Architectural style that reflects Malaga’s transformation

Newspaper La Opinión de Málaga held an event with renowned architects and developers in order to analyse the architectural trends in Malaga. The event was attended by Metrovacesa’s Regional Manager for Eastern Andalusia, José Ignacio Carrión.

The experts highlighted the strong urban planning potential of the projects situated in the western area of the capital city, with Metrovacesa’s Malaga Towers being at the fore of all projects.

Newspaper La Opinión de Málaga promoted an event with renowned architects and developers to analyse the trends determining architectural evolution in Malaga. The event was attended by the President and Founder of Sierra Blanca Estates, Pedro Rodríguez Castillo; Metrovacesa’s Regional Manager for Eastern Andalusia, José Ignacio Carrión; and Architects José Seguí of Estudio Seguí, Carlos Lamela of Estudio Lamela and Alejandro Pérez Martínez of HCP Arquitectos.

Amongst other topics, the event organised by La Opinión focused on Malaga’s idiosyncrasy and architectural style; the landing of residential tourism into the city driven by the large projects being developed here (such as Malaga Towers); the parts of the city that presented themselves as the most engaging for the development of such large projects; the validity and convenience or not of modifying the city’s Town Planning Arrangement General Plan, which dates back to 2011; and the shift in the types of properties being demanded by the population after the lockdown.

The participants agreed that there is no specific architectural model in Malaga, no defined style that has determined a specific way of doing things in this sense: “The key is to fit the architectural style to the time and place where one lives” –stated José Seguí-, Malaga was architecturally strong at the end of the 19^th Century thanks to the bourgeoisie that lived here at the time, with architects such as Strachan; a more complicated period of time came after that (the 60s) and nowadays there are very interesting representations of architecture being produced”.

“Hybrid architectural style”

As Pedro Rodríguez Castillo, the President and Founder of Sierra Blanca Estates and the Developer of Malaga Towers in partnership with Metrovacesa -one of the projects raising great expectation in Malaga- stated, architecture in Malaga is “hybrid, a combination of traditional and modern elements; with regional and international influences at the same time”. He also made a special mention of the positive residential urban development of the capital city of the Costa del Sol with projects “that one can find in places such as California and Dubai themselves».

Carlos Lamela, whose name is closely linked with Malaga due to the work his father, Antonio Lamela, carried out in the capital city, went briefly through the architectural evolution of Malaga city: “Malaga had high-quality architectural representations at the end of the 19th Century; in the 60s there were major contributions in the hotel sector, and in the 70s and 80s Malaga saw a downturn due to economic recession, only to later on witness an explosion in the recent years thanks to architects reaching the expected levels of demand and having the willingness to do great things”, he concluded.

The arrival of residential tourism is positioning Malaga at the forefront of these types of projects. In this sense, the Founder of Sierra Blanca Estates, Pedro Rodríguez, highlighted the importance Malaga has as a destination attracting businesses to the city (especially technological companies) “because it has all the ingredients of a great capital city (infrastructures, high-speed train, airport, etc.) which are the necessary complement it needed and with projects such as ours, Malaga Towers, to help classify it as a first-class residential destination”.

José Ignacio Carrión, Metrovacesa’s Regional Manager for Eastern Andalusia, agreed with the previous statements and mentioned the western coast of the city as the place selected for the project that will revive the city: “This part of the city will see a transformation due to various large projects (Malaga Towers, Térmica, Nereo, etc.) and it will become a national and international reference for residential projects”. The area where the former Repsol deposits used to be, with the blocks of buildings and the various green areas that are in plan are, in Carrión’s view, the other winning projects of the city.

The development of the 2011 Town Planning Arrangement General Plan (2011 PGOU, in its Spanish abbreviation).

With regards to the 2011 PGOU, the regulatory core of the city’s urban development, which is constantly in the spotlight, Alejandro Pérez believes that “it is only young, it was born during the recession and it has taken time to develop; however, I believe it is a positive plan, as it contributed to the development of the entire new promenade (Torre del Río, Nereo, Termica, etc.)”. Nevertheless, the Architect of the HCP group also points out a problem: “There is something still missing: the production and tertiary sectors need to have more presence in order to offer the city more opportunities”.

José Seguí believes that the 2011 PGOU “is young in terms of time, but old in terms of ideas” and he added that the reason the city experienced a change was exactly the 1983 PGOU, which meant a milestone and a definite transformation for Malaga (with the creation of the Teatinos area, the Technological Park and Campanillas). The architect believes the draft of a new PGOU is necessary, but he also insists on the need to think of “territorial centralisation with surroundings and without suburbs”, proposing the San Rafael- Campsa land as one of the areas to invest into in future.

José Ignacio Carrión at Metrovacesa does not hesitate to state –supported by the other participants – that “Malaga might be one of the cities which least needs to change its projects, because its housing designs are open by means of terraces and large spaces due to weather demand”. Carrión advanced that independent housing has been most in demand in the last two years and in terms of smaller projects (around 70 square metres) “we must work with flexibility and be able to combine spaces dedicated to night time, day time, work, a terrace, etc. with moveable elements”.