Property CityMadrid

Spain’s kinetic capital is applying its pandemic lessons to a people-powered, planet-saving rebirth.

Madrid’s sustainability-driven investment in its bounteous (but long-dormant) infrastructure and public assets is a wonder to watch unfold in real time. It starts, not surprisingly, with reuse and the conviction that everything old can be new again.

Take the new Santander Park, an instant citizen and visitor destination that used to be a golf course.

A 47-mile urban forest network with nearly half a million new trees will connect the city’s existing forest masses and reuse derelict sites between roads and buildings.

Upon completion, this “green wall” is projected to help absorb 175,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually and mitigate the city’s worsening urban heat. The investment in the city’s outdoor realm will improve Madrid’s #65 ranking in our Outdoors subcategory, especially combined with how safe the city has become, along with its tied top spot for Walk Score globally.

Madrid’s electric bus network trails only Berlin in Europe and new charging stations and bike lanes are everywhere. But the biggest news is this year’s full approval of Madrid Nuevo Norte, the largest current urban regeneration project in Europe, in the city’s underused northern rail district: more than 550 acres dedicated to the Madrid of the future.