The Bilbao Effect beyond the Guggenheim Museum Urban and Social Renewal of a Metropolis

• Published in: Handbook of Waterfront Cities and Urbanism pp. 405 - 418
• Main Authors: Perez, Alona Martinez, Sanz, Joan Moreno
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2023
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Left Bank; Guggenheim Museum; FGD; Bilbao Effect; Future Practice; Public Administrations; Port Authorities; Contemporary Society; Green Infrastructure; River Nervion; Functional Axis; Water Sensitive Design; Bilbao Metro; Urban Development Model; Industrial Heritage; UN; Sponge; High Floor Area Ratio; Global Urban Network; FGD Participant; Energy Resources; Euskadi Ta Askatasuna; Spatial Planning
• ISBN: 1032067519; 9781032069234; 1032069236; 9781032067513
• DOI: 10.1201/9781003204565-27

The River Nervión or La Ría has historically structured Bilbao and its surroundings from a social, functional, and environmental perspective. After the 1970s industrial crisis, its political, social, and economic stakeholders agreed to build a new urban model for the metropolis based on strengthened public transportation infrastructure and improved environmental quality of the Ría as a backbone of the Bilbao Metropolitano. The new spatial plans aimed to create an urban brand that allowed Bilbao to compete with other cities in the global urban network. Urban marketing exemplified in the renovation of Abandoibarra and its banner: the Guggenheim Museum, did not consider the values of this territory that had shaped the Bilbao's character for decades, e.g., the industrial heritage of the Ría. On the other hand, public transport infrastructures contributed the most to the spatial and social cohesion of the metropolis since the end of the twentieth century.