Metropolitan Bilbao: History of an Urban Phoenix

Abstract

After the strong impact of the industrial crisis during the 80s, especially resulting from the closure and conversion of the steel and shipbuildring sector in the metropolitan area of Bilbao, the political actors had to design a new production model, which will bring out the industrial fabric of this area. To do this, they carried out the reconfiguration of the urban landscape and a visual strategy, which was capitalized by the inaguration of the Guggenheim Musseum, with the realization of other infrastructure of cultural services and transportation, serving not only as stimulus and settlement for a tertiary sector, but as international demand to show this urban and economic regeneration, being defined this process as the case Bilbao, management model widely studied internationaly.