With just a few days to go before the end of 2023, the local newspaper Malaga Hoy wanted to interview Alejandro Pérez, founding partner of HCP, to discuss some of the most important urban planning issues in the city where we founded our architecture studio 37 years ago.
“Malaga is growing, it’s fashionable. And this is incredibly attractive for investors”. This means, on the one hand, that the developments that are put on sale are quickly absorbed by the market, as there is a great interest in buying a home; but, on the other hand, prices are rising, which makes access to housing difficult, especially for the young population. In this regard, our Director General identifies VPO as one of the main measures to be developed to improve the situation: “We have to start building VPOs by putting land at prices controlled by the administration and which are profitable for private initiative”.
2023 has been a year in which major projects for Malaga, such as La Térmica or the future port tower, have been raised or developed. These are projects that have been much debated both among the public and in the local media. In this sense, Alejandro’s vision is clear: “When Calle Larios was reformed, the shopkeepers said that if the traffic disappeared, their businesses would fall dramatically. Muelle 1 almost didn’t happen because there was a silo and it was thought that it had to be protected. Today nobody disputes that both projects are good for Malaga. That’s why we shouldn’t stop doing things like La Térmica. On the contrary, what we need to do is to build many Térmicas, because that is the best way for the city to grow“.
The evolution of the architecture and engineering sector was also one of the central themes of the interview: From the change in the studio’s most common client profile, going from local developers (such as Grupo Cuevas, Edipsa or Myramar, whom Alejandro calls “heroes” who have been working for Málaga for many years) to investment funds; the growing complexity that accompanies the development of projects, multiplying the processes, something that both the architectural studios and the technicians and civil servants of the Administration suffer from; or sustainability, an issue that has become one of the cornerstones of the sector. “In both urban planning and building, sustainability and efficiency are being substantially improved. We are already studying the life cycle of the building, incorporating zero-kilometre materials, or thinking about how to use demolition material, or how to recycle it,” says Alejandro.
Many thanks to Málaga Hoy for interviewing HCP to provide our vision of the city and our sector through this very entertaining and interesting interview! If you want to read it in full, you can do so by following this link.
