Transformer, Mat Collishaw. Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero. © María A. Leboreiro.

Unfortunately, these days we cannot speak of anything but disasters. Land, water, air and fire seem to have revolted and joined forces in order to cause catastrophes, including recent ones such as the Dana in Valencia and the fires in Los Angeles, and others that are older, but still present, such as the tsunami in Thailand or the earthquake Acapulco in 2021. Either due to climate reaction or human activity, in the words of José Fariña, who recently passed away: ‘We are at a critical time in terms of climate, regardless of ideological discussions, of vested interests, of whether the fault is anthropogenic or a “natural” cycle, the truth is that we are facing an situation of great uncertainty for which the forecasting systems adopted in urban plans or projects are no longer valid’. A new perspective and greater attention to the conditions of the places we inhabit is needed. Also necessary is the cooperation that comes with respecting shared rules in the face of fragile circumstances, such as the Paris Agreement of 2017. Mitigating climate change and ensuring a fair energy transition require a confluence of wills, which is currently lacking.

Other catastrophes are the result of a part of humanity's lack of rationality and memory, such as the wars in Gaza or Ukraine. While these are more visible in the media, others remain hidden. The end result is the destruction of housing, equipment and services, loss of life and suffering.

In any case, it is essential to talk about reconstruction. We are now faced with a double condition. On one hand, we must be more concerned about the site's features, it’s on the other hand, reconstruction must be carried out on the basis of rational guidelines, with standards that take into account not only global parameters, but also coexistence and learning from what history and site can teach us. We need a forward-looking approach rooted in the present with an awareness of the past.

Reconstructions after military conflicts, in which large studies are already working, are a demonstration that invites us to think whether we should not be much more careful and less rushed: neither Ukraine nor Gaza are in the position of being able to assess the extent of destruction. We could talk about the competition organized by the Foster Foundation for the reconstruction of Kharkov, at a time when the hope for peace is remote, and the international situation becomes more complicated due to the inability to negotiate and the foreign interests unrelated to the population suffering the consequences of the conflict. The wide variety of submitted proposals, coming from very different points of view and priorities, is a clear example of how difficult it is to design for the future.

This issue symbolically begins with the “Warsaw Uprising Hill” project. This hill was artificially built with the rubble of Warsaw after its destruction during the Second World War, debris that had once served for the reconstruction of the city. This intervention addresses the difficulty of rebuilding and the impossibility of oblivion: it has taken eighty years for the hill to be incorporated into the city.  He does it with a project recovered by the Fourth Nature, the project is a minimal intervention on the pre-existence generated over time, turning an inaccessible and dangerous site into a park and reserving areas for the continuation of the natural evolution process. The rest is designed with accessible routes, including a tree top and spaces with different functions, ranging from a memorial exhibition space to  areas for games and leisure, with special emphasis on the top of the hill as a place for meditation.

All the projects presented in this issue address the improvement of the urban environment and its impact on the wellbeing and quality of life of the places where they take place. The project in San Boi is intended to be integrative. Its proposal is to renaturalize the city following a path that, regardless of the size of the place, deepens in the idea of moving towards healthier and more sustainable cities, through green areas and their interconnection. Here, four new green areas are created, some of the existing ones are renovated and school playgrounds are naturalized, an interesting idea given the large surface area they usually occupy. The entire action has been promoted through public participation, encouraging citizens to appropriation spaces that were once marginal or simply abandoned. Areas which are now being given the opportunity to sew up the city through a process that favours biodiversity in the various actions proposed, which cover up to 65,000m2, and lie with the 2030 Urban Agenda as its horizon.

The following two projects are both related and concern two small Central European cities linked to water. Nevertheless, their objectives and ways of working are different. The first is closer to the one already discussed in Warsaw, while the second is more design intensive. The first consists of the restoration of Bad Salzdetfurth's connection with the river Lamme in Germany, a city that faces its decline due to the disappearance of the mining activity that once sustained it. The project is described as landscape architecture in which renaturalization appears once again, in this case by reversing negative aspects such as flooding with the creation of a wetland biotope. The intervention is an initiative that prioritizes nature, eliminating the dock that allowed the operation of industry and converting it into a promenade along the river, while incorporating the remodelling of the Market Square as a center of activity. The project is understood as a transformation that increases the attractiveness of the city and boosts its economy while increasing resistance to climate change.

The second project is located in the Austrian city of Horn and differs from the previous one in a greater intention of design and generation of urbanity, turning a private facility into an accessible public space. The project is conceived as an urban facility with special emphasis on sports and culture. The idea behind it was to recover the existing structures, basically wooden platforms, by complementing and updating them, designed, in the authors' words, "with sustainability in mind under the principle of adaptive reuse."

The last urban design project is the one carried out in Rimini, which has a larger scale of intervention, on a 6 km seafront. This site, which previously lacked significant values, also has a greater landscaped character, establishing a connection between nature - the sea and the beach with the addition of artificial dunes and the importance given to vegetation - and the city, through streets and squares. It is designed as a promenade that reinforces touristic attraction while at the same time serves as a leisure space that the population can use throughout the year for cultural and sporting activities. The project foresees the adaptation of the existing hotel infrastructure to the new situation, as well as the construction of singular buildings and the design of beach services such as huts and shaded areas. Wood and ceramics are used as reference materials, with the colour of each of the eight sections, into which the promenade is divided, being the signalling element of the relationship with the city. Each section is themed based on the identity of Rimini, whether it is the Malatesta temple, the characters of Fellini or the tradition of ballroom dancing.

This issue contains an article on planning, a scarce document in recent times -at least in Spain-. This occurs in the midst of a process of conceptual analysis, due to the lack of revision or adaptation of the existing general planning, which has been in force for a very long time and has become unsuitable for new circumstances that prevent the development of land planning due to the lack of opportunities for its implementation and execution.

We deal, in this case, with a plan that is described in the title of the article: “A proposal focused on regeneration and urban renewal, aimed at promoting an active, participatory and committed citizen life with its environment”. The aim is to work on the existing city, updating it and bringing it up to date in the development of the criteria established in the 2018 Special Urban Quality Plan for the city of Valencia. The plan is conceived as a revision of the current General Urban Planning, quite outdated (1988), and with the scope established in the Urbanistic Norms of the plan itself. Its scope covers old towns and develops sectors. It is based on a precise compilation of information, with a methodological approach derived from its adaptation to the numerous application documents that have appeared successively in order to adapt the urban planning activity to the new realities and dynamics of the city, as well as to the new approaches in relation to sustainability, mobility, housing quality and landscape integration. In short, the general strategy of the action plan for the defined area is its revitalization.

As a conclusion, it is worth reflecting on three parameters that have been appearing repeatedly in recent planur-e issues: sustainability, resilience, and health. Health, as an emerging parameter, is becoming a key factor in a world that is becoming irremediably urban. As is already being discussed in multiple forums: the future will either be healthy or it will not be.