San Cosme, Spain: Planning and Renewal of a State Housing Area

The San Cosme Residential Estate was built outside Barcelona, Spain, in the mid-1960s by the state­ run Syndical Housing Authority to rehouse over seven thousand people, most of them from cleared shanty towns on the Montjuic hill overlooking the city. Within five years of construction, the houses began to deteriorate rapidly and San Cosme has since become notorious as an example of the worst aspects of State housing in Spain. This article examines in detail the planning and construction of San Cosme, and the successful campaign of the local residents' association to persuade central State authorities of the need to rebuild the estate. At the same time, the article identifies the major socio-political and planning issues involved in the San Cosme experience, that may be of relevance to other State housing projects in both the developed and developing world

The landlord and tenant game – an instructional simulation

With the demands on the practicing professional becoming greater than ever, case study simulations can play a valuable role in providing participants with the deeper insights and broader awareness they need today. The Independent Society of Valuers and Auctioneer's ISVA) research contact was awarded to North-East London Polytechnic to design and test a Landlord and Tenant game for use at ISVA branch meetings and in other educational contexts. This article outlines the background to the project, provides a description of the game and makes some concluding observations regarding the educational value of simulation exercises

From E-Commerce to E-Business at HP Bulmer: Pioneering technologies in the drinks industry

The advent of a corporate intranet in leading beer and cider-makers HP Bulmer changed the way the company as a whole looked at business transactions. HP Bulmer, already an early adopter in the ebusiness technology arena, realised the huge potential of web technology in business-to-business tradin

The role of planning in the evolution of Barcelona

This thesis attempts to assess the role of planning in the evolution of Barcelona from 1714 to 1976. 1714 marked the beginning of a long period of military dominance that was to see immediate and drastic alterations in the urban morphology of the city. Other factors also played their part in the vertical and horizontal growth that followed, eventually making expansion beyond the medieval walls an urgent necessity. This expansion - the 'ensanche' - came in the second half of the 19th century after the passing of the Plan Cerda, that was to remain the official 'plan de ordenacion' for the city for almost a century. Many of the proposals of Cerda's plan were ignored, however, as the city grew in radiocentric form, stretching out across the plain towards the mountain chain and the two parallel rivers that enclose it. In the first half of this century many plans were drawn up in periods of differing political ideology and varying economic prosperity but had little impact on the growth of the city. The 1953 'Plan Comarcal', which recognised the long-present need to plan on a scale greater than that of the municipality, replaced Cerda's plan as the official 'plan de ordenacion' for Barcelona. It was the first of a variety of plans at Provincial, Metropolitan Area, 'Comarcal', and Municipal level, produced by a new, formal planning machinery. At the same time, the housing and regional economic planning policies of the Madrid Government involved unprecedented intervention by the central authorities in the urban affairs of Barcelona and its region. The thesis establishes how these plans and policies have affected the evolution of Barcelona and why the growth of the city has continued in as chaotic and disorderly a fashion as ever before

A Vision of VISUAL

In the early to mid-1990s, many organisations were grappling with the issues involved in moving away from proprietary systems and developing new IT strategies based on 'Open Systems'. A comparable today in the 2020s would be the challenges posed by the 'disruptive technologies' and digital transformation. This short introductory paper to the VISUALISE IT newsletter is a 'call to arms' to fellow IT managers and directors to engage in the debate surrounding this step-change in IT delivery, which would lead to dramatic reductions in the cost of ownership of IT commodity hardware and infrastructure for many organisations by the end of the decade

The Business Benefits of PC Office Systems and End-user Computing at Glaxo Pharmaceuticals 1984-88

Since 1984, Glaxo Pharmaceuticals has seen a dramatic expansion in the use of desktop personal computers. The use of these machines for spreadsheet modelling and data analysis, databases, graphics, word processing, project planning and statistical analysis, computer-based training and expert systems has transformed the nature of computing within the company and provided a platform for significant new co-processing developments. Over 1,300 personal computers have been installed in the company's four sites, providing a range of business benefits in terms of improved efficiency and effectiveness. Case studies of how these benefits have been provided are described, and a number of key issues for managing such change are discussed

The CIO Role - the most difficult job on the Board

This paper draws upon the author’s 10 years experience as IT Controller at drinks company HP Bulmer. This medium-sized company, which is the leading cider-maker in the UK, adopted an Oracle-based open systems strategy in the early 1990s, as it embarked on a seven year programme to replace its old legacy systems. This it has now done, but the new aspirations of the senior management team to create a major international drinks company put unexpected strains on the relationship between IT and the rest of the business. This account briefly discusses some of the issues and challenges IT directors and managers are likely to encounter in such circumstances. The observations may be familiar to other CIOs working in similar environments, and it is hoped lessons may be learnt from these reflections on a decade of major change at the company

Open Systems Benefits at HP Bulmer

This presentation was organised by the British Computer Society at Data General Offices in Hockley Heath to showcase the benefits of an Open Systems IT strategy. At that time, cider-maker HP Bulmer were seen as one of the pioneers in successfully implementing such a strategy, and this presentation sets out the rationale for adopting the strategy, the main systems projects that were part of it, and the resultant benefits. The advent of Open Systems - and the subsequent widespread adoption of the Unix operating system - was a key milestone in the move away from proprietary hardware and operating systems, and bespoke applications

Developing your Information Systems for Growth

This conference presentation reviews the development and implementation of information systems (IS) strategy in 8 local companies, making reference to mainstream models of IS development. Based on these research findings, a process for IS strategy development is outlined and illustrated. Finally, some key guidelines for IS strategy development are identifie

KTP Case Study 4 - Building Solutions

Building Solutions and the University of Gloucestershire worked together in this successful KTP project. The aim was to install upgraded information systems and technologies and to re-engineer business processes to reduce costs and increase company turnover