From Decline to Renaissance Oportunities and Limits of New Urban Policies in Bilbao

Abstract

After two decades of uninterrupted decline, metropolitan Bilbao is experiencing an unexpected and extraordinary
«urban renaissance». At an international level, the recipe for Bilbao’s revitalisation is widely marketed
as a unique example of «best practice» and pretends to show lay ahead for other cities undergoing similar
problems of economic and urban decline. However Bilbao has followed closely on the tracks of other
old industrial cities adopting a revitalisation strategy focused upon and led by large-scale and emblematic
redevelopment projects. This paper examines the rise of new urban policies in the city through the lens of
one of these projects, Abandoibarra. This reconversion of a derelict port and industrial site into a new direction
centre is widely publicised as an example of efficiency and maximisation of land redevelopment opportunities
and management. However, this article argues that this strategy is not without its risks and points
up the limits imposed by the dominance of a short-term value return logic that subordinates the strategic
components of the project to the imperatives of real estate profit making.