Santiago de Compostela as a City of Flows - USC · Santiago de Compostela as a City of Flows ......

Santiago de Compostelaas a City of Flows

From the field research of the Laboratory Takenaka ofGeography, Aichi Prefectural University: 2012-2014

Ciclo de Conferencias VIA LACTEA March 2015

Katsuyuki TAKENAKA

City of Flows▶ Manuel Castells, sociologist of Span-ish origin, set the expanding space of flows against the conventional space of places. The space of flows share determined func-tions, linked by electronic circuits and fast transportation, and isolates human experi-ences in the space of places.

▶ City of flows can be understood as a type of urbanity that nourishes itself from dif-ferent kinds of flows. In Japan, discussion has been done around the importance of human flows, particularly of non-resident population, as a vital power to empower small and medium-sized cities in decaying process.

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36

Aerial image of Santiago

Source: Google Earth.

INTRODUCTION 1

Santiago Cethedral

Source: Concello de Santiago.

Santiago as a city of flows▶ Santiago has a permanet population (resi-

dents) of some 95.000 in its municipal area,

and near 180.000 in the metropolitan area. The real vital power, however, consists in its daily human inflows, that is, around 100.000 non-residents (Atlas Socioeconómico de Galicia Caixano-

va).

▶ Among the most representative daily flows, we can cite tourists and pilgrims, university students, government employ-ees, or people who come to Santiago to re-ceive medical service.

USC

INTRODUCTION 2

Santiago Cethedral

Santiago as a city of places▶ Against the flow-based conception of San-tiago, we can also understand this capital city as a city of places.

▶ For example, Obradoiro is the central square, where numerous collectivities, such as officials, students, tourists, pilgrims, are present (The Hospital used to attend pilgrims and cure sick

people). However, it is also a place of memo-ry, which embodies the experience of impor-tant popular events.

▶ Maybe the same can be said with the Praza Universidade. It is one of the most busy gateways to the USC, but also a meeting place, a “cafe”, known and used by everyone.

USC

INTRODUCTION 3

Santiago Cethedral

Crossroads make city▶Mikio Wakabayashi, a Japanese sociol-ogist, asserts that city is a nodal point where different kinds of human communications (economy, politics, religion, etc.) meet one another,

giving place to a sedentary as yet ever evolv-ing human life.

▶ When different kinds of flows interact, making the built environment a privileged scene to store collective memory, we can say that we have a city. This is a kind of urbanity where the space of flows do not exclude the

space of places, a space where crossroads make city.

Aerial image of Santiago


INTRODUCTION 4

Managing flows and places▶ So, struggle of a city to survive in the era of globalization is, to a greater extent, a col-

lective task for managing between flows and places.

▶ Gaining more flows helps the city keep a decent position in the global economy. How-ever, if anonyim flows overwhelm the places of citizens, the city’s momumental streets can

be reduced to places for nostalgy. Also, a whole city can get minimized to a simple

logistic infrastructure serving the global economic power. Then, the city runs the risk of UrBanalization, a concept brought up by

the Spanish geographer, Francesc Muñoz.

Source: Poble Espanyol.

Streets in a theme park

A hub station

INTRODUCTION 5


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Santiago at different scales

Approaching Santiago▶ Laboratory Takenaka of Geography (Aichi Prefectural University) conducted a field sur-vey in Santiago from 2012 to 2014.

▶ The main purpose of the research was to verify if the two dimensions discussed, city of flows and city of places, interact each other leading to a dynamic process, in which not only the places call for flows, but also the flows contribute to activate places.

▶ This approach is particularly useful in a medium-sized city like Santiago, where, as is discussed before, daily human flows repre-sent an essential part in the socioeconomic basis of the city.

INTRODUCTION 6

Santiago Cethedral

Field survey 2012▶ Four different perceptions of Santi-ago were distinguished among people occu-pied in: a) municipal government; b) retailing; c) hotels and restaurants management; and d) local inhabitants. From a) through c), some people are residents of Santiago and others are non-residents.

▶ The interviews, each 1-2 hours long, were focused on the Old Town. This ex-

tremely dense urban fabric with numerous symbolic sites, developed historically as the

crossroads of the pilgrimage routes.

歴史地区

サンティアゴ・デ・

コンポステラ⼤学

ビダ・キャンパス

アラメダ

拡張地区

⽂化都市

フォンティニャス

地区

カルメ・デ・アバイショ地区

）道

街ゴ

ル（り通サロドンペ・

鉄道駅

多⽬的ホールフォンテス・ド・サル

バスターミナル

ロサリア・デ・カストロ通り

（パドロン街道）

500m

ビスタ・アレグレ公園

200km

⾃治州界

ガリシア

マドリードポ

ルト

ガル

カタルーニャ

アンダルシア

バスク

カナリアス諸島

【スペイン全図】

50km

【ガリシア⾃治州】

県界

サンティアゴ・デ・コンポステラ

ア・コルニャ

ルゴ

オウレンセビゴ

Santiago, the Old Town

Source: Elaboration based on data provided by the Concello de Santiago.

FIELD SURVEY 2012 7

Cathedral seen from La Alameda

camino

camino

calle

calle

Área del Plan Especial

de la Ciudad Histórica

Alameda

A. Ayuntamiento

Municipal Government-1▶ Officers of the Municipal Office for Historic City and Rehabilitation recognize an extended territory for Santiago Old Town: the “almond” (in reference to the ancient walled area) and nearby area extending along the caminos. For them, the Old Town, especially the Cathedral, is

something worth contemplating from a distance.

▶ The Old Town’s paths are represented as stone-paved streets, which are an important

part of the historic built environment. On the fringe of this area, traditional stone hous-

es encounter in a surprising manner the idyl-lic Galician green field.

FIELD SURVEY 2012

The Cathedral seen from La Alameda

8

Municipal Government-2▶ The conception of this “extended” Old Town dates back to a government ordinance enacted in 1964. Thereafter, Santiago Old Town has been represented in the urban planning as a whole set of monumental sites,

a Historic-Artistic Ensemble.

▶ From this viewpoint, what gives the Old Town its raison d’être is the authenticity at-tributed to the historic built environment. However, for Santiago Consortium, a public entity for preservation projects, it is more im-portant to assist in the city’s evolution with

the application of traditional techniques, rather than to define the final form of the city.

Source: Consorcio de Santiago.

Source: Consorcio de Santiago.

FIELD SURVEY 2012Casa do Cabildo

Traditional techniques

9

Rúa do Vilar

Rúa Nova

oquid nA es／paseo

Mercado

B. Comerciantes

Retailing-1▶ For the Association of Merchants, Entre-preneurs and Professionals-Open Commer-

cial Centre “Compostela Monumental”, the Old Town is synonym of the walled area,

because this represents a compact and dense field for the commercial activi-ties linked to everyday life.

▶ The stone-paved streets provide an ideal stage setting for sophisticated shops and a free space as well for people walking and en-

joying events. The neighbourhood along Rúa do Vilar and Rúa Nova are the honour for the Old Town’s commercial tradition.

Rúa do Vilar

FIELD SURVEY 2012 10

CC

A C

M

. Xestión Comercial (Dinamización - Integración na cidade) 1 ESPONSOR OFICIAL DA S.D. COMPOSTELA DE FÚTBOL

Retailing-2▶ Since the shopping centres developed near highways are their main rival, the CM has been carrying out actions to increase the competitiveness of small retailing business. In such a strategy, the Old Town is often pre-

sented as the nucleus of a compact city, an alternative discussed worldwide against low-density developments.

▶ There is, however, another risk factor: the

great concentration of tourist-oriented services. This situation has its clear expres-sion in an increasing number of souvenir shops or sporadic conflicts with bars over the use of terraces.

Rúa Nova

"Compostela Monumental"

Source: Compostela Munumental.


Rúa doFranco

AeropuertoInternational

Santiago y

su comarca

camino

camino

camino

Mercado

Cidade da

Cultura

C. Hostelería

Hotels and restaurants-1▶ Hotels and restaurants are the sector that

makes the most intensive use of the Old Town. Also, they benefits the most from the daily inflows to Santiago, especially of na-tional and international tourists.

▶ The streets converging at the Cathe-dral are just “the last corner” before arrival to the destination. For the Association of En-trepreneurs in Hotels and Restaurants Busi-ness, the Old Town is the great crossroads

square, and Rúa do Franco its most rep-resentative and busy street. Yet their open-ness to an extensive field connected by the pilgrimage roads is critically important.

Rúa do Franco


Hotels and restaurants-2▶ The great concentration of bars and res-taurants in the Old Town sometimes origi-

nates frictions with the people living in the same area, for whom the intrusion of tourists only brings “noise”, distorting their everyday life. As is already discussed, there can be fric-tions even with the retailing sector.

▶ Among the interviewees, the association of hotels and restaurants was actually the only one in referring to the polemic project of

the Cidade da Cultura (City of Culture). Here, the twin tower designed by John Hejduk is represented as the future for Santiago, in con-trast with the Cathedral’s twin towers.

Santiago, past and future

Cidade da CulturaSource: CompH!ostelaría, no. 151 (2011).


barrio

barriobarrio

barrio

barrio

calle

calle

Mercado

D. Vecinos

Residents▶ In the case of the local residents living in-side the Old Town, their spacial perception

hardly surpasses the inmediate neghbour-hood for daily use. For the Residents As-sociation “Compostela Vella”, it takes a lot of efforts to bring small neighbourhoods toghther under a common objective.

▶ The Old Town’s streets are perceived sim-

ply as daily paths, located just a few steps from their private entrance.

▶ The local popular expression “3M” (mar-

ket, missa and medical service) expresses somewhat

ironically the residents’ typical profile: elderly women and widows.

"Compostela Vella"


Opposite perceptions▶ The interviews we have just overlooked permit us to understand Santiago Old Town

as a twofold space. The irresistible power of the places is, to a greater extent, what at-tracts different kinds of flows, which in turn activate those same places.

▶ In such a dynamic process, people get to

have contrasting and even opposite per-ceptions around a same space. A very illus-trative example is the Mercado de Abastos (Food Market). In this case, what is a popular market visited by local people throughout life can also be utilized as a strategic site for

tourism promotion.

Mercado de Abastos

To be cooked in situ


Field survey 2013/2014▶ In 2013/2014, the field survey was contin-

ued with the participation of APU students from Geography Seminar (in total 10 participants).

▶ Along the two occasions, we interviewed another collectivity with high representative-ness among the “human inflows” to Santiago:

university students and professors.

▶ Each interview was complemented by an itinerary across the Old Town, finalizing in a favourite place for the collaborator.

▶ The following is the summary of the inter-views to USC students. Three of them study Geography, one specialises in journalism and another in information science.

With Manuel

With Rubén FIELD SURVEY 2013/2014 16

▶ Abandoned the daily trip by car two years ago. Since then living in Santiago.

▶ Pr. Galicia (where Zara is located) is perceived as the centre of Santiago. Yet, the best place for shopping is A Coruña.

▶ Santiago is good to study, to work and to live. The university is near the cen-tre (In A Coruña, no; in Lugo, not so close). Can meet

friends and go everywhere walking.

▶ The weak points are the rain and the

traffic. The dependence on car can give place to an American way of life.

▶ In San Domingos de Bonaval Park, can get a different perspective of the Cathedral. It’s a

good place for the youth.

San Domingos de Bonaval Park

Profile of the Collaborator-1Origin: Frades (30km northeast).

Course: degree in Geography

Campus: inside the Old Town

Living in Santiago: 2 years, near Pr. Galicia, 10 minutes walk to the Faculty.

Favourite place: San Domingos de Bonaval Park

FIELD SURVEY 2013/2014 17

▶ Came to Santiago to study geography. Be-fore that, visit to Santiago was limited to the

Apostle Festival.▶ Enjoys night life in pubs inside the Old Town. The Zona Nueva (new zone) is ugly, there is nothing to do, except for shopping.

▶ Santiago is good just for three groups: students, tourists and government employ-

ees. Not attractive for other people. It’s com-pact and practical, but too small; hard to find something new; the beach is far away; very rainy...

▶ Showed us a hiding urban garden known only among some local people, just behind the City Hall, very close to the tourist area.

Hiding urban garden

Profile of the Collaborator-2Origin: Vigo.



Living in Santiago: 5 years, near Pr. Galicia, 10 minutes’ walk to the Faculty.

Favourite place: “balcony” behind the City Hall, viewing a hiding urban garden.


▶ Came to Santiago to study journalism. Be-fore that, several visits for school excursion.

Her family goes shopping to Marineda City (a huge shopping centre near A Coruña).

▶ 40 minutes’ walk to the Campus. Cheap apartments are available there, but isolated. Enjoys night life in the Old Town. The Zona

Nueva doesn’t have atmosphere. Jogging to Eugenio Granell Park or La Alameda.

▶ Santiago is compact and good for stu-dents, despite the rain. Yet, would like to live in a coastal and open town like Vigo.

▶ Showed us Pr. da Quintana, as a popu-lar square for local people, contrary to the

official and touristic Obradoiro.

Praza da Quintana

Profile of the Collaborator-3Origin: Carballo (west of A Coruña).

Course: Journalism

Campus: Compus Norte

Living in Santiago: 3 years, near train station, 40 minutes’ walk / bus to the Faculty.

Favourite place: Praza da Quintana


▶ Changed from Vigo to Santiago to study applied geography. Before that, several visits for the Apostle Festival or concerts.

▶ Jogging to La Alameda, a rich in nature and multipurpose park for everyone, from children to elderly people.

▶ Santiago is a good and practical town.

Has everything near you: cinema, shop-ping, leisure, nature... The only weak points are the rain and absence of the sea. Although living in bigger cities, the space you really use would be similar in extension.

▶ Showes us Pr. da Inmaculada, cross-roads of pilgrims, and the neoclassic monas-tery. For her, Rúa do Franco is not so bad.

San Martiño Pinario Monastery

Profile of the Collaborator-4Origin: Tui.



Living in Santiago: 3 years?, near Pr. Roxa, 15 minutes’ walk to the Faculty.

Favourite place: Pr. da Inmaculada and San Martiño Pinario Monastery.


▶ Moved to Santiago to study, but used to come here for shopping or cinema.

▶ Obradoiro and Rúa do Franco are lively places with people from various origins. Goes to pubs of the Old Town, like Casa das

Crechas, to enjoy Galician music.

▶ Santiago is good. It’s compact and every-thing is close. Tourism brings people of the world. The only negative aspect is the rain. Would like to live in Santiago, and if not, in a completely different cultural context, like USA, Suisse or Japan.

▶ Showed us La Alameda, visiting all its details. It’s the synthesis of Galician cul-ture: nature, history, life, religion, science...

La Alameda

Profile of the Collaborator-5Origin: Frades (30km northeast).

Course: Information Science

Campus: Campus Vida

Living in Santiago: 2 years, near Pr. Galicia, 20 minutes’ walk to the Faculty.

Favourite place: La Alameda


Pilgrims' mass

Disagreements...▶ The student collaborators coincided in some points and disagreed in others. The

main disagreement was in their apprecia-tion for the reduced phisical dimention of Santiago: Compact can be a positive factor for some, but rather negative for others.

▶ Here, we should remember that what gives more value to Santiago than its phisi-

cal dimention does are the human flows: students, tourists or pilgrims... Without these inflows, Santiago would be little more than a common medium-sized provincial town, with-out the international projection which permits the city to hold a sence of pride.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

International students, USC

22

Custodians of place...▶ On the other hand, most collaborators did not mention directly the Old Town as a se-quence of meaningful places. However, what brings about the intensive daily flows to San-

tiago are, in fact, the institutions which are acting as custodians of the places, in both tangible and intangible manner.

▶ Municipal and Autonomous governments are present there; in USC nearly 30 thousands of students from inside and outside of Spain are studying; and the Cathedral as core of the Historic-Artistic Ensemble is what appeals to most of the tourists, and of course pilgrims.

CONCLUDING REMARKSCity Hall

Colexio de Fonseca, USC

23

Again, flows and places▶ Moreover, the "atmosphere" surround-ing the night pubs mentioned by various stu-dents is an essential component of the urban fabric, of the space of places storing experi-ence and collective memory.

▶ So, we can say that the flows give San-tiago a great internal and external relevance, much more than expected by its physical dimension. And that the continuity of those flows are guaranteed by the vigour of the places.

CONCLUDING REMARKSPorta Faxeira

Cathedral from Pr. da Quintana

24


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36


Santiago at different scales

The cocept of compact▶ Considering again the physical dimension,

compact is a relative concept. When we look at the "almond" and its appendix along pilgrimage routes, Santiago is compact. How-ever, its metropolitan area is a rather dis-persed territory with small settlements.

▶ When some of the collaborators say that Santiago is good, they refer to the historic ur-ban core. And the same territorial setting is presumed, when the other students say that Santiago is too small. We think that both of

these perceptions are very conditioned by the students’ way of life, that is, walking around the town without using a car.

CONCLUDING REMARKS 25

Fruitful relationship▶ If those who stress the "smallness" as a negative factor should have a easy mobil-ity, they could have quite a different percep-tion of Santiago. And eventually they could recognize for Santiago a positive value as a

city where the space of flows have a dy-namic and fruitful relationship with the space of places.

▶ It is important, however, to point out that this synthetical relationship can be kept as

is, as long as Santiago is compact in its urban core, that is, the "almond" and its prolongation along the pilgrimage routes.

CONCLUDING REMARKSArco de Mazarelos

Porta do Camiño

26

Interacting city and nature▶ In case Santiago were converted to a large urban agglomeration, it would lose its enor-mous value as a compact and practical city, a value recognized by many collaborators.

▶ Also, we should remember that all the

students mentioned nature as a important value for the quality of life in Santiago. And what is valuable in that nature is its unique urban solution, filling "underarms" of the con-necting roads and making an interesting in-teraction with the compact built environment.

▶ Inheriting this dynamic socio-spa-cial setting is critical to manage the future evolution of Santiago.

CONCLUDING REMARKSLa Alameda

San Domingos de Bonaval Park

27

Thank You for Your AttentionSpecial thanks to the local collaborators:

María Abelleira Méndez (Presidenta de la Asociación de Veciños Compostela Vella); Aser Álvarez (Director de Comunicación e Mercadotecnia de Hostelería Compostelana. Asociación Hostelería Compostela); Lourdes Pérez Castro (Directora Técnica da Oficina Técnica. Consorcio de Santiago); Jesús Curros Neira (Jefe de Servicio de la Oficina de la Ciudad Histórica. Concello de Santiago); Dolores Cerqueiro Landín (ibid. Jefa de Sección de Arqueología); José Ángel Blanco (Xerente. Compostela Monumental Centro Comercial Abierto); Marta Rey Boquete (Xerente. Mercado de Abastos de Santiago. Sociedade Cooperativa Galega); Yolanda Ferro (Turismo de Santiago de Compostela - Información e Comunicación Local, SA Santiago Turismo. Departamento de Productos y Comunicación); Suevia Sobral Santiago (profesora de chino y japonés); Valerià Paül Carril (profesor de geografía, USC); Rubén Camilo Lois González (profesor de geografía, USC); José Maestro (funcionario de la Xunta de Galicia); Manuel Ramiro López Carro (estudiante, USC); Arturo Pérez González (estudiante, USC); Eva Tuñas López (estudiante, USC); Laura González Ramírez (estudiante, USC); Marcos Carro Fernández (estudiante, USC).

Participants in the field survey from the Seminar Takenaka of Geography (APU):Kosaku Morita; Wakana Mizuno; Saki Maeda; Hazuki Komatsu; Lisa Koido; Rui Matsumoto; Yuka Yokoyama; Eri Morita, Kana Mizukami.

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