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Looking East. Debating the future of the new Barcelona

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Debating the future of the new Barcelona
Public Debates. February - March 2005. Mondays from 19 to 21 h

MACBA-UPC (part of the UPC Master's Gestió de la ciutat. Programes i projectes Urban Management, Programs and Projects, directed by Jordi Borja).

The idea behind these public debates is to focus on the situation facing the metropolis at the beginning of the new century: the change from the urban model which developed in the 20th Century through some very specific historical conditions, to a new model and a new scale, which still does not seem to have found its discursive or political articulation, despite the fact that the city itself is no longer that of last century.

On the one hand, changes taking place in the "central" city (which is to say the municipality proper) could destroy a physical and social fabric which not only deserves to be preserved but which could – if the transformation were done properly – provide leverage for a whole new development. On the other hand, in Barcelona there is no kind of alignment between metropolitan reality, the political framework and social conscience, which makes any kind of positive intervention in the process of urban renewal very difficult. This city's evolution raises new questions concerning affordable housing, mobility, historical heritage, public spaces, education, facilities and services and so on. These are questions which do not have one single answer: many different and opposing voices must be heard. Nobody, not the politicians in charge or the empowered experts, has sole access to the right answer.

The East of Barcelona's municipal area (what used to be the old municipalities, and which today includes the districts of Sant Andreu and Sant Martí) is the part which is going through the most intense process of urban renewal these days. Work on the waterfront, 22@, the Forum zone, the Plaça de Les Glories, the high-speed train station, the Meridiana "green axis" and so on, are ongoing projects which are changing the social and physical appearance of the city. The major axes of the Meridiana and Diagonal roads, from Les Glories to beyond the city limits, are in some way symbolic of the whole formed by these processes, and they offer one point of view from which to begin a citizens' debate about the future of the city, looking East.

In these debates, the idea is to hear from the local organisations and groups, from researchers and experts on urban development and from those who hold government office, so that they can all contribute to a dialogue which may create confrontation, but also agreement, between the citizens and the city's politicians. The speakers' arguments will be met by a front row of associations, mass media and other central players in urban development.

		
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Debating the future of the new Barcelona
Public Debates. February – March 2005. Mondays from 19 to 21 h

MACBA-UPC (part of the UPC Master’s Gestió de la ciutat. Programes i projectes Urban Management, Programs and Projects, directed by Jordi Borja).

On the one hand, changes taking place in the “central” city (which is to say the municipality proper) could destroy a physical and social fabric which not only deserves to be preserved but which could – if the transformation were done properly – provide leverage for a whole new development. On the other hand, in Barcelona there is no kind of alignment between metropolitan reality, the political framework and social conscience, which makes any kind of positive intervention in the process of urban renewal very difficult. This city’s evolution raises new questions concerning affordable housing, mobility, historical heritage, public spaces, education, facilities and services and so on. These are questions which do not have one single answer: many different and opposing voices must be heard. Nobody, not the politicians in charge or the empowered experts, has sole access to the right answer.

The East of Barcelona’s municipal area (what used to be the old municipalities, and which today includes the districts of Sant Andreu and Sant Martí) is the part which is going through the most intense process of urban renewal these days. Work on the waterfront, 22@, the Forum zone, the Plaça de Les Glories, the high-speed train station, the Meridiana “green axis” and so on, are ongoing projects which are changing the social and physical appearance of the city. The major axes of the Meridiana and Diagonal roads, from Les Glories to beyond the city limits, are in some way symbolic of the whole formed by these processes, and they offer one point of view from which to begin a citizens’ debate about the future of the city, looking East.

In these debates, the idea is to hear from the local organisations and groups, from researchers and experts on urban development and from those who hold government office, so that they can all contribute to a dialogue which may create confrontation, but also agreement, between the citizens and the city’s politicians. The speakers’ arguments will be met by a front row of associations, mass media and other central players in urban development.