Between the heritage and the contemporaneity of the industrial city of Alcoy

The ARA plan, acronym for Architecture and Rehabilitation of Alcoy, was the response to a collective desire of change and to the need for the renewal of an industrial city with a deeply rooted bourgeois and working-class base. The impulse and credibility that made possible the conception of the ARA plan came from a series of projects that consolidated seriously damaged zones of the historic center, and secondarily from the economic commitment of the Generalitat with urban projects of great disciplinary interest that, at that time, had the character of pioneers for their modern procedures of intervention on the inherited city.The common framework of Plan ARA hosted many urban proposals very different in their methodology. However the sense of their cohesion in the city was evident because behind them there was a thought of order necessary for the consolidation and modernization of the urban patrimony that future challenges would ask for. The most relevant architectural project was the renovation of the neighborhood of La Sang, which won the FAD Architecture Award in 1999, but for the citizens the evidence of a remarkable change came with the construction of the public parks. Since that moment the people perceived that an ambitious and clear idea of the city was giving shape to their daily domestic outer spaces.Unfortunately a mix of political and economical issues truncated or set aside important ongoing projects so the completion of the ARA plan was never reached. and the aspiration of becoming an strategic city was forgotten.References:Vidal Vidal, Vicente M. (1992) Il Piano Ara di Alcoy. Descrizione come premessa. Lotus 71. Lotus international. Rivista trimestrale di architettura. Electa.76de Solà-Morales, Manuel (1992) Il nucleo urbano antico come categoria di progetto. Il quartiere di La Sang. Lotus 71. Lotus international. Rivista trimestrale di architettura. Electa.86Cervellati, Pier Luigi and Scannavini, Roberto. Bolonia. Política y metodología de la restauración de centros históricos. Colección Materiales de la ciudad. Editorial Gustavo Gili. Barcelona 1976.Alcoi de Fil de Vint. Arquitectura y Rehabilitación de Alcoi. Generalitat Valenciana. Conselleria d’Obres Públiques, Urbanisme i Transports. Mostra Marzo- Abril 1991