconstrucción de Sevilla como modelo de producción y gestión social del hábitat

Abstract

Cities have gone through many reformulation and adaption processes in order to fulfill their citizens’ necessities, one of the most remarkable cases is the so called phenomenon of the “self-produced city”, historically present all around the world, although it depicts different connotations and characteristics as a direct consequence of the industrial city population overflow due to the different rural-urban migrations. As a representation of a “self-produced” city in Spain, we can find the “self-constructed” districts, which in case of Seville, are responsible for a large part of the urban conformation, social and political, and one of the main housing models for the lower class people until the 1970’s decade, a fact that shows how insufficient the market is, housing public policies failure, and a systemic urban planning, unable to meet the demand and certain population sectors integration. This way, those who have been excluded from the market and for which the Government does not provide any alternatives, solve their necessities by living and constructing. In this sense, self-constructed districts configure from their origin the consolidated city overflow, and become villages of their own in the proximity of the Seville territory due to a relocation of a rural culture to the urban outskirts. Being insufficient and with a lack of everything, its history and consolidation is based on the implication and organization of the neighborhood community to demand before the public administration the district construction, creation of infrastructure, staff, urban services, and its inclusion in its own right into the city, proving that the so-called “formal city” has not been able to face the deficiencies of the “informal city” that emerged in its outskirts. In spite of that, they are currently distinguished only due to their geographical situation, the implication and performance level of the public administration, as well as the internal dynamics of society in each district. Some research studies consider these selfconstructed districts as a growing and expansion outcome of Sevilla itself, others focus on a specific analysis about a certain district; it is our intent to carry out a more detailed study based on quality, opened to possible interpretations, about all twenty-two existing districts, in order to reveal “The Another Unknown Seville” beyond some kind of spontaneous production as a housing alternative and the active role of the society in the decision making of production and social management of the human habitat. This thesis has been able to confirm the “selfproduced city” and self-constructed capacity to generate a district, by transforming it into a live city, complex and dynamic, socially integrated and properly managed, able to relate to the existing city, and evolve over the time in a natural manner, frequently proving a larger flexibility, capacity to transform, and a feeling of deep-rooted neighbours, compared to social housing districts built in the periphery of the city, which, in many cases are static districts, stuck in the past and with no identity. Also, “The Another Unkown Seville” depicts an identification of patterns and contrasts, as well as each “self-constructed” district peculiarities and allows us to classify them in three categories that state their reality, context and relationship with the Sevillian territory, “barrios de Sevilla”, fully integrated in the urban and social fabric, “barrios-pueblos” with a certain autonomy within the city itself, and others that are part of the “Sevilla olvidada” (Forgotten Seville) in spite of its community’s strengths and internal social dynamic.