Intervention in the Existing City: The Rehabilitation Actions in the Legislative Reforms during 2011

Abstract

Urban environments are privileged actors to address the main problems arising in a global change
scenario. However, this is where it is most notably found the lack of legal responses to the problems that
triggered the economic dynamics. The article shows that the transition toward changing the urban model
requires a rigorous State legal framework, that favors a concerted and coordinated action, at all levels
and scales, of various factors that come together in what has been called the existing city, to make
possible the activities of urban fabric regeneration, in a comprehensive and inclusive approach, of the
whole urban space, that simultaneously promotes all aspects of sustainability: energy, environment,
economy, social and cultural, being no longer useful or not sufficient, and less if they are speculative
approaches of a specifically urban character. The legislative reforms adopted by the Spanish Government
during the period 2010-2011, aiming to facilitate the involvement of existing urban structures by forecasts
concerning rehabilitation proceedings, do not provide the clear and rigorous legal framework they need.