In recent years, Madrid has changed significantly. It has evolved from a national capital with a more domestic economy, limited differentiation and peripheral growth into a competitive global metropolis built on quality of life, international connectivity and investment appeal.

In this context, the urban planning model that has guided the city until now, the current General Urban Plan (PGOUM 1997), has become outdated. After nearly three decades in force, it has enabled Madrid’s transformation into the city we know today. But a new, more comprehensive approach is now needed, one that involves all sectors of society. A new way of understanding Madrid as a 360° city, a paradigm shift in urban planning that will reshape the lives of the people who live in the city. 

The new Municipal Strategic Plan, which will replace the 1997 General Plan, aims to guide the city’s development towards a 360° urban model: a way of understanding the city from a broad, integrated and multidimensional perspective. It places environmental, social and economic sustainability at the heart of this new planning approach and, like the Madrid 360 Environmental Sustainability Strategy, integrates climate action into urban planning through a holistic and global vision.

This global vision also extends across scales, as it looks at the city not only through its internal elements, its districts, neighbourhoods, infrastructure and everyday life, but also in its dynamic relationship with the wider network of municipalities in the Community of Madrid and the neighbouring provinces.