The architect Ricardo E. Bofill was the star of the Eurocities Forum on social services and disadvantaged groups, where he defended in front of deputy mayors, councilmen and senior officials from more than twenty European countries the rehabilitation and integration plan for the neighbourhood of La Paz Murcia. He defined it as "a complicated project that involves sowing back the city" and an example to the world of “social engineering”. "The success of the project in La Paz will be its construction and that the segregated area transforms into a new integrated neighbourhood”, he summarized.
Son and grandson of architects, his father founded in 1963 the Taller de Arquitectura, where Ricardo E. Bofill is the vice president. The day before, Ricardo E. Bofill visited Miss Meroño’s house, president of the Homeowners Association of La Paz, to transmit confidence to the neighbours and assure them that the works will begin in 2010. "After five years it is time to finish the legal paperwork and start building. We are just looking for people to live better," said Bofill, who excused the absence of his father and mentor. "My father is in Russia” said the architect, whose curriculum is a succession of degrees from universities such as Columbia, Rice, Harvard and UCLA. “Today Russia is a country more advanced than Europe in economic and social housing projects. There, in Russia, we met the same problem that we have in La Paz but multiplied by thousand."
La Paz project, designed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, is developed by José Lopez Rejas. The proposal consists on the demolition of the 1.502 social units of 45 square meters and the construction of 3,000 new homes -1502 reserved for the present owners-in 64 buildings of five to 24 floors, plus new underground parking, streets, plazas, schools, kindergarten, parks and community areas. Fourteen hectares of area in the centre of town, which, as Bofill reminded the Eurocities Forum members, drags serious problems of social exclusion.
"We are going to provide a new property to the owners of the existing neighbours he insisted, re-connect the area with new streets, with new urban spaces and new facades. We want to integrate the public space into the city, and without the total support of the neighbours, this would be impossible, that is why we say that here in La Paz there is a great deal of relocation and dialogue. Now is the time to fix the problem because the neighbours are very frustrated. "
Project 
