Puerto Madero: New quality public spaces promote walking and cycling

The Puerto Madero Corporation (CPM) was created in 1989 to urbanise and manage 170 Ha belonging to the old port. The many international prizes awarded in the last 30 years bear witness to the success of one of the largest waterfront transformation projects in Latin America. Today the Puerto Madero Corporation is involved in different urban regeneration projects in several Latin American cities, sharing the knowledge accumulated over these three decades. Port cities have evolved since the 1980s, and today mobility is one of the main issues. In this interview, Eduardo Albanese, Architect and Technical Manager, explains the mobility-related initiatives that the Puerto Madero Corporation is carrying out. Corporación Puerto Madero has been a member of AIVP since 2017. AIVP – Puerto Madero's original Masterplan (PDF) is now practically 30 years old. Over this period the way in which urban spaces and city life are conceived has evolved enormously, particularly in terms of mobility. Do the main urbanisation decisions taken all that time ago still work, or has it been necessary to modify them? What have been the main changes in mobility that you have seen over these decades in Puerto Madero? Eduardo Albanese, Technical Manager of Puerto Madero Corporation – The ideas expressed in the Masterplan have been developed and executed on the 170 hectares of Puerto Madero. They are present in the large public works carried out by the Corporation and in the quality, quantity and scale of the public space which has been integrated into the centre of Buenos Aires. It must be considered that the spirit of the project as originally drafted has been respected over these three decades, although other elements have been introduced consistent with policies that have been applied in the city. In the last 5 years, CPM has carried out surface works at Paseo del Bajo, which was the last large road and city-planning project. This work has involved the inclusion of 10 new hectares of squares, parks and promenades on the north-south axis, structured by the urban highway combining two avenues: Madero-Huergo and Alicia Moreau de Justo. In city-planning terms, it has connected the northern and southern parts of the city of Buenos Aires, while also forming the definitive east-west…