PAX-Patios de la Axerquía
Applicant: PAX-Patios de la Axerquía Association.
Reason for the award :
The PAX-Patios de la Axerquía project is commendable for dealing with depopulation and sustainable living and focusing on climate action. In renewing these often-forgotten inner spaces of these residential buildings, the project has shown how the revival of a way of life can offer solutions for dealing, for example, with high temperatures in cost-effective and climate neutral ways. It is an example of how the revitalisation of cultural heritage can be significant in addressing contemporary challenges.
This is an innovative system of governance for heritage buildings that fosters a new model of urban regeneration through social innovation in a heritage context, based on the rehabilitation of the abandoned patio-houses (casa de vecinos) of Córdoba.
The rehabilitation of the abandoned patio-houses or “casa de vecinos” in Córdoba, Spain, aims to restore the environmental value of the Mediterranean city and to upgrade its historical characteristics in a contemporary way, together with the local community. The cooperative model aims to offer a more sustainable solution in response to the real estate bubble in Córdoba, the depopulation of the city centre, as well as unsustainable tourism in the city.
The strength of the PAX project is based on the consolidation of a heritage community around urban regeneration and the social recognition of a rich material heritage, which in turn sheds light on the intangible heritage to which it is tied.
As a pilot of the strategy, the first PAX cooperative, financed by the Ethical Bank, rehabilitated a vacant 18th-century patio-house in Córdoba. The house is one of the most interesting “casa de vecinos” in the Axerquia area of the city of Córdoba and represents not just the intersection of European and Maghreb architecture, but also the intangible heritage of a way of life that is present in much of the Mediterranean.
Hispania Nostra News:
Los Patios de la Axerquía descubren la placa del Premio Europeo del Patrimonio / Premios Europa Nostra 2022, september 13th, 2022 (in Spanish).
Conferencia on-line en Hispania Nostra contigo en casa, 15 de noviembre de 2022 (in Spanish).