The Sociópolis project has been developed in urban planning terms by means of the Special Plan for Reservation of Land and Ordering of Uses, for ceded public land with linkage to protected housing, within the sector of La Torre (Valencia).
In October 2003, after the Sociópolis project was presented at the Valencia Biennial, the Generalitat Valenciana arrived at an agreement with Valencia City Council to transform a protected zone of huerta agricultural land in process of degradation, bounded by expressways and connected to the La Torre District of Valencia, into a residential sector containing over 2,500 protected housing units, developed by the Instituto Valenciano de Vivienda.

In order to develop the plan a multidisciplinary team was created: led by the architect Vicente Guallart, the team included, among others, the sociologist José Michael Iribas, the ecologist Javier Obartí, the landscape architect Manuel Colominas, the anthropologist Artur Serra, the biologist Javier Guallart, the agronomist Ximo Sánchez and the lawyer Maria Ángeles García Capdepon, together with the technical staff of the Instituto Valenciano de Vivienda directed by Maria Jesús Rodríguez.

The Special Plan for Reservation of Land and Ordering of Uses is a provision contained in the old Law for the Regulation of Urbanistic Activity (LRAU), of the Comunitat Valenciana enabling the Generalitat to order in its entirety a zone not eligible for development so as to dedicate it primarily to activities in the public interest, among which are sectors in which more than 75% of the housing is protected. In this way, with the IVVSA taking the lead, it was developed the Special Plan, the Homologation of the General Plan for Valencia, the Environmental Impact study, the Landscape study and the own Integrated Actuation Programme that would enable the IVVSA to act as the developer.

Also drafted were the Urbanization Project and the Plot Re-division Project, directed by Nebot Arquitectos, sharing out the financial burdens and profits of the sector. At the outset it was decided the maximum repercussion of the cost of the development per square metre of roof was necessary to control the final sum to be invested and thus limit the sharing out of burdens.

Finally, more than 200 landowners have obtained around 50% of the land in the sector eligible for development and the remainder has been allocated to the IVVSA, which will sell the plots and with the revenues from this recover the initial investment.
What is more, in Sociópolis the ceded plots (except for the schools) will also have rent-controlled housing for young people and the elderly, and companies interested in constructing and managing these buildings will be invited to tender for the contracts.

In order to ensure the overall architectural quality of the development, the IVVSA decided to commission a series of scheme designs for buildings on the ceded and residential plots from local, Spanish and foreign architects who had already been involved in the research study into housing presented at the Valencia Biennial. These projects have been supervised by the technical personnel of the IVVSA.

The residential and ceded plots will go out to tender with a ready-developed scheme design that will have to be implemented by the companies whose tenders are accepted.
The period for execution of the urbanization will be 13 months, while the construction period for the buildings will be 24 months from the date of handing over of the already developed plots.