Gentrification demands updated frameworks to assess the impact of some major global trends on the local populations’ access to housing. Short-term accommodation using digital platforms in previously gentrified central urban areas is playing a significant role in outlining a new wave of ‘transnational gentrification’ in a number of global cities. Having undergone classical patterns of gentrification over the last two decades, the central district of Madrid and its surroundings are showing patterns of a new wave of gentrification in a context of economic crisis, planetary rent gaps, increasing global tourism and an increase in rental prices in central areas that may be related to the emergence of short-term rentals – making Madrid a relevant case for depicting transnational gentrification in the Southern European capitals. Based on empirical data, this work explores the holiday rental supply in Madrid over three years (2015–2018), verifying a strong association between the growth in tourist arrivals, the settlement of new residents from wealthy economic backgrounds and increasing rental prices. Since this process is accompanied by deregulation of local rental contracts and the growth of transnational Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), even in some of the most vulnerable areas located beyond the M-30 ring road, this wave of gentrification has the potential to produce displacement and substitution of residents.

La legislatura 2015–2019 en Madrid y Barcelona ha estado marcada por el intento de regulación del alquiler vacacional. En Barcelona, la presión vecinal motivó la aprobación del Plan Especial Urbanístico de Alojamiento Turístico (PEUAT) en enero de 2017. En Madrid se aprobó el Plan Especial de Hospedaje (PEH) dos años después. En este caso, los agentes económicos y parte de la administración abogaban por una regulación laxa bajo el argumento de “no estar tan mal como Barcelona”, pese a admitir cierta turistificación del tejido residencial. Pero, ¿es cierta esta afirmación? Esta investigación proporciona una revisión actualizada de estos planes revisitando los contextos sociales y políticos que los enmarcan. Se han comparado en contenido el PEH y el PEUAT con respecto a la oferta publicada en AirBnB —atendiendo a sus características y distribución a lo largo del tiempo para evaluar tanto el grado de turistificación del parque inmobiliario, como la idoneidad y eficiencia de las normas zonales aprobadas. Los resultados verifican que ambos planes tratan de contener la turistificación residencial de los distritos centrales. Sin embargo, la disparidad de criterios de zonificación, así como su aprobación reactiva tras la posible consolidación de la oferta profesionalizada de apartamentos, podrían comprometer su eficacia.

Cities are complex systems in constant evolution, whose planning faces increasingly unpredictable futures. Understanding the city as a complex self-organizing system, and based on information theory and thermodynamic theory of non-equilibrium and irreversibility, it is possible to establish the exchange of information that occurs between the urban system and the surrounding environment. This paper shows that facing an abrupt rise in uncertainty, the city can increase its complexity [1], its ability to anticipate the environment [2], its control over the environment [3], can adequately combine the previous strategies [4] or change its identity [5]. The methodology used in this article juxtaposes these predetermined conceptual premises five case studies of cities affected by social conflicts, natural disasters, and wars. The research results show the applicability of the coupling between the urban system and its environment and exemplify how the five strategies have intensely transformed the urban morphology and topology of cities such as Amsterdam, Nicosia, Barcelona, and Beirut. The overall conclusion of the article points out that memory is a critical factor in defining new urban futures.

<!--field: Resume-->Cet article vise à évaluer l’influence durable du survey de Patrick Geddes sur l’urbanisme espagnol. Retracer les réseaux d’échanges et les modalités de circulations permettra de mettre en évidence, tout d’abord, la transformation d’une démarche scientifique en outil technique et, enfin, l’ancrage de ce dispositif dans la culture urbanistique espagnole. La systématisation de l’enquête geddesienne par les urbanistes anglais et l’importante diffusion des principes du town planning contribuent à la réalisation, en 1929, de la première enquête préalable en Espagne, l’« Information de la ville de Madrid ». Celle-ci, adaptation locale d’un modèle international, deviendra un modèle pour les plans d’aménagement espagnols ultérieurs. L’objectif de cet article est ainsi de montrer combien les traces de cette évolution sont ancrées dans la culture urbanistique espagnole où les plans continuent à lier la légitimité de l’action aux études préalables. <!--field: -->