TOP HOME FOR MADRID NUEVO NORTE
For the first time in a project of this magnitude, Madrid Nuevo Norte has counted on the opinion of citizens since its planning and design phase, with participatory workshops, work groups, etc.
Madrid Nuevo Norte has meant a radical change in the way of approaching major urban development in our country. Leaving behind a model in which the design of the city starts from the layout of the roads for private vehicles and giving way to a model that places the citizen at the center. And this goes beyond thinking about a city for people, but also involving the citizens themselves in the design of their city. An urban regeneration project (the most relevant in Europe), in which it was clear from the beginning that citizen participation had to be one of the fundamental pillars of development.
This citizen participation has also made it possible to show their vision and their way of using the city to all groups. With the main focus on residents of neighboring neighborhoods, the opinion of groups such as children, adolescents, seniors, people with disabilities, etc., has also been taken into account to listen to their needs. In this way, Madrid Nuevo Norte becomes the first large-scale urban planning action to commit to systematized citizen participation with a view to collecting people’s opinions in this determining phase, in which it will be defined how the new neighborhoods.
A milestone: since the approval of Madrid Nuevo Norte seven years ago until today, some 35,000 people have participated in these initiatives for the definition of Madrid Nuevo Norte, which makes it possible to know the specific needs of certain social groups such as, among others, women. , childhood, young people or older people.
Beginning of a new phase of citizen participation
Madrid Nuevo Norte is in the process of drafting its urbanization projects (which is what defines what the streets, sidewalks… of the future new neighborhood in the north of Madrid will be like), and for the first time an ambitious citizen consultation process focused on knowing the opinion and needs of residents and users of the environment, as well as different groups, regarding the use of public space in the city. The objective is to study them and assess their incorporation into the design of the urbanization projects that will define what this future neighborhood in the north of Madrid will be like.
The consultations started in October and will continue over the next six months, involving different groups such as neighbors and users of the environment, children, adolescents, older people and people with some type of disability, among others, so that each one of them can express their specific needs regarding the use of public space. All the information obtained will be analyzed and evaluated with the aim of being able to integrate the different sensitivities and needs in the urbanization projects before their final approval.
Special attention to disability
The part focused on people with different disabilities and their family members or caregivers has 14 participatory workshops (seven in relation to the Business Center-Chamartín and another seven for Malmea-San Roque-tres Olivos). These workshops follow an accessible participatory methodology for which accessible vocabulary and adapted visual/tactile resources are used. In addition, there is support from a multidisciplinary team of architects, psychologists, accessibility experts and sign language interpreters for specific hearing sensory disability sessions.
After these 14 sessions focused on people with a disability or ASD and their caregivers and family members (carried out with the collaboration of the Juan XXIII Foundation), other consultation processes and participatory workshops will be carried out with neighbors and users of the neighborhoods bordering Madrid. Nuevo Norte, as well as other sessions focused on knowing the vision of childhood and adolescence.
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