Group A

Cultural rebranding in Bilbao : The Guggenheim effect

One of a family of Guggenheim museums designed by Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Bilbao has undoubtedly helped to transform Bilbao’s economy, and put the city on the international map. Indeed, before it arrived in 1997, very few of us knew anything about Bilbao, other than that it had a famous football team. Certainly, the international press coverage of the museum during and after its opening meant that the global profile of the city as a whole was raised almost overnight.

But how has the museum’s presence helped the local economy in the years since its opening? The museum itself has received 3.5 million visitors since opening, about 85 per cent of whom have come from outside the region, and over 50 per cent of whom are foreigners, mainly from Britain and France. Even more impressive than the direct contribution that the museum has already made has been the £318 million of economic benefits to Bilbao that it has generated, some six or seven times its initial investment cost. It is estimated that in 2001, the Museum’s economic impact on the local economy was worth £107 million (up from £94.8 million in 2000). In the same year, it also brought in a further £17.2 million to the Basque treasury in taxes. This represents the equivalent of 4,415 jobs. And in addition to £5.7 million spent inside the museum, visitors spent much larger sums in the city on accommodation (£31.8 million), catering (£25.4 million), shopping (£10 million), transport (£7 million) and leisure (£4.7 million).

The success of this flagship project has led to the phrase “the Guggenheim effect”, meaning the effect that a high profile cultural development can have on the image of a place. But can cultural projects really lead regeneration?

Useful websites

http://www.designbuild-network.com/features/feature1506/

http://www.unesco.org/courier/1998_09/uk/signes/txt1.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/oct/30/urbandesign.architecture2

Group BSport as a catalyst for rebranding: Barcelona Olympics

Barcelona - the model Games?The Olympic Games have come to represent a major opportunity for economic regeneration, infrastructural investment and environmental improvement, as

well as a means of achieving international prominence and national prestige through ‘place marketing’. Consequently, the Olympics are perceived by many urban and political leaderships as a highly desirable event to host. Indeed, the interest of existing global cities in staging the Olympics is now considerable - see Table 2 and Fig. 2.

The remarkable growth in the number of candidates is the clearest possible evidence that cities now perceive major benefits to be derived from the Games, related in part to the globalisation of television coverage. The 1992 Barcelona Games is regarded as one of the most successful Olympics ever. The transformations made in the city for the Olympics have become regarded as a model for other cities wishing to initiate large-scale revitalization schemes. The organisation of the Games permitted a complete change of scale of urban generation in Barcelona. Up to these Games planners had been speaking about new streets and gardens, but after the Olympic nomination they were able to speak of new ring roads, seaports and Olympic Villages. The games development opened up the coast to the expansion of the city and began to change the size and shape and form. Table 3 shows the

relative proportions of spending in key areas.

While the general perception of the ‘Olympic effect’ in Barcelona has been highly positive, instances of less welcome outcomes can also be identified. The transformation of a deprived residential area at Parc de Mar (Barcelona) into a much more

affluent and privileged community who now reside in the Olympic Village has led to criticism of ‘unnecessary gentrification’. Barcelona also expanded its hotel accommodation stock for the Games but levels of occupancy could not be maintained. Between 1990 and 1994, the room capacity of Barcelona increased by 44.5%, but the occupancy decreased by 23.2%. Some host cities have utilised the Olympics as a springboard to wider urban development much more energetically than others. In the case of Barcelona, the Games were actually part of a much bigger programme of urban renewal that was initiated in the mid 1970s.

Useful websiteshttp://www.bcn.es/english/laciutat/barcelona/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4419011.ecehttp://www.independent.co.uk/extras/features/after-the-party-what-happens-when-the-olympics-leave-town-901629.html

Group CCoastal regeneration in Blackpool?

Blackpool is the largest seaside resort anywhere in Europe and in 2001 had a resident population of just over 151,200. It attracts around 17 million visitors annually, who spend around £ 545 million, (around £32 each ), and tourism provides employment for over 29,000 people. However, over the last 30 years the number of visitors each year has fallen quite considerably.

Blackpool in the twenty first century:The decline in the tourist industry has left the town with a series of social and economic problems:

The schools in the central wards have a very high 20% turnover. There is a very high percentage of transient population and rough sleepers.

The problems it experiences are very similar to the large city areas of Manchester and Liverpool.

According to the indices of deprivation issued by the government some of the inner wards are amongst the most deprived areas in England.

Blackpool has the 3rd worst GDP of its region and 12 th lowest of the whole UK.

Blackpool has the lowest proportion of economically active people in the county of Lancashire

Blackpool has one of the highest levels of benefit claims during the winter months.

Blackpool Challenge Partnership,(Bcp), was established in 1996 to bid for and deliver schemes under the government’s Single Regeneration Budget, (SRB). This now involves over 50 organisations including the local council, representatives of main employers, businesses, police and local media who are working together on various schemes. Since 1996, BCP has supported a range of schemes connected to all aspects of the town’s life. Recently the BCP has received £20 million of SRB money which is essential for attracting an extra £74 million from the public and private sector. This funding will be used to finance projects such as:

Improvements to existing accommodation. This is an enormous task as Blackpool has around 3000 accommodation establishments and about 90,000 bed spaces.

Incentives to attract new three and four star hotels to the town Tackling crime, especially burglary and car theft which can deter visitors. An overhaul of the Tower Development of Central Station The creation of 2000 new jobs in activities other than tourism. Pleasure Beach: a vast glass-covered entertainment building is to become

the new focus of this area. The plans include the construction of a casino and new luxury hotel with 800 bedrooms next to a ‘transformed South Pier’ and a car park for c 4000 cars

Town Centre: this area will become the new commercial and retail center with many new shops, new Civic Buildings and a new £100 million ‘state of the art’ conference centre. Much of the area will be pedestrianised, with large areas given over to public gardens and car

parks. Central Beach: this area is to be converted into a glass-covered ‘attraction

centre’ and leisure complex, ringed by hotels giving 1800 new rooms of 4 and 5 star accommodation.

The Village: the older area of Victorian hotels is to be renovated and refurbished to maintain its traditional character, restore it to its original splendor

It was hoped that Blackpool would win a bit for the UKs first “supercasino”. Under the guidelines, the super-casino must address a need for regeneration in the chosen area, which is likely to have high levels of unemployment and social deprivation. However, Manchester was chosen instead and this year the plans were scrapped. According to studies from the Institute for Public Policy Research, the number of tourists visiting Blackpool is dropping by up to 2% each year. Recently, Blackpool was given £300 million in compensation for missing out on the “supercasino”.

Suggested websites:http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/

http://www.reblackpool.com/reblackpool/default.aspx

Group DUrban heritage tourism in Bradford, Yorkshire

In 1800, Bradford was a small market town of 16000. Local people carried out wool spinning and cloth weaving in small cottages and farms. Industrial growth brought about by the Industrial Revolution led to the rapid growth of the city over the next fifty years. By 1850 there were over 100 wool mills in the borough. Bradford had become the ‘wool capital’ of the world with a population of around 100,000.and the town centre expanded rapidly. Many of the old buildings were replaced and large public buildings were built, funded by wealthy industrialists, in an ornate Victorian style.

After the decline of the UK’s woolen industry Bradford struggled to replace its closing factories. However, in the last 20 years the traditional woolen industry has become the focus of a local Heritage Industry and given the town a new lease of life. The Bradford District covers an area of almost 150 square miles of which 60% is open countryside and moorland containing attractive settlements. There is thus a variety of other attractions for visitors to the area to enjoy, such as

The Industrial museum– an original worsted spinning mill complex built in 1875 now used to recreate life in Bradford in the late 19th century, with shire horses at work, a mill owner’s house and back to back cottages.

The Alhambra Theatre, one of Britain’s best-preserved Edwardian theatres, which has recently been refurbished.

Saltaire: a village 3.5 miles to the north of the town containing one of the first big mills to take advantage of British dominance in world trade in the mid-19th century. The new mill integrated on one site all of the many processes of the worsted trade which had gradually been mechanized one by one over the previous 50 years. In 1853, Saltaire village, the largest and most complete industrial village of that time, was opened. Titus Salt had

built this settlement for the mill workers to try to solve the problems raised by uncontrolled and unplanned industrialism and urbanism at that time. He provided 800 well-planned houses with facilities for modern sanitation and utilities, churches, an institute hospital, school and a park for the residents. Visitors to Saltaire can experience the life style of workers in the nineteenth century. The mill itself, no longer operational, houses the largest collection in the world of the works of Bradford born artist David Hockney. In December 2001, Saltaire was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Similar settlements were built by other great industrialists for their workers, e.g. Port Sunlight near Liverpool and Bournville near Birmingham.

Haworth, with its famous parsonage, birthplace of the Bronte sisters, is nearby as an added attraction for the visitors.

Other attractions are the Keighley and Worth valley railway with its old steam trains, trips by waterbus along the network of Victorian canals, local festivals and events. There are also over 4400 listed buildings in the area.

New attractions have also been introduced. In 1983 the National Museum of Photography, Film and TV, created in association with the Science Museum in London, was created in Bradford. Bradford has been very forward thinking in exploiting its ethnic diversity as a tourist attraction, with the famous gastronomic curry trail and the recent proposal to establish a spice market - developed by the Eden Project Group.

The tourist industry now attracts 8 million visitors to Bradford and District each year and is thus of major importance to the present-day economy of the city. Over 10,000 people are employed in tourism- related jobs. Bradford has the great advantage of a real mix of tourist attractions The recent growth in income from tourism in the city can be seen in Fig 3. Around 80% of this income comes from the low expenditure day visitor sector, compared to Yorkshire as a whole, with a figure of 60%. Bradford is seen as brand leader for Urban Heritage Tourism and an encouragement to many other Northern Industrial towns to go for it.

Suggested websites

http://www.saltairevillage.info/http://www.saltaire.yorks.com/http://www.bronte-country.com/http://www.saltsmill.org.uk/http://www.bradfordnewcity.com/default.asp

Group ERebranding rural areas: Big Sheep Devon

Many rural areas are facing decline due to a combination of factors. The collapse of farming in Britain (due in part to increased mechanisation and foreign competition) has led to the need to develop a “post-production countryside”. Many rural areas are characterised by low wages and poor service provision which is leading to the out-migration of young people, leaving behind an ageing population. In some areas, pariculararly accessible and attractive locations in National Parks, are experience conflict as a result of high house prices and gentrification of the countryside due to commuters and second home owners

Many people in rural areas are on low incomes. The average income from farming, £9,900 per head, is now at its lowest level since the UK entered the EU. There are high levels of unemployment (13%). The jobs that do exist are often part-time, seasonal or insecure. Many people are also self-employed and there are large numbers who are no longer in the job market (Fig. 2). 1.4 million rural people also have no formal academic qualifications which reduces their employment opportunities. Combined with a lack of mobility, which many experience, this is a major problem.

The West Devon Local Government have recognized the need for a coherent brand or identity to attract inward investment and visitors. Mission statement “We will now live in a different way …Simply by making North West Devon the best place to live and work in the World”

Useful websiteshttp://www.thebigsheep.co.uk/http://www.ndexreg.co.uk/http://www.torridge.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3000

Group FFrom desert to cultural oasis, complete with Louvre, Guggenheim and Ferrari

Massive rebranding exercise brings western art and style to attract wealthy foreigners

Robert Booth The Guardian, Wednesday 3 September 2008

Emirati men discuss scale models of new museums in Abu Dhabi. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP

When it comes to cultural icons, few would mention Manchester City in the same breath as the Louvre. But to Abu Dhabi's royal family the football club is the latest in a string of multibillion-dollar acquisitions designed to rebrand the nation as a oasis of western culture in the Gulf.

The Middle East state is spending billions of dollars buying the rights to internationally recognised cultural brands, including a deal to build the first branch of the Parisian art gallery outside France and the world's largest Guggenheim. Work is also under way on a Ferrari theme park in collaboration with the Italian sports car company, while the first ever Picasso exhibition currently on show in the Middle East features 186 paintings, drawings and sculptures from the Musée National Picasso in

Paris.

The vast wealth of the United Arab Emirates stems from the discovery of almost 10% of the world's oil reserves beneath its sands, and the leaders of Abu Dhabi - the second most populous city in the UAE - have established The Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi to attract "cultural seekers" who "crave authenticity, exclusivity, quality".

Until the 1960s the tiny kingdom did not have a metalled road and was sustained mainly by camel herding, farming, fishing and pearl diving in the Gulf. Then came the oil wealth, now being spent on infrastructure to the tune of $200bn (£1.1bn) in the next seven years.

When he signed the 30-year deal to use the Louvre name on a gallery designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, Sheikh Khalifa, ruler of Abu Dhabi, heralded "a major achievement in Abu Dhabi's vision to become a world-class destination bridging global cultures" which will "create an enriching environment to be treasured by and to educate generations to come".

It has been reported that the emirate has paid $548m to use the Louvre name and is expected to pay an additional $788m for management advice and art loans from the Louvre and other French museums, including the Pompidou Centre and the Musée d'Orsay.

The Louvre will be built on Saadiyat Island (Happiness Island), a new cultural district in the Arabian gulf connected to Abu Dhabi city by a 10-lane highway. It will also feature the Guggenheim - to be designed by Frank Gehry - a new concert hall by Zaha Hadid, the British architect of the London 2012 aquatics centre, and a national museum named in honour of the late ruler, Sheikh Zayed, to be built by Lord Foster. Japanese architect Tadao Ando is designing a maritime museum to complete what

government officials call "one of the most impressive constellations of cultural attractions ever assembled".

Sheikh Khalifa's brother, Sheikh Mohammed, said Saadiyat Island would help "interconnected global understanding" and create the world's largest cultural destination across 27 sq km. The Guggenheim, Louvre and national museum are due to open before 2013.

"They have realised they cannot go on by simply distributing oil wealth to their population and so the idea is to turn Abu Dhabi into a sophisticated, internationally renowned viable state," said Professor Gerd Nonneman, director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University. "They are also hoping to use this as a way of attracting higher level expatriates because they suffer from a massive skills shortage."

A branch of the Sorbonne, France's most prestigious university, has already opened in a deal partly intended to set a new benchmark for standards of higher education. Nonneman added that Abu Dhabi's ruling family was also motivated by a battle of "one-upmanship" with Dubai, a neighbouring emirate which "has stolen the limelight" with its hedonistic mix of hotels, shopping malls and theme parks which attract hundreds of thousands of expatriates and tourists. By contrast, Abu Dhabi aims to become "a beacon of general culture", he said.

That is an approach that seems crass to some. Peter York, the branding expert, said Abu Dhabi's tactic of acquiring international cultural brands was "like building Venice in Las Vegas.

"It just looks like they have wandered into the first shop they have seen and bought what is there and we in the west tend to make fun of people who do that," he said. "They are buying what we call 'borrowed interest' and that can work, but if you are trying to convince sophisticated people in sophisticated economies that you too are a sophisticated economy, it is not enough. What really matters to inward investors are things like governance and the availability of an adaptable and highly educated workforce."

Abu Dhabi's embrace of western cultural brands has proved controversial. In France more than 5,000 intellectuals signed a petition against the deal with the Louvre arguing that "museums are not for sale", and Nonneman said conservative elements in nearby Muslim states such as Saudi Arabia could object to the display of art for entertainment.

But the real audience is foreigners. "They are people who use travel to enrich themselves, always seeking new experiences in new countries, and they have enough money to go wherever they choose," said the Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi. "They want unique experiences that feed their sense of discovery. They reject the sameness that increasingly dominates their lives ... they crave authenticity, exclusivity, quality."

Growth strategy

Abu Dhabi's 60-year-old ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan has a personal fortune estimated at $23bn (£12.7bn) by Forbes magazine but presides over a national fortune that is far greater. Sheikh Khalifa is president of the emirate's Supreme Petroleum Council. He is also chairman of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. He is seen as a pro-western moderniser who loves the traditional pastimes of Arab royalty: falconry, fishing, horse and camel racing, as well as reading history and poetry. His father took control of the emirate in 1966 and realised it could be transformed with oil wealth. Sheikh Khalifa said he learned from him "the need for patience and prudence in all things". He works with his brother Sheikh Mohammed al-Nahyan on a modernisation programme which observers say includes an emerging meritocracy rare in the region. They are developing the technology to supply zero-carbon energy. The Masdar initiative envisages a new walled city powered by renewable energy to be built by 2023.

The hanging gardens of Croydon? Plan to turn 'concrete hell' into a new Barcelona

· 30-storey greenhouse part of drive to win city status· River to be brought back to life and parks to ring town

Traffic in Croydon town centre. Photograph: Frank Baron

As one of Britain's bleakest urban jungles, it might seem an unlikely site for a green utopia of hanging gardens, flowing rivers and rolling parks. But Croydon will not be deterred.

Later tonight the much maligned town, once described as a "complete concrete hell" by David Bowie, will announce a multibillion-pound regeneration plan that will, potentially, turn it into a beacon of sustainability, drawing on ideas from other European cities including Barcelona.

The architect Will Alsop, who once tried to reinvent Barnsley as a walled Tuscan hill town, is to mastermind the transformation, which has as its centrepiece "a vertical version of the Eden Project" rising more than 30 storeys in Park Hill Park.

Effectively a giant greenhouse in the form of a skyscraper, it would become Croydon's primary visitor attraction with different species planted in "sky gardens" on each floor.

Alsop has proposed hacking back "a forest of car parks" choking the town centre, shutting eight-lane highways to through traffic and building a pedestrian-friendly "emerald necklace" of parks.

The river Wandle is also to be brought back to the surface 40 years after it was buried in culverts and Alsop hopes to revive fishing for Wandle trout.

His vision - dubbed "Third City" - is part of Croydon's attempt to persuade the government to grant it city status. Since 2000, ministers have overlooked its claim while allowing Preston, Newport, Lisburn, Newry, Inverness, Stirling, Wolverhampton and Brighton and Hove to qualify.

"Everything in our town centre demands that we are considered a city," said a spokesman for the council.

Under the plan, 20,000 new homes will be built to increase the town centre population from fewer than 5,000 residents to 50,000. Glass apartment blocks will be connected by high-level covered walkways crossing the main Wellesley Road, which will be reduced from eight lanes to two. Pod-shaped buildings will rise up on stilts and scores of public squares and miniature parks will be built throughout the town centre, inspired by the regeneration of Barcelona after the 1992 Olympics.

It will correct what Jon Rouse, chief executive of the council, described as Croydon's failed attempt to build a successful town in line with the modernist principles of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier.

"Croydon was a prosperous historic town in the 19th century and the history books show that it was a really pleasant place to come," said Rouse.

"The second world war completely blew it to bits. What grew up in the 1960s was one of the most wholehearted developments of Corbusian modernism. At the time it was seen as very exciting and pointed the way to the future. But it didn't work and it became seen as an alien structure imposed on the historic settlement. Now Will Alsop is trying to bring the historic urban pattern back."

Alsop's plan was drawn up after a series of workshops with local residents, whose ideas included creating a beach and bringing the Wandle back to the surface.

By 2010 Croydon will be hooked up to the London Underground network via the extended East London line.

"This marks a new beginning," said Alsop. "Developers are lining up their money to invest and I have faith that the people of Croydon are behind what we are planning to do. We know London is under housing pressure but rather than building new estates in the Thames Gateway area, we should be looking to build ... in places like Croydon."

The attempt to rebrand Croydon - currently best known as the headquarters of Nestlé UK and the birthplace of Kate Moss has raised eyebrows in rival cities.

"All I know about Croydon is that you go through it on the way to Gatwick and there's lots of 1960s municipal architecture there," said Peter Saville, the creative director at Manchester city council who produced a brand vision of Manchester as "the original modern city".

"When you hear they are rebranding Croydon you can't help but smile in a cynical way. I am very sceptical about the notion of rebranding places.."

Alsop's vision is largely reliant on private investment. It will be started by a £450m urban regeneration vehicle set up by the council, which is planning to develop £89m worth of council property that will be boosted with private investment and loans. Separately, around £3.5bn in private investment has already been earmarked for projects including an arena for 12,500 spectators and a 44-storey residential tower.

Slough, Reading and Basingstoke - Croydon's closest competitors for investment - have already launched city centre building projects and Gateshead, Stockport and Barnsley are also following their larger neighbours with strategies to improve their tired centres.

"This is Croydon's turn," said Rouse.