Smart Regional

Alcañiz, Spain 2021

Smart-Regional is a series of proposals to reactivate rural territories in Spain. This is done by reactivating abandoned railway infrastructure. Some of these railways were deactivated due to management shifts, underuse, or prioritizing development in other regions. This trend has contributed to the depopulation of rural Spain, a trend that Smart Regional aims to shift.

Smart-Regional is a series of proposals to reactivate rural territories in Spain. This proposal aims to increase the accessibility of rural areas by restoring old railways (green corridors) and by bringing commercial activity. Railway infrastructure. Some of these railways were deactivated due to management shifts, underuse, or prioritizing development in other regions. This trend has contributed to the depopulation of rural Spain, a trend that Smart Regional aims to shift.

New trends in technology, human wellness, and shifts in work mediums due to Covid-19, bring new opportunities to rural regions across the world. People seek more meaningful connections to heritage, nature, and security than what cities have to offer. Because of this, LAIA assembles a program set for rural regions in Spain with an abandoned railroad infrastructure that is replicable to various towns in Spain.

This proposal is structured in three different parts:

1) Territorial research to locate the areas of intervention with highest potential to apply the Smart Regional program set, as well as a summary of this set.

2) A way to apply this set at a territorial level in Alcañiz, located in Aragón, Spain.

3) An architectural concept of how this set can take form in Alcañiz.