ZORROTZAURRE
The Zorrotzaurre project is the latest major urban regeneration project to be implemented in Bilbao. Zorrotzaurre is an area that has shown constant social and industrial decline since the 1970s, where, today, scarcely 500 people live.
The area occupies 838,781m2, of which more than half belong to public institutions (the Regional Basque Government, the Bilbao City Hall and the Port Authority of Bilbao) with the rest shared between a number of private owners.
Zorrotzaurre experienced its industrial heyday in the mid-sixties with the opening up of the Deusto Canal by the Bilbao Port Authority, a development never completely concluded.
A number of different industrial activities consolidated in the area related, fundamentally, to the activity of the port on both sides of the canal, along with other activities that became established on the former Deusto bank.
However, the crisis of the 1970s had a significant effect on the local industrial network, which began a progressive decline, which, in turn, led to the closure of part of the industrial activity and the deterioration of the quality of life in the area, as a consequence of the aging of buildings and public and private spaces.
The General Plan for Urban Planning in Bilbao, approved in 1995, changed the use of Zorrotzaurre from industrial to residential. At the same time, it left to a Special Plan, the definition of urban design of the area.
In 2001, public and private Zorrotzaurre owners formed a Management Commission for the Urban Development of Zorrotzaurre, to promote and execute the urban regeneration plan of the area.
The Master Plan project was designed by the prestigious Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The Master Plan drawn up in 2004, and revised in 2007, includes the complete opening of the Deusto Canal leading to the transformation of the Zorrotzaurre peninsula into an island, thereby guaranteeing flood protection for the area.
After the definitive approval of the Zorrotzaurre Special Plan by the Bilbao City Council in November 2012, in October 2013, the Urbanisation Action Programme of the Zorrotzaurre Integrated Action Plan 1 and the Agreement for the management of the Execution Unit 1 of the Integrated Action Plan 1 de Zorrotzaurre were then approved.
The Plan for Zorrotzaurre is divided in to two areas (Integrated Action Plan 1 and 2) and the Integrated Action Plan 1 is further divided into two (Execution Unit 1 and 2) for phased development.
The first phase is the Execution Unit 1 of the Integrated Action Plan 1 and to facilitate its start up the Contracting Board was sep up pn October 15th 2013.
Seen as a whole, the regeneration of Zorrotzaurre represents a balanced and integral project, defined by concepts of sustainability, that recuperates a degraded space and converts it into a new quarter of Bilbao. A new quarter that is well-connected to the rest of the city, equipped with affordable housing, areas for environmentally-friendly industry, cultural and social facilities and plenty of open spaces for the enjoyment of local people.
