Barcelona, June - July 2012 Special Edition Price: 5000 Brain Cells

THE ARCHITECTURAL VOICE

The Architectural Voice

U R B A N G L U T S

image: Robert Rauschenberg - Albino spring glut - Neapolitan 1987

El Prat territories: designated for the Eurovegas project. photo by Kathrin Golda-Pongratz

It’s time of glut. Greed is rampant.I’m just exposing it, trying to wake people up.I simply want to present people with their ruins [...]I think of the Gluts as souvenirs without nostalgia.What they are really meant to do is give people an experience of looking at everythingin terms of what its many possibilities might be.”

Robert Rauschenberg on his Gluts Series, New York, 1986

glut /glt/ vt (-tt-) [VP6A, 14] ~ (with), 1 supplytoo much to: ~ the market (with fruit, etc). 2overeat; satisfy to the full; fill to excess: ~ one’sappetite; ~ oneself with rich food; ~ted withpleasure. n [C] supply in excess of a demand: a ~of pears on the market.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English

Urban GlutsEditorial

Kathrin Golda-PongratzDavid Bravo Bordas _____________________________

Both the political context and the artistic concept of Robert Rauschenberg’s Gluts serve as inspiration and initial impulse for this year’s public space workshop. His assembled objets trouvés were created after a visit to Texas in the 1980’s, when the economy of the state was deeply weakened, its urban landscapes were completely devastated and converted into wastelands of debris and industrial leftovers as the consequence of a surplus (glut) on the oil market.

The general glut is a term derived from economic theory, describing the situation when production in all fields exceeds both the demand and the availability of financial means to consume those products, a situation of overproduction and/ or underconsumption of which the Great Depression of 1929 is maybe themost frequently related exemplary case.

Our contemporary moment, the crisis that determines most discourses as well as our momentary everyday life, is certainly a moment in history in which we are facing similar effects and in which the ideology and mechanisms of capitalism at the edge of the postindustrial era will have to be rethought, and both current economic and social models and new forms of dealing with the rampant surplus production on a global scale have to be (re) imagined.

The workshop inscribes itself into this context as an opportunity to discuss, rethink and reinterpret urban environments, where such effects leave traces visibly or in a more subtle way. We will be looking, both critically and creatively, at Barcelona’s and other urban agglomerations’ architectural surplus, physical wastelands and spatial leftovers, but also at some more latent cultural phenomena related to spaces of consumption and the urban waste. Related urban projects presented for the European Prize for Urban Public Space awarded by the CCCB, will serve as a source of inspiration as well as a background for discussion.

The redundant and superfluous shall be discovered as a potential to invent urban strategies of decrease, reuse, anti-dispersal and towards a more complex and sustainable coexistence. At the same time, we will explore the promiscuity of things, spaces and relations as well as the challenges of palimpsests and thepresence of the past within the built environment, in order to develop our own statement and in order to rethink and recombine the urban and the public sphere, as Rauschenberg suggests, “in terms of what its many possibilities might be.”

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Joris Moonen_______________________________

Triggered by the noises of cracking plastic, imploding tv-screens and garbage collection trucks, the everyday happenings around the garbage bins at Carrer de la Unió 11 were recorded over a period of two weeks.

These happenings are not isolated incidents, but are part of larger systems: garbage disposal by consumers, unofficial collection and recycling by rag-pickers and finally collection and cleaning by the municipality. These activities are part of a system, or more precisely put, they are a by-product of the system.

It’s ironic that these practices of unofficial recycling are a way of

survival for people that are cast out of the system, but that at the same time this is only viable precisely because they are out of the system. Not just because it’s more convenient for companies who are buying the collected materials for rock bottom prices, but also because these thrown-away products are considered as glut to us now because our developed consumerist society degrades them to be worthless. These recordings can be seen as a testimony that today more and more people are reconsidering this framework.

The project consists of a video assemblage of the recorded fragments: for almost ten minutes, 9 scenes are running at the same time in multi-screen mode, not unlike a CCTV security system.

In & Out Reconsidering rubbish: Daily happenings recorded around Carrer de la unió 11.

Left and Below: stills from In & Out.mov Watch it online at vimeo.com/43761478

Visual culture is often a mirror of our fantasies and realities. Somehow we Don’t understand why we feel things are falling apart.

Diccionario de Sinónimos y Contrarios

Evelyn Tilney________________________________

By exploring varied forms of print media, one can begin to understand the fantasy and reality of a society, and reveal the disparities present in that society’s expectations of themselves and what they truly deliver.

Being in a new environment, I wanted to take a closer look at the imagery Spain presents, and how it refl ects its current state of affairs as a country and a cul-ture. As an exercise to develop a better understanding of its visual vocabulary, I chose to explore both an issue of El País, as well as Vogue España. These two forms of media—a newspaper and a fashion magazine—refl ect two facets of contemporary Spanish culture. While one considers political and economic issues from a head-on, fact-based ap-proach, the other indirectly reveals, perhaps, why these initial issues exist. In taking images and texts out of their original, stylistically homogenous con-texts and repositioning them next to one another in a new context- a dictionary of Spanish synonyms and antonyms—it became easier to identify the messages that each particular medium was com-municating. It became very clear that while some words were present in both the glossy magazine and the printed newspaper—suggesting they contained similar ideas—the projected image of success and happiness in Vogue España fully failed to address even remotely the reality of Spain’s political and economic woes. In fact, much of the imagery, even as relatively small sidebar content, turned out to be an insidious form of consumption for the sake of consuming. Without consideration of reality or necessity, Vogue España managed to position itself fully as a work of fi ction, but not a benign fi ction. Rather, it has the potential to be a malignant weapon, fi ghting on the side of societal igno-rance. The placement of these collages of media juxtaposed in the context of the dictionary were intentional, and hope-fully provocative. They can serve as a warning of how we represent ourselves and our societies, while the truth of what we are is hidden in the distance.

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To understand the why of the issue, perhaps

we need to consider the contradictory messages

we send ourselves.

“That is what the word emancipation means: the blurring of the boundary between those who act and those who look, between individuals and members of a collective body.”

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Basura que no es BasuraAn urban experiment: the creation of an urban wall with ephemeral recycled materials showed us sensibilities of society. Maricela Galan_______________________________

Sometimes we are blind, but maybe something else covers our eyes, because we get used to seeing without watching.

One city, full of strangely quotidian surprises that we perceive in a derive, is Barcelona, which is catalogued as a cosmopolitan city. Honestly, I am not sure exactly what that word means, but it sounds very important, crowded with tourism and impressive contemporary architecture. But what happens when we take a look to the past? The consumption of industrialization and the waste of resources during the “built era”? The end of the industrial era had left some footprints officially accepted as history, even very well conserved as witness, as the case of the chimneys in Poble Nou, that are part of some parks and squares. On the other hand, there are still some other remains like the buildings and the abandoned industrial complexes, no?

In the case of Okupas* here, these are communities which are intelligently using the old forgotten factories. More than just to stay and live, they are developing small industries, working to maintain their balance, taking risks but giving, in a way, services to the city.

There are some examples of these communities gathering in the same space as immigrants and as co workers, which are able to establish and maintain and support efficiently their own people, also giving an important service to the city, like the recycling of trash and objects. These abandoned buildings are given back to the space that they previously occupied, their live atmosphere hidden behind the walls.

All of these people and communities and buildings in the city are suffering serious changes that we can not enclose. “The concept of transformation doesn’t suppose a basic dimension” **

We are talking about societies in development, the space they are in, the time they mark, the heritage, the construction of the present and the future. These utopias, as the fantastic significance of prediction; prediction of the population to occupy a city, prediction of the money to spend, the amount of tourism or visitors, the wars and conflicts, the peace, the forest and the green areas, mobility thinking about some ideas, all synthesize in the romantic theoretical proposals or solutions. We always must be aware that “The result cannot be considered other than as an environment, a background scenery that’s alive, but in which nothing can be heard or seen except in a fleeting, fugitive manner. Such a work doesn’t only need to be heard passively but looked at passively.” ***

** James Ogilvy.

* Okupas: terminology to define people living in abandoned public places as a community.

*** Brindle Smith

Oto Sulaberidze________________________________

In a common language, errors are considered to be a wrong answer, something that creates shame and embarrassment for those who make them. But this is the power of accidents to overturn our keenest desires for order, optimization and purity. Error is the beautiful improbability that escapes fortifi cations of logic.People are moved to different places and experience new things by accidents and by destroying certain kinds of order and regulations. During the workshop, we visited some very interesting communities and areas in Barcelona that can be considered as consequences of breaking certain rules. One of the ways these places can be identifi ed are the certain objects of (everyday) use produced and by the (everyday) spaces occupied by these communities. Recycling and reusing rubbish and old stuff collected in the streets is becoming not only the means of survival but of self-expression, and everyday life can be seen as a tool of self-expression. Products that were once produced in a factory and consumed by people for years now end up on the working tables of (mostly) African immigrants. One can fi nd anything, from the small pieces of jewelry and metal cans to the TVs and even cars. Some of them are repaired and some of them might be used for another purpose etc.It doesn’t even matter if these objects get a new purpose or just stay with no function- they present the social and cultural state of certain communities, and these objects getting better or worse only depend on our point of view.

Accidental Communities in Barcelona

A Human has also invented it.

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Rebecca Davidson_______________________________

Barcelona has recently instated a policy which criminalizes “dumpster diving” and comes with a hefty fine of 400 Euros. The workshop demonstrated that these materials, buildings and spaces of the city have great potential to be re-designated with just a bit of imagination and teamwork all that’s missing is political support.

“ Consumerism proposes that one finds the mirror for a transitory identity in brands and packaging, momentarily satisfying narcissistic desire. Will there come a day when the narcissist discovers that the mirror of life is not really in the objects one consumes, but in the surroundings and social milieu in which one consumes them? ”

-Richard Ingersoll

Children in Canada grow up with dreams and notions of tooth fairies and easter bunnies, who mysteriously appear when everyone is sleeping and leave gifts hidden under pillows and around the house. With age, the reality becomes more obvious and these childhood expectations are outgrown. But are they really? Is it not ironic that the mysterious appearance of “things” and money will ultimately lead to them disappearing in a similar manner once a newer, better version comes along? Once a week we put out our trash which has magically disappeared by the time we wake up and leave for work, never to be given a second thought. For those living in apartments, it’s even more magical, we open a door in the wall and it falls into the darkness and ends up who really knows where?

In Canada alone, there are a minimum of 2400 landfills according to LIMO (landfill inventory management ontario). Each individual generates 894 Kg of residential waste per year(1). For a population of nearly 35 million, these numbers are embarrassing and the message is a dual one - one of excessive waste of course, but

more importantly one of excessive consumption. The way in which we consume and dispose of products has a direct correlation with the way which we use and value our cities and suburbs. This is the way of our culture. The trouble is, that all the material which has been taken from the land to supply our consumerist demands, ends up in relatively little time, back in the land. Recycle, reuse, reduce applies only to newspapers or bottles and cans. But what about the city itself?

Arthur C. Nelson of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech estimates based on models of consumer behaviour, that by 2025 there will be an excess of 22 million large lot homes on the market. A phenomenal form of waste and excess which cannot be buried under ground to be “out of sight, out of mind”. A reminder for anyone driving past, of the overzealousness of an entire generation, supported by an over inflated industry of land development and residential construction.

We could easily propose to turn them into artist centers, group homes,

women’s shelters, bed & breakfasts, daycares, small business offices or even cafes and restaurants. The only issue is that this is not legal due to rigid zoning bylaws. Local governments need to re-invent the policies to decriminalize the re-use of waste, whether it be in a dumpster or an abandoned house.

Digging for Trash - or Burying Treasure  Left: Project Row

Houses in

Houston. 6 blocks of converted

houses used for low income

housing, artists spaces and

commercial/office space.

Right: Converted

row housing in Cork County, Ireland.

 

Left: Project Row Houses in

Houston. 6 blocks of converted

houses used for low income

housing, artists spaces and

commercial/office space.

Right: Converted

row housing in Cork County, Ireland.

 

Up: Project Row Houses in Houston. 6 blocks of converted houses used for low income housing. Artists spaces and commercial/office space.

Below: Converted row housing in Cork County, Ireland

Consuming (Sub)Urbanism

Tal de Lange_______________________________

In today’s modern cities that provide shelter to enormous amounts of people, we can find, side by side, newly developed public spaces, gardens, boulevards and social activities but also deserted buildings, huge infrastructures, unemployment and immigration. We don’t usually use the term “urban glut” and sometimes we try to ignore these problems.

During the seminar we were exposed, among other things, to Barcelona urban glut. As I have shown and explained, Tel Aviv suffers from similar urban and social problems.

In ‘White City, Black City’ (Babel, 2005, Hebrew), Sharon Rotbard writes that ‘cities, like history, are always made by the victors and ultimately always according to the victor’s history, and are not equally welcoming to all”. In his book he traces history, architecture and political conflicts in Jaffa- the Arabic section of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv gained a reputation as a “white city with Bauhaus-style architecture”, “the first Hebrew city” and” Israel’s business and cultural center”. In his book Rotbard describes Jaffo as “The black city” as opposing “The white city”. Tel Aviv has another “Black city”: downtown Tel Aviv with refuges, foreign workers, contaminated buildings and neglected areas : the architectural and social margins.

The world’s economic crisis is one of the reasons to rethink the act of planning and architecture. We should consider making a better use of what already exists. Remodeling existing buildings, reuse of the leftovers, and considering the unfinished or the discarded are some of the possible solutions.

In his article “ Infected Interiors: remodeling contaminated buildings” Graham Brooker suggests 3 approaches when using contamination as a starting point when altering the interiors of infected existing buildings: intervention, installation and insertion. Each one offers different and creative approaches to the design of existing buildings.

Experiments and realizations of parasite typologies in urban areas, as a critique to the lack of public areas and services, is another way in which I try with the students to develop a new type of architecture. Moreover, we need to be more tolerant to the different and the other.

Urban Glut: Tel Aviv - Barcelona

“For me, an architect is not somebody who makes buildings but someone who makes you think about them, makes you hesitate and see things differently, interrupting everyday rhythms to to produce a sort of hesitation, which acts as the opportunity of thinking or seeing or living differently. It is a kind of process that creates doubt” - Andrea Zittel

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10 Questions : the result of a week of tours and discussions.

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Citizens of the World

George Tvildiani________________________________

In the 20th century, most cities and metropolises were producing different kind of products or items, with the majority of the population involved in this production. But a lot of things changed after several decades, and now cities became consumers from producers.

In one such consumer city we meet with a group of individuals, mostly from Africa, who work on producing and reusing all of the rubbish they fi nd outside, in the street. Mostly because of their lifestyle, the rest of the people of the city do not accept them.

“We have no boards, we are not from one specifi c region or country. Person who is born without paper (passport) looks like this toy with uncertain past.”

Looking at this group of people, one can imagine in what conditions they

have to live. Most of the inhabitants have no electricity, water supply or gas. Even though they are in such disastrous conditions, we not only do not help them, but even destroy their houses.Despite all the diffi culties they have to overcome in every day life, they continue to impress us.

Reusing extends the lifetime of a product, from the time it is purchased to the time it goes to landfi ll. When you extend the lifetime of a product, you not only reduce the need to buy something new, but you also save on the energy it would take to recycle that product, so there is a double profi t. Reusing extends the lifetime of a product, from the time it is purchased to the time it goes to landfi ll.

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“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for” - Joseph Addison

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Mannequins of Pride

Ahmed Ibrahimpašić ________________________________

Just like humans, objects have their life as well- they are born, pardon, pro-duced, and then skipping childhood, adolescense and education, they start immediately their career or their goal of creation. Contrary to human life, the life of the objects is experiencing constant reduction of life expectancy. As before, for instance, a pair of shoes served for years and even for more than one gener-ation, today shoes will be likely replaced next season by the younger and thus more beautiful ones. An old sofa might have served for nice chatting, siestas and even copulation; by changing the owner the sofa changes its lifestyle as well . As the shop mannequins were used to ‘wear’ clothes, changing it seasonally, today they are lying headless, having to deal with another function than that which they are designed for.

As every person, everywhere, anytime uses space, they are eager to convert the space into a place. Some put the picture of their girlfriend/boyfriend/family/pet on their working table, others put a Bob Marley poster on the wall. While visiting the abandoned factories, it was interesting to observe the way how the shop manequins are used to give iden-tity to the place and how they find a new life. By placing them next to each other in an big empty space, the space is given a character- the space is converted into a place.

By playing with these thoughts, the proposal was to stack the mannequins into some sort of visual sign- the symbol of the community- and thus visually and spatially underline their presence and pride.

Old, dirty, obsolete, headless, crippled manequins were given a new life and thus they underline the new-given life of the old, dirty, crippled, obsolete spaces.

Christie Petsinis __________________________________

I am interested in discovering hidden elements that lie beneath the physical and cultural surface of Barcelona - marked histories, uncommon spaces and contemporary interventions that are bringing new occupations and contributions to the city. This research is intended to be ongoing, as we continue to explore layers of the city, its urban environment and present conditions. Elements are being collected and placemarked in Google Earth, creating an interactive guide that can be participatory where others can contribute their insights and share information.

A few elements that have been discovered to date include:

1. Buried Roman City We begin with the oldest infrastructure that lies beneath the surface of the Gothic Quarter- Roman City - established around AD15. The relics of an ancient civilisation connect us to the past and former civic life of Barcelona.

2. Shelter 307Another miniaturised city was built by the Catalan government and local community as a result of the bombardments carried out by Franco’s army. A series of underground refuges were implemented to protect civilians during the 1930s. Shelter 307 is an example of more than one thousand that were established and are now lying unoccupied under the city.

3. Avinguda DiagonalPost Franco’s dictatorship, the name of this major route through the city

resurfaced as the Avinguda Diagonal, erasing its former title named after Franco, similar to many other names and places within the city.

4. Can BatlloThe former industrial area of Poble Sec is being revitalised by the community in partnership with the local government and developer. A community group has been formed to facilitate a sensitive approach to the development, creating studios for artists and other community spaces to revitalise the historic mill.

5. Sant MartiUnderutilised industrial buildings have become adopted by migrant communities from Africa. They are collecting and organising unwanted waste from the city - bottles, scrap metal and dysfunctional equipment.

This unofficial recycling and repairing system is also successfully supplying communities in Africa with essential items such as water pumps and other infrastructure that they require.

6. Hort del Xino Situated on a vacant block in El Raval, this garden was established three years ago by the community and relies upon goodwill to keep it growing.

7. Pneumatic Waste Collection SystemBarcelona is one of the few cities that has implemented an underground network to store the city’s household wastes. Waste is collected efficiently from waste containers by a vacumm system, reducing the footprint required at ground level for waste storage removal, transportation and traffic emissions from large vehicles in residential areas.

Beneath Barcelona

1919

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2. 5.

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All rights reserved. Some parts of this project may be repro-duced, used, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the editorial team. For the production of this issue of The Architectural Voice, every effort was been made to ensure accuracy in the credits and to secure permission for all images from copyright holders. In cases where this proved impossi-ble, the images were assumed to be free use. The editors of Architectural Voice apologize for any oversight. In the event of identifying an image as your own, please contact the editors. The opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily represent those of the editors, who neither represent nor guarantee the accuracy of the information, and no responsi-bility will be taken in the event of error or omission. The editors reserve the right to publish any original material solicited and cannot undertake to return material submitted unless its return is expressly requested.

Associated Editors:Joris MoonenTal de LangeAhmed IbrahimpasicRebecca Davidson

Photo Editor:Evelyn TilneyChristie Petsinis

Special Agents:George Tvildiani

General Staff:Germá SebastiáGuillem Valls

Founded:2012

Headquarters:Barcelona, CCCB Sala Raval

printed at www.newspaperclub.com

Owner:Metropolis Master Program

Founder:Mario Ballesteros

Publishers:Otooo SulaberidzeMaricela Galán

Editors:Kathrin Golda PongratzDavid Bravo Bordas

Credits_

Contributors_

Rebecca Davidson, Architect from Canada working currently on CEAC (Cochrane En-vironmental Action Committee), Let’s Talk Cochrane, Cochrane Sustainability, C3 bar and Chinese Box Courtyard Hostel Beijing. You can find her on http://facebook.com/Rebecca.Kath1een.

Ahmed Ibrahimpasic, Architect origina-lly from Bosnia and Herzegovina. You can contact him and view his work at www.ahmedibrahimpasic.com

Maricela Galan, Ecuadorian Architect against the Zona Azul in Quito and fan of Liga de Quito. You can follow her on Twit-ter @MARICELALEJANDR.

Hernando Gomez, Civil Engineer living in Medellin, Colombia. He is an active Metro-polis Alum, focusing in Ciudades Amables. You can contact him at hgome@grupoargos.com

Joris Moonen, Belgian Architect. Politi-cal views very conservative. He likes John Talabot. Contact him on joris.moonen@gmail.com.

Tal de Lange, Israeli Architect, Educator, Artist, she is obsessed with books, artistic exhibitions and she loves to spend her time walking near the sea. tal@delangedesign.com www.delangedesign.com

Christie Petsinis, Architect from Mel-bourne, Australia. Director at Utopian Folk Architects. She recently joined Pin-Up Ma-gazine. You can find her on utopianfolk@folk.com or www.utopianfolk.com

Oto Sulaberidze, Architect from Georgia. Studied at Tbilisis Saxelmwifo Samxatvro Akademia. You can find him at oto.sulaberi-dze.7@facebook.com

Evelyn Tilney, Creative Producer and Art Director, living in Manhattan, New York. She is a Capricorn. Her work is on www.ebtilney.com

Tvildiani George, Architect from Georgia. He enjoys Sarajishvili. You can contact him at georgetvildiani@yahoo.com

The Architectural Voice

photo by Kathrin Golda-Pongratz

The editors and contributors would like to thank the people at Cal Africa in Poble Nou/ Barcelona for their hospitality and engaging conversations.