21st Century (2000–present)

Seville Cartuja Masterplan

2010s · Spain · Southern Europe · Event-led and spectacle urbanism · Planned by City/Regional authorities
Site plan of the Isla de la Cartuja, Seville: the Expo '92 grounds re-parcelled as the Cartuja science and technology park (plots TA/SC), with Isla Mágica, the Guadalquivir, the Monasterio de la Cartuja and the conservation-entity boundary.
Site plan of the Isla de la Cartuja, Seville: the Expo '92 grounds re-parcelled as the Cartuja science and technology park (plots TA/SC), with Isla Mágica, the Guadalquivir, the Monasterio de la Cartuja and the conservation-entity boundary. · © Entidad de Conservación de la Cartuja — used with credit · Entidad de Conservación de la Cartuja, Sevilla — plano del ámbito de actuación

Core idea

Innovation park on Expo ‘92 lands

Why it matters

Adaptive reuse of event legacy

Description

A masterplan of the 2010s by city and regional authorities for the Isla de la Cartuja in Seville, the site of the 1992 Universal Exposition. Building on the science and technology park (PCT Cartuja) established after the Expo, the plan consolidates the island as an innovation quarter, upgrading public space and mobility, reusing surviving pavilions for research, universities and firms, and introducing sustainability measures including a prominent renewable-energy agenda.

Significance

Cartuja is one of the longest-running experiments in converting mega-event grounds to productive urban use, and its uneven history is instructive for debates on event legacies. Its later reframing as an innovation district and testbed for decarbonisation shows how legacy sites are successively re-narrated as planning fashions change, from spectacle to knowledge economy to climate response.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.