COSTA DEL SPRAWL
open ideas competition
This open ideas competition forms part of a wider research project and seeks designs which encourage and facilitate cultural exchange and integration between immigrant and native communities. Spain’s Costa del Sol has been permanently transformed by the construction boom of the late 20th and early 21st century and its abrupt end with the European financial crisis. Inward looking private residential complexes and commercial facilities sprawl incoherently to form communities inhabited predominantly by immigrants from Northern Europe. The financial crisis brought almost all construction to an abrupt halt. Abandoned structures remain on the periphery of the sprawl as if monuments to the boom and crash.
The brief is simple. This competition asks individuals and teams to produce a single A3 page which communicates their idea for the repurposing of an abandoned structure at the edge of one of the Costa del Sol’s urbanisations. The concrete foundations of an incomplete residential building in Riviera del Sol embody the moment the crisis hit this part of Spain. Ideas are sought to demonstrate how such modern day ruins can be used and adapted in order to have a positive impact within their communities where the current urban design makes integration of cultures so difficult.
The site
The primary site for the ideas competition is the unfinished concrete structure highlighted on the map, however, designers are encouraged to think of ways in which new designs can engage the structure with the surrounding area and community. There is therefore no official boundary to the site, the only requirement is that the concrete structure is incorporated into any proposal.
