The <i>Arrabal Alcázar Viejo</i> from Cordoba: Urban, Hereditary and Sustainable Regeneration of the Historic City Centre

Building sustainably begins with planning. The urban regeneration of our old city centres requires finding a functional balance between residential and touristic areas, especially between them and the rest of the city. In order to build public facilities or housings in a sustainable way aiming at repopulating them, municipal ordinances are needed. They shouldn´t evoke idyllic images that create an attractive and touristic reality that never existed. Repopulation, tourism and heritable identity have to walk hand in hand thanks to the planning. My thesis focuses on an arrabal (historical suburb of 13th century) called Alcazar viejo in Cordoba, where traditional houses are still in use. Each ancient house ( casa patio ), which count with a popular courtyard, used to be the home of several families. Nowadays these structures are owned by single families. After being recently declared “Intangible Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO, the tangible value of them has been raised, resulting in such an increase in tourism that their residential use is becoming endangered. Cordoba´s current Historic City Centre Special Protection Plan (PEPCH) lays down an ordinance regarding the traditional casa patio for all this area. This rule is breaking arrabal´ s popular identity and makes it difficult to repopulate it. This is a problem for eco-efficient and sustainable constructions. The Plan pretends to impose an historical image not adapted to society´s demands. So here I expect to propose improvements for a sustainable regeneration of the arrabal , especially regarding the planning, balancing it with tourism and heritage identity.