4xBarcelona
4xBarcelona
Autumn at the Swedish Museum of Architecture, and the focus of attention is set on Barcelona, the Catalonian capital. With its population of 3 million Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, ranking, moreover, together with Paris, as the most densely populated million city in Europe.
Barcelona has had three growth periods, of which the first came already in the 14th century, when most of the Gothic buildings in the old Ciutat Vella were created. The second came in the 1860s, with the expansion of the city in accordance with the Eixample plan by Cerdá. The third began with the 1992 Summer Olympics, when huge investments were made in the infrastructure and a new Mediterranean waterfront was created. Since the Olympics the bid to renew the townscape has continued and the range of operations has expanded: Barcelona can be likened to a successful enterprise, in the sense of strengthening its position as a commercial city. It presents itself as an urban model and a laboratory of urban thinking – a model employing culture and architecture as catalysts in the city’s transformation. Star architects have contributed emblematic new buildings – cultural institutions like museums, theatres and concert halls, public spaces like parks and piazzas, and commercial buildings such as hotels and shopping centres.
The Catalan urban model has been internationally acclaimed. It has inspired and fuelled models of urban development and generated new ways of looking at the relationship between city, regional culture and architectural identity. Barcelona’s way of using culture for urban renewal has been copied by other European cities over the past 20 years, as for example with the Seville and Lisbon World Expos and European Cultural Capital arrangements in Glasgow, Stockholm and Porto. But the changes in Barcelona have been controversial, with widespread criticism of a renewal which has been considered commercially driven and unsupported by the citizens, who have had but limited opportunities of participation. The urban model of renewal coupled with cultural events has entailed large-scale demolitions. Added to which, additions in the form of new infrastructure and cultural institutions have supplanted, regimented or privatised local communities. The decentralised, incorporated urban planning process has been challenged and the social marginalisation and commercialisation of the city criticised. One vital factor sustaining the process has been the prolonged and powerful boom period in Spain, which has only tailed off in the past year.
Counter-reactions have appeared in social movements in the form of art projects where the emphasis has been on demonstrating alternative strategies and action plans, with culture as a resource for achieving social justice. The latest master plan for the Poble Nou area is based on transforming the old industrial setting and replacing it with a new city for knowledge and new technology. The plan has encountered strong protests from neighbourhood organisations and other local groups. During 2004, citizens created networks and activities round about the old Can Ricart factory to save the buildings from demolition and to preserve a space for culture and urban creativity. The basic strategy has been to find alternative ways of creating independent cultural venues, highlighting issues of civic influence on urban renewal, supporting local autonomy and opposing the displacement of local cultures or groups. This phenomenon begs questions concerning cultural representation, namely: What cultural groups are represented? By whom? And for whom? Who makes these choices? Who makes these decisions? And how are they effectuated?
This autumn’s exhibitions and programmes encompass a host of aspects and preconditions which, hopefully, can give rise to discussions.
Presented in the exhibitions (follow the links for further information):
> Patent Constructions. New Catalonian Architecture.
> Gaudí Unseen - Completing La Sagrada Familia.
> Cerdà. The Eixample project of Barcelona.
> MIRALLES - interpretations of the work of an architect.
Photographies by David Bestué