88-96**news ital-ingl 2¡ bozza - Italcementi Group

ArcVision decided to publish the letter written by the Oslo Permanent Committee for Urban
Development to the municipality of Bilbao as a tribute to the commitment of Financiera y Minera,
the Spanish subsidiary of the Italcementi Group, in the program of the Basque City’s urban redevelopment.
Financiera y Minera (Cementos Rezola and Hormigones y Minas) has been actively involved in the
successful “revitalization” of the city of Bilbao. It has played and active role in the completion of the city’s
most significant works over the past five years, the most notable being the Guggenheim Museum, the
Metropolitan, the new “Euskalduna” Conference Center, the new “Santiago Calatrava” airport terminal,
the infrastructures surrounding the city, the “Calatrava” bridge above Bilbao’s river, etc…
In 2001, Financiera y Minera also played an especially active role in the city’s 700th anniversary celebrations
by sponsoring several important urban development operations which placed artistic/architectural elements
in the main squares and crossroads of the city for six months.
All these operations have strengthened Financiera y Minera’s position as a leading actor in the urban
development and revitalization of the Bilbao metropolitan area.
A representation from Oslo
Town Hall, the Permanent
Committee for Urban
Development, visited Bilbao in
September 2001, following a
seminar in Oslo in February
called “Bilbao, the will to
succeed!”. The seminar
helped us to clarify the various
aspects of successful
revitalization of the city –
created, among other factors,
by efficient and wellorganized
co-operation
between the public and
private sectors. In any case,
the most important point is
that Bilbao was providing
evidence of a completely new
tendency in town planning.
Thus we lost no time in
arranging a visit to the capital
of Vizcaya in order to examine
in situ the process which had
aroused such interest in our
country.
During the visit, we quickly
realized that one of the
conditioning factors which
had produced such
developments was
organization of planning and
execution in a nonbureaucratic
and flexible
manner. A further aspect, we
realized, was that the original
idea was not solely based on
local concerns, but had been
extended to include the
region around Bilbao and the
country as a whole. Thirdly,
we felt that markets and
industry within the province
have maintained a positive
attitude with regard to cooperation
and execution of
the various projects. Last but
not least, we reached the
conclusion that Bilbao had
little or no choice in the
matter. The city had to do
something, after all!
If we transfer all these
concerns to Oslo, we would
be faced with an enormous
challenge – establishing an
organizational structure as
powerful as in Bilbao. Our
parliamentary system contains
no precedents for setting up
an organization with a wide
range of authority which can
spearhead the process of
urban development. The Town
Hall is the highest authority
with regard to both town
planning and problems
relating to property and
finance, but it has no
experience in the creation of
the co-ordination which
would be required on such a
large scale.
Within this context, Oslo faces
one of the most extensive
development tasks in many
decades – namely,
transforming our local port
area, Bjørvika, and turning it
into a multi-functional city
area for housing, trading, and
cultural and leisure activities.
This area represents the city’s
best bet, and so a
development company has
been created to this end, with
the Town Hall as a
shareholder.
At the moment, we have no
idea as to how our project will
develop, since we are still very
much in the early stages, but
one thing we are certain
about is that we like Bilbao,
and we like the way things
are being done. We have
visited many parts of the Villa
(as you call your city), we have
been to the Guggenheim
Museum and have admired
the bright colors of the street
cows in commemoration of
the 700th anniversary of the
city. This was a real pleasure
for us. It was then that we
remembered our tiger, the
symbol of Oslo on the city’s
commemoration in 2000 of its
1,000 years of existence. But
that is another story, and we
will tell you about it when you
come here. In any case, Bilbao
is a city we would love to
come back to!
Kari Kiil
Secretary of the Permanent
Committee for
Town Planning in Oslo
Text and images provided
to arcVision by the magazine
Bilbao Ría 2000)
93
Un’immagine
notturna del Museo
Guggenheim.
A night view of
the Guggenheim
Museum.