Milla digital, Juan Pradas and Jose-Carlos Arnal

The Milla Digital projects on redundant railway land in Zaragoza

The proposed Milla Digital Art and Technology Centre

The Milla Digital Water Pavilion

The Memory Paving concept

Digital Bus stops

Milla Digital

Juan Pradas and Jose-Carlos Arnal illustrate a ‘virtual-world’ approach to stimulating creative activities and a new public realm

Zaragoza’s Milla Digital (‘digital mile’) is not a conventional case of urban regeneration: the project is currently converting a mile-long district between the old and the new railway stations into an area of technology-driven parks, public facilities and development. Milla Digital is a good example of how a combination of urban design, new cultural facilities and new media technologies can provide the components to create or boost a successful innovation ecosystem. It is also an ambitious attempt to integrate digital media into the city’s everyday life to create a new form of public realm. The aim is to rethink the conventional role of public spaces to provide an innovative environment for new activities. These new digitally-mediated places will interact and respond to their users, and become part of the city’s identity.

With a significant history covering 2,000 years, Zaragoza is a medium-sized Spanish city, home to almost 700,000 people. Capital of the Aragon Region, it has a strong and growing industrial base, and excellent socio-economic indicators within the Spanish average. At first glance, it is an unusual venue for experiments with digital media. However, the city is undergoing a transformation which would seem impossible just a decade ago, with huge efforts and changes in many areas. The starting point of this urban transformation is the arrival of the High Speed Train (AVE) and other projects include the forthcoming 2008 International Exposition and the creation of a huge logistics platform (PlaZa).

The Milla Digital project started as an opportunity to regenerate 107 hectares in the city centre formerly used as railway lands, carried out by Zaragoza City Council in close cooperation with the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and the Regional Government of Aragon, (via the corporation Zaragoza Alta Velocidad). The project aims to strengthen the advantages of the traditional, consolidated city, integrating new sources of employment into its heart, increasing the mix of uses and providing a new generation of public facilities able to cultivate an ecosystem of innovation and creativity. Its objectives are to:

• Create an urban platform for innovation and creativity
• Attract ‘New Economy’ companies for about 4,000 – 5,000 highly-skilled jobs
• Operate as a large scale ‘living laboratory’
• Facilitate access for all citizens to digital age culture
• Position Zaragoza amongst the most dynamic mid-sized European cities.

One of the main aspects of the project is the ‘Blowing of Boundaries’ – the targeted mix of spaces and uses. In today’s urban planning, there has been a gradual collapse of boundaries between work places, residential areas, tourist destinations and entertainment areas. The result for the Milla Digital will be a combination of education, information, and entertainment, available eighteen hours a day, seven days a week.

The City Council has collaborated in the different stages of the project with companies like Siemens, Samsung or Telefonica, research teams from MIT (in particular the School of Architecture and Media Lab) and the University of Zaragoza, as well as a panel of experts including William Mitchell, Peter Hall, Manuel Castells, Saskia Sassen, Dennis Frenchman and Mike Joroff.

THE PROJECT’S PHYSICAL SCALE

To achieve the above objectives, three levels have been defined for the area and its infrastructure: physical, socio-cultural, and digital-connectivity.

A. Physical infrastructure

The physical infrastructure will involve a mix of uses (residential, business, retail, leisure, public facilities and parks) to create a lively environment seven days a week. This mix will consist of 3,600 housing units, 230,000 sqm of public facilities, 240,000 sqm of offices and commercial space, and 340,000 sqm of parks and green areas. At least 20 per cent of the total area will be dedicated to digital economy and creative sector companies, guaranteed by planning regulations. The master plan for the Milla Digital includes ideas for developers to adapt their usual offer to the spatial and organisational needs of ‘New Economy’ companies: i.e. satellite offices, drop-in centres, plug and play offices, and new start-up space.

B. Socio-cultural infrastructure

This will focus upon a campus for urban innovation - the Campus Milla Digital:

• to develop specific cultural facilities to attract the mix of creative people needed for an innovation ‘ecosystem’;
• to provide companies with services such as showroom space, social networking and business incubator units; and
• to design and manage local digital networks in the area. This campus will comprise public facilities, public spaces and green areas, and the important Art and Technology Centre and the Milla Digital Museum.

The Art and Technology Centre, to be located near the new railway station, is planned as a space for research, education, exhibition and design; it could also accommodate residential space for artists and inventors. The Museo de la Milla is conceived with a variety of functions, such as:

• An exhibition and learning centre for citizens and visitors on the current city and its digital and technological developments
• Permanent showroom space for companies presenting new technological products and services, and
• A mediatheque, providing citizens with access, devices, learning programmes and experiences on aspects of digital culture.

C. Digital Connectivity infrastructure

This core infrastructure will be to create an ‘internet’ environment, with a vast fibre-optic network connecting almost 4,000 homes, to create a living test-bed for new digital products and services:

THE VIRTUAL SCALE

To expand the ‘virtual’ scale of the Milla Digital project, Zaragoza City Council commissioned experts from MIT and its Media Lab to undertake research (published in 2006). This challenged Milla Digital to become a more sophisticated level of ‘digital city’. Digital technologies and emerging urban planning trends make it possible to design cities to incorporate both the ‘hardware’ and the ‘software’ of the digital city. Here the software of the digital city refers to social participation, creativity and the need for a social ‘open source approach’.

In considering both the hardware and software of the digital city, the idea of developing a new generation of digital media for public spaces becomes important - new instruments to allow people to use, express, access, participate in, and interact with the city and with its citizens. This new media is a physical expression of the digital age, and the combination of an existing and virtual city can create a new type of the digitally-mediated public space. Technology can make these spaces more responsive to the people in them and contribute to urban liveability. Therefore turning ordinary places into digitally mediated spaces is the main challenge.

These new digitally-mediated places should be able to react to their users; change to accommodate numerous activities; provide stories, information and services; and, in time become part of how a wide spectrum of people live and learn within the city of Zaragoza. This will boost the attractiveness of the Milla Digital area to many groups, i.e. existing and new residents, visitors, businesses, and the immigrant population. The ultimate objective is to build a creative, innovative, but also sustainable, city with no social exclusion in the coming years. In doing so, it is essential to avoid futuristic or sci-fi approaches, and make the devices and spaces as approachable and practical as possible. For example the main characteristics of this social ‘open source approach’ will be:

• That technology and digital media in public spaces should be clear, respectful and available, but not mandatory;
• To design and create distinctive, clear and friendly places that invite citizens to gather in them and socialise. These spaces must be intelligently designed to reveal aspects of the city, and be easily understandable for citizens with limited IT skills;
• There also has to be a clear presentation of themes; relating the city’s past to the present day and the future would be a way of providing information, but could also help to create new communities of interest. For newcomers to Zaragoza, this could explain how to get the best out of the city.

EXAMPLES OF DIGITALLY MEDIATED PUBLIC SPACES

There are a number of different urban digital media proposals at different stages of completion mainly within the Paseo del Agua and the Portillo areas – the two most visible parts of the Milla Digital.

A. Water - a new digital media

There is the opportunity for water to retain both its traditional role of beautifying city spaces, but at the same time become a new way of defining spaces, a screen, digital grafitti, interactive facades and programmable architecture. The digital water wall of the Digital Water Pavilion is one of the most creative concepts from the MIT research and can be used in different forms, for example as water falling as a curtain and programmed to receive images.

B. Memory paving

Anonymity is fundamental to city life, but from time to time everyone wants to leave their mark. Through the memory paving project, pedestrians can make their paths visible and create something for others to respond to and interact with. Illuminating your footsteps with LED (light-emitting diode) lighting for several minutes is a better idea than leaving graffiti, for example.

C. Urban Pixels

Lighting is essential in cities to create safe and friendly places during the evening and night time, but could it be more interactive? The Media Lab team have developed a prototype for Zaragoza called Urban Pixel: an ultra-bright LED with a wi-fi connection and powered by photovoltaic energy. This unit could be used, for example, to mark the perimeter of Milla Digital, creating different atmospheres thanks to its programmable and changing colours. Its luminosity and patterning will be determined by radio signals which can be determined by the public.

D. Bus stops

Based on a concept by the Senseable Cities Laboratory at MIT, a new form of bus shelter will be installed in the Milla Digital area. Its design will adapt according to the setting, local weather, geographical location, traffic conditions and other variables, and can provide connectivity for cell phones, PDAs, and laptops. Under a canopy roof will be a glass wall with LEDs implanted, which working as a touch screen, this wall will have different zones for public transport and traffic information, advertising, news, or just space to add your own digital graffiti.

E. Digital awnings

Awnings are extremely important in a sunny and hot city like Zaragoza in summer, and can be used as screens for art, advertising or tourism information. The screens on awnings can be used to convey images and video clips, or even carry live content such as video telephony.

At the present time, Milla Digital is a project led by Zaragoza City Council. MIT and its Media Lab have been commissioned to develop prototypes for the intelligent urban furniture described here, with the prototypes to be implemented in Milla Digital in 2008. The 2008 International Exposition is to be held in Zaragoza from June to September this year and its theme is ‘Water and Sustainable Development’ and at which more information on the initiative and other changes in the city will be available; the urban development works began in 2007.

Juan Pradas is at the University of Zaragoza and Jose-Carlos Arnal is technical advisor to the Mayor of Zaragoza.