People are afraid

PEOPLE ARE AFRAID.

The government needs to know how afraid people are….it is not enough to respond with what sounds like a mixture of

“This is the last government’s legacy”

And

“We would like to do more, but just wait until the economy

recovers a bit.”

These words taken from an article from the NEW STATESMAN, a month before the London Riots, were written by Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. The article contains several observations relevant to Europe and ourselves so the following extracts may help us to find a way to calm the general fear about the future.

1. THE POLITICAL DEBATE.

The political debate at the moment feels pretty stuck. An idea whose roots are firmly in a particular strand of associational socialism has been adopted enthusiastically by the Conservatives.

The widespread suspicion that this has been done for opportunistic or money-saving reasons allows many to dismiss what there is of a programme for “big society” ( or in Catalonia “la casa
gran“) initiatives; even the term has fast become painfully stale. But we are still waiting for a full and robust account of what the left would do differently and what a left-inspired version of localism (districts and neighbourhoods) might look like.

2. DEMOCRACY ITSELF.

Digging a bit deeper, there are a good many on the left and right who sense that the tectonic plates of British–European?–politics are shifting. Managerial politics, attempting with shrinking success to negotiate life in the shadow of big finance, is not an attractive rallying point, whether it labels itself (New) Labour or Conservative.

There is, in the middle of a lot of confusion, an increasingly audible plea for some basic thinking about democracy itself—and the urgency of this is underlined by what is happening in the Middle East and North Africa.

3. BAFFLEMENT AND INDIGNATION.

Over the present government’s proposals for reform in health and education there is bafflement and indignation. With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted. At the very least, there is an understandable anxiety about what democracy means in such a context. Not many people want government by plebiscite, certainly. But, for example, the comprehensive reworking of the Education Act 1944 that is now going forward might well be regarded as a proper matter for open probing in the context of election debates.

The anxiety and anger have to do with the feeling that not enough has been exposed to proper public argument.

4. SOCIAL RESPONSABILITIES.

If civil society organisations are going to have to pick up responsibilities shed by government, the crucial questions are these:

FIRST QUESTION, what services must have cast-iron guarantees of nationwide standards, parity and continuity? (Look at what is happening to youth services, surely a strategic priority.)

SECOND QUESTION, how, therefore, does national government underwrite these strategic “absolutes” so as to make sure that, even in a straitened financial climate, there is a continuing investment in the long term, a continuing response to what most would see as root issues: child poverty, poor literacy, the deficit in access to educational excellence, sustainable infrastructure in poorer communities (rural as well as urban), and so on?

THIRD QUESTION, what is too important to be left to even the most resourceful localism? (Civil society)

It is natural that the Archbishop of Canterbury should claim an ironic satisfaction in the way several political thinkers today are quarrying theological traditions for ways forward. So let us listen to his own words as he brings his article to a conclusion.

5. THE ETHICAL QUESTION. Religious perspectives on these issues have often got bogged down in varieties of paternalism. But there is another theological strand to be retrieved that is not about “the poor” as objects of kindness but about the nature of sustainable community, seeing it as one in which what circulates—like the flow of blood—is the mutual creation of capacity, building the ability of the other person or group to become, in turn, a giver of life and responsibility.

Perhaps surprisingly, this is what is at the heart of St Paul’s ideas about community at its fullest; community, in his terms, as God wants to see it.

A democracy that would measure up to this sort of ideal –religious in its roots but not exclusive or confessional –would be one in which the central question about any policy would be: how far does it equip a person or group to engage generously and for a long term in building the resourcefulness and well-being of any other person or group, with the state seen as a “community of communities”, to use a phrase popular among syndicalists of an earlier generation?

A democracy going beyond populism or majoritarianism but also beyond a Balkanised focus on the local that fixed in stone a variety of postcode lotteries; a democracy capable of real argument about shared needs and hopes and real generosity.

ANY TAKERS?

Layout adapted from the original article in the Newstatesman. See original : newstatesman.com/leader

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOST: The government of Catalonia

LOST: The Government of Catalonia.

If found please communicate with their employers who voted, or not, one
way or another, to represent all citizens of Catalonia, young or old, rich or
poor, with or without work.

The loss was confirmed from the negative signals coming from the seat of
Government indicating confusion and a simulation of disconnection with reality
in the failure to recognise the despair of a growing number of citizens who
were hoping for a more imaginative leadership.

REWARD: A Future.

This is leading to the wrong way

On April 21^st 1967 the colonels in Greece overthrew the legitimate government and began a ruthless repression of opponents. I decided it was the moment to do something. I became an active member of Amnesty International in Barcelona. Later, in 1976, I joined others and founded A.I. in Spain.

On Friday 27^th May 2011, I witnessed some of the Mossos d’Esquadra participating in a ruthless repression of young and not so young demonstrating their indignation of the absence of justice and political action to address the unethical behaviour of the world and local financial powers.

Like those in the Plaza Catalunya, I have decided that it is again the moment to save our democracy from being led the wrong way. On Wednesday 8^th June 2011, I heard on the radio Conseller Felip Puig explaining his justification of the ruthless repression on that ignominious Friday.

Is it too much to expect that the President of Catalonia will discretely, after an appropriate time, appoint a more sensitive Conseller?

Visca la diferència!

Si tothom fos exactament igual no tindríem ciutats

Les diferències fan les ciutats

Acceptar les diferències és la clau del coneixement i de la vida

Cada persona és un conjunt de diferències que provoca el dubte i la curiositat contínuament

Avui, els partits polítics tenen una tendència de no acceptar les diferències

Entre ells mateixos

Entre els altres partits

Això provoca una desil·lusió tant als anti-partits com als fidels

Evidentment no hi ha una sola solució

Però crec que n’hi ha una, entre d’altres,  si observem que l’estructura dels governs a base de departaments funcionals sovint tancats en sí mateixos cada un al seu territori, no acaben de saber com absorbir les noves tendències de la vida

Evidentment el conjunt de diferències, en projectes i problemes, es complex

Es parla molt avui de la transversabilitat

Jo crec que cal introduir transversabilitat entre les estructures dels governs

Si sabem identificar el problema estarem a mig camí de trobar solucions, i  això no significa que impliquin més costos

Què vol dir això? Per exemple, sempre hi ha solucions SOFT i HARD (toves i dures)

Què volem dir amb TOVES i DURES?

Mesures TOVES serien aquelles mesures humanes que ja podem portar a terme amb el bagatge que ja tenim: diàleg, transparència, cooperació, comunicació, etc . Això no costa ni un duro; per tant, tindrem un estalvi i fins i tot un possible benefici

Mesures DURES. Entemen que són aquelles mesures també necessàries però que ja són estructurals i, per tant, poden ser costoses

En aquest moments de restriccions , tenim a mà moltes mesures SOFT (toves) però hem de tenir voluntat per saber aprofitar-les

Amb l’aplicació de mesures DURES, amb l’exemple que ens està donant, sense començar amb mesures toves, Convergència pot portar al nostre país a la mateixa situació de Grècia. Cal començar pel camí tou aprenent i escoltant les opinions dels altres.

Visca la diferència!

Number 41

Why am I number 41 on the Socialist List for the Municipal Elections in
Barcelona?

It was a casual encounter with the Mayor, Jordi Hereu, typical of the
casual encounters in any street in any city. That’s what’s good about cities.

So when anybody asks me about the future of Barcelona, my adopted city
that adopted me, I simply reply that it lies in the opportunities of casual
encounters. Encounters with people, encounters with different ideas, encounters
with the unexpected, encounters with memories, encounters with people you love,
unknown, but there, in the metro, in the bus, in the street, in short, humanity
itself: a city full of opportunities, ideas, and memories.

When Municipal Elections come around every now and again suddenly we are
inundated with new (?) ideas for the future. Let´s change this, let´s change
that, let´s be greener, let´s have new homes for everyone (when we have plenty of
existing stock that is empty but too expensive), and let´s have work for all
(that´s obvious), let´s sweep the city clean (it´s one of Europe’s cleanest
cities), let´s have more police (maybe, but they could be more polite to
teenagers), etc, etc. O.K. but considering that the city has a longer life than
municipal elections perhaps we should admit that proposals should be a critical
continuation, like the handing over of the baton, as a metaphor, of a relay
race?

Barcelona has benefited from a critical continuation during the last
three decades, so are there any real reasons to drop the baton?

So what does number 41 think about the future of the city?

Let me insist that we need to get the perspective of time related to
that of the city. Our lives are like a drop of water in the ocean compared to
the life of a city. Whatever we do must be related to the life-time of the city
and not to our own, even less to the electoral periods. So continuity is
essential, just with a critical touch here and there and a vision for the future.

Before, perhaps we should reflect on what makes Barcelona what it is?

Geography has made Barcelona the most important Mediterranean port.
Based on being a commercial cross-road it has become the cross-roads of global
culture. Personally I have found it difficult to find a residential culture. It
is easier to identify it´s culture based on being the hub of global
imagination. An idea that began in Milan or Athens, in London or Berlin, in New
York or California, in Buenos Aires or Cape Town, in the light of Africa or the
mystery of the Orient, is transformed in a flash to something casually
belonging to Barcelona. A city that is not too big or too small to be the home
of two thousand years in the old city and at the same time have the
equalitarian socialist grid of Cerda.

People of all ages, poor and rich, citizens and visitors; have made the
five kilometres of urban beaches the new Rambla of metropolitan Barcelona,
again the Rambla of the world without the murmur of hysteric complaints.  The cross-roads of the world are here
already.

The casual growth of Barcelona into a metropolitan city now calls for a
vision for a new political and formal structure. It could be a golden
opportunity to take advantage of the variety of differences offered by the
incorporation of separate identities.

Let us keep the flame of Cerda´s egalitarian city and carefully graft
the communications between each and every identity of the adjoining cities,
villas, and neighbourhoods. We could even re-interpret the city of Berlin,
keeping the political identity of all and at the same time create a Senate to
incorporate all. Not an easy task, and surely there are many ways to come
together.

Let us go gently towards this vision so that nobody cry´s “what have
they done to my city!” It needs a soft approach, listening to the differences.

Is that too much to ask for the future of Barcelona to keep at the
cross-roads of our commercial and cultural history?

Number 41 can only guess.

Tags: Barcelona, Cerdà, Eleccions municipals, Hereu, PSC, Rambla

RBA Publishing House

Reading is not only limited to the printed word as this is what we do when we contemplate any given object to understand what it is about. Often we rely on the sentiments springing from the degree of empathy we have with the object, but, depending on our knowledge, this can be misleading. In architecture, for example, our understanding is enriched when we understand its language, which is easier if the language is classical or based on the Gothic or functional model. A repetitive functional image allows us to recognise that a school is a school, and a factory is a factory. However, contemporary architecture which revolves around the modern movement can be more confusing and one tends to rely more on the empathy of our sentiments.

The RBA building does not pretend to unravel the vagueness of the current situation in architecture, but, perhaps, explaining a little about its language, it might help one to understand the roots of its image.

The building contains two grammatical streams, one related to the form, and the other related to the detail of the façades. The first is about scale, the second about its chameleon -like façades.

Since the irregular form of the building’s volume was predetermined by the urban plan, we recognised that, by sketching a simple rectangular Mondrian-like composition over the main West façade, the rectangle of the upper levels could float above its base. The gap between the two rectangles, with its adjoining roof terrace, was ideal to house social facilities.

With this decision the lower rectangle, corresponding to the city’s street architecture, could be detailed to a more human scale, in contrast to a more metropolitan scale of the upper rectangle.

The other grammatical stream concerned the different solutions corresponding to the orientation of the façades. The whole of the narrow façade facing North onto the main avenue needed no protection so it could be totally glass. The long West façade facing a future park had to deal with the heat and glare of the afternoon sun. The floor to floor “brise soleil” (sun breakers) respond to its metropolitan scale, and the detailed silicon serigraphied glass shades protecting the slightly tinted glass in the horizontal windows introduce a more human relationship with the street. The narrow South façade relies on the horizontal terraces to shade the vertical mid-day sun, and the East façade, protected by the office building ten meters away, needed no protection.

There is a third story to be told which was to remind one of the district’s industrial past expressed by identifying the simple structural frame with white aluminium profiles and the light-weight coloured ceramic panels relating to the few surviving brick factories.

The architecture of our time lives in a nest of confusion making it difficult for the public to read a modern façade because the expressions generally remain esoteric in a language limited to the professions.

All this has been discussed at length in the sixties and seventies in the last century without any clear conclusion. Perhaps we need the time that history gives us to understand the language and meaning of façades that are now making the identity of our cities and not just leave it to the empathy of our sentiments.

Tags: Barcelona, publishing, RBA

Different or ignorant

If everyone was the same there would be no cities. We go there or we live there because everyone is different. We may have similar ideas and similar clothes, but somehow we still retain differences that stimulate the need to exchange information to increase our knowledge and encounter new experiences. Often this enables us to feel part of a community that is alive and challenging.

To be different and, at the same time, be part of a community needs a delicate balancing at incorporating not only empathy but also tolerance so when divergence appears we need the patience to listen. Without this subtitle balancing act we are in danger of becoming the same person forever, excluded from the changing reality without which can rap us up in solitary ignorance. An ignorance which, as the actress Rosamund Pike has recently claimed, “when mixed with politics is a dangerous combination”. Perhaps that happens when uncontrolled power possesses the individual and the value of difference is ignored?

Tags: ignorance, power, Rosamund Pike, social cohesion

La Sagrada Familia, morally incorrect?

Just before the visit of Pope Benedict (Barcelona November 2010) perhaps it is politically incorrect to raise this question about morality and architecture1. On the other hand it is a good moment to turn away from negative adjectives to open up again some serious doubts about the absence of critical debate concerning the historical value of the continuation of a building even though there were many documents that made it possible to meet the challenge based on Antoni Gaudi’s previous work.

There is no intention of morally implicating of any of the previous and living professional players involved in this continuation. The building will be valued for just what architectural history will tell us. While recognising the empathy the new building has on its attraction to visitors, this should not cloud the intellectual debate about its language. The recent eloquent article about the spacial impact of the nave described last week in El País can be safely shared by all.

The first moral doubt allows us to quote Shakespeare’s famous line “to be or not to be”. The Temple was originally conceived out of wedlock by a minority lay group of fundamentalists to combat the so called sins of the modern materialism of collective social and political movements. In other words, with an historical perspective it would have been better “not to be”. The term “expiatory” has almost been eradicated from its original name. Though it is possible to trace the roots of “Christian neo-gothic” rigidly holding back the natural imaginative flow of the Gaudi we know.

The second moral doubt is whether the Sagrada Familia represents the brilliant imaginative skills of Gaudi, shown in the crypt of the Colonia Güell which must rank with Le Corbusier’s chapel at Ronchamp as one of the fundamental references of modern buildings that respond to the social role of religion. Gaudi’s regression to symbolic architecture in the Sagrada Familia is almost a homage to a false perception that the public are ignorant about the origins of their personal and collective beliefs, while this may just be possible to understand in the years of Gaudi’s lifetime, it is a least questionable to find it in the recent continuation.

The third moral doubt is whether those claiming to continue Gaudi’s work really understood how he worked. His creativity was continuously in mind and with touch, naturally noticeably absent in the new building. Was it an error to continue mainly on the forms of a broken model and early undeveloped sketches? Would not Gaudi have changed certain things as the construction progressed? The result could never be other than a poor imitation that does no credit the sensative stonework of the façade of the Nativity. It is like trying to continue an unfinished Picasso. Poor Gaudi!

The fourth and more serious moral doubt is about the abortion of Gaudi’s structural proposals. This is not a criticism of the current structural engineers, they were obviously asked to follow the forms of the model which they have. The thing is that Gaudi was investigating the enormous value that stone could carry an overwhelming compressive weight in front of columns of steel and reinforced concrete. Instead of following the spirit of investigation of structured stone, research was restricted to following the form of the catenary arch independent of the material.

If in the mid eighties, the Irish engineer Peter Rice2 together with a small team from Arup proposed that the future of structure should lie with modern technology being applied to traditional materials of construction, then Gaudi’s intuition could have been converted into reality. The example of Peter Rice designing the structural columns 30 m. high for the Pavilion of the Future, equivalent to the lower lateral aisles of the Sagrada Familia, proves the missed opportunities. Expo Sevilla Pavilion of the Future demonstrates the use of granite as a structure instead of just a cladding which nearly all architects use today. In the Sagrada Familia stone is used as a shuttering (encofrat) for the reinforced concrete of the columns and closely follow Gaudi’s forms displayed in the model. The effect is impressive, but would it have been better if investigation was allowed?

Finally, if we could open a civilised debate, it might be prudent to wait another hundred years before embracing on the doubtful morality of the façade of the Glories. Another generation will have time for reflection.

Tags: Barcelona, Gaudi, Sagrada Familia

DHUB Barcelona Museum of Design

In Bruno Zevi’s book “Architecture as Space”, published way back in 1957, he affirms that we cannot understand architecture if we ignore its spatial essence. “Our use of words like rhythm, scale, balance, mass will continue to be vague until we have succeeded in giving them meaning specific to the reality which defines architecture, and that is: space”. Zevi gives us the clue to the question, “What is space?” by observing that architectural space is about the successive displacement in time which he calls the “fourth dimension”. It is this fourth dimension of moving through and around spaces that creates architecture that responds to accommodating a given programme to a particular place. In this way, we can claim that “Form follows Space”.

The Design Museum, or Design Hub as it is now called, is situated on a sloping site, with a drop of about seven meters, on the coastal side of Barcelona’s Plaça de les Glòries, beside Jean Nouvelle’s Agbar tower, and very close to the elevated round-about of a busy motorway. The site is part of a future park which meant that only a small building footprint would be allowed at ground level with the rest of the building underground. It was these restrictions that determined the spatial distribution of the 30,000 m² required by the programme by placing 75% underground along two basement floors. A third basement for mechanical installations will face a sunken lake in the new park. The remaining 25% above ground is balanced on the restricted site, within cantilevers over the street on one side and towards the sea on the other, accommodating a spacious vestibule, four floors for temporary exhibitions and an auditorium.

The position and width of the exposed five floor building is related to one of the streets in Barcelona’s historic (Cerda) grid –Avila–, using the Renaissance urban composition of closing an axis with a public building. However the street continues in successive displacements –Zevi’s fourth-dimension—through the vestibule directly to the metro station, or up escalators to the Plaça de les Glòries, joining the two neighbourhoods together. This public space gives direct access on either side to the Design Museum, shop, café and the local public library. The demands of a detailed spatial brief and the extraordinary external spatial constraints together define the building’s unique form.

Tags: Barcelona, design, Museum

Walter Gropius

In 1961 while I was showing Walter Gropius around Barcelona he explained to me about how important his first visit to Barcelona in 1907 had been. He had come to Spain to immerse himself in another culture in order “to find himself”. After travelling through Spain he came to Barcelona and met the architect, historian of medieval art and politician Josep Puig i Cadafalch. He was invited by this eminent catalan to visit a workshop where craftsmen produced ceramic pieces for decorating buildings. The boom in construction, demanded by the extension of the city within the extraordinary grid plan by the socialist engineer Cerda, made it imperative to introduce industrial production.

Gropius told me that the visit impressed him, and helped him to understand the importance of industrial design. In 1919, there was a crisis in the Werkbund,because it was anchored in the past.Gropius’ experience in Barcelona helped him to establish the basis of the new school of design to be known as the Bauhaus.

Tags: history, life, Walter Gropius