Some Notes about Architecture, Urbanism and Economy, Essays (university) of Urban planning

Download Some Notes about Architecture, Urbanism and Economy and more Essays (university) Urban planning in PDF only on Docsity! Contemporary Urban Affairs 2018, Volume 2, Number 2, pages 1– 11 Some Notes about Architecture, Urbanism and Economy * Dr. JOSE MANUEL PAGES MADRIGAL University of Genova, Italy E mail: jmpmadrigal@gmail.com A B S T R A C T Economy can be considered as the transversal component of the human activities over territories. This fact can be observed from a diachronic perspective: the way how architectural typologies arose through history. But the relations between Economy and Architecture are not only established by the small scales but the larger ones. Cities and territories evolved from compact forms till spread ones in a parallel way to the arousal of the shopping areas. Urban sprawl could never be understood without these new typologies. The paper is based on the key note speech was held in the International seminar “Economy today” last September 2017 in Andrićgrad (Bosnia and Herzegovina). It is divided in two blocks: the first one relates to a general review of the historical reflections of this relation with a special mention to the consequences of an economic crisis either in the landscape or urban scales. The second part, partially included in the conclusions, reflects on the necessary changes in the university curriculums for a better visualization of this relation. It would imply new attitudes able to explain most of the architectural processes as the formal result of a larger interaction. CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2018) 2(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2018.3663 www.ijcua.com Copyright © 2017 Contemporary Urban Affairs. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Architecture and urban planning as human activities, are necessarily linked to Economy. The economical component is present in their respective design processes, since they need funds to be developed. There are not urban forms without relations with economy, but at the same time it is difficult to understand the economy without an urban basis supporting it. Urban societies were the perfect location for sharing the first trading experiences. That is the reason why cities reflected this relation since the first ages. There are a lot of examples through History: Agoras (Figure 1), Forums, Souks and Medieval markets (Figure 2) are good paradigms of these relations. Their respective different cultures are beyond these simple urban forms. Galleries and arcades during the 19th were in fact the precedents of the 20th mall centers, meanwhile the Central market typologies arose in the main cities of the planet. All these typologies provoked different reactions and they were engines of new territorial or urban developments. Shopping centers proliferated during the second half of the 20th century. They can be considered as one of the main causes of the urban sprawl, as a tool linked to other phenomena like the compounds, the large A R T I C L E I N F O: Article history: Received 2 August 2017 Accepted 10 August 2017 Available online 12 October 2017 Keywords: Architecture; Urban economy, Historical reflections; Urban sprawl. *Corresponding Author: University of Genova, Italy E-mail address: jmpmadrigal@gmail.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 4.0. "CC-BY-NC-ND" JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS, 2(2), 1-11 / 2018 José Manuel Pagés Madrigal 2 urban sprawl urbanizations with detached typologies and golf clubs. Development of the cities and antrophization of territories cannot be understood without economic reasons. Both of them can be explained through the Economic history studies. In fact, Tony Garnier based all his urban design of the new cities concept on the economic activities to be developed as the engine for them. (Fig 3 and 4) Figure 1. Agora in Athens.Reconstruction by G. Rehlender. From: Spamers illustrierte Weltgeschichte (Spamer’s illustrated history of the world) vol. 1, by O. Kaemmel and R. Sturmhoefel, Leipzig, 1893. Figure 2. Market place, Norwich. 1854. From: Norwich Museum & Art Gallery. Figure 3. Tony Garnier, Une Cité industrielle. Ètude pour la construction des villes, 1917. Figure 4. Tony Garnier. Proposal for a French city of 35.000 inhabitants. The harmonious growing processes were based on a balanced relation between Territories and economies settled on them. The break of this balance provoked in each case anomalous reactions transformed into economic crises or city abandonments by appearing in the contemporary times the shrinking processes. Detroit city was largely studied in the last decades(Adedeji & Arayela, 2017) . These phenomena cannot only be understood from the urban scale but also they can be upgraded to territories. Cities are the “natural” scenario for developing human activities, even the economic ones. The interrelation among the several cities needs this territorial support, as the basis for the territorial antrophization. They cannot be understood without the economic reasons beyond that. In fact Factory-cities, or cities with a dominant economy activity based on such specific production, like mining or cars are repeating cycles alongside the History. Detroit is a clear contemporary example for that. (Figure 5 and 6) This is why we can affirm that Economy is an important factor for generating urban and territorial forms. Figure 5. Detroit. From: Detroit by Air, by Alex S. MacLean. JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS, 2(2), 1-11 / 2018 José Manuel Pagés Madrigal 5 One clear example can be the legal framework of the Land Law in Spain. This policy, translated into territorial terms, implied important changes in the legal framework. The Spanish Land Law experienced great changes between 1956 and 1997. The original concept for the land in 1956 would be referred to the natural vocation of being agricultural, where the urban spaces became as exceptions within the landscape. This initial legislation tried to avoid the early transformation of the rural land into urban one. On the other side, the preamble of the legislation in 1997 justified this total liberalization of the land because of the high cost of the land and the needs to open the market to everyone, as well as the need to adapt the role of the Professional associations to the liberal market, according to then EU rules. Figure 11. Interactive map of Mc Kinsey report 2011. Figure 12. Mc Kinsey report interactive map from American continent. Figure 13. Black Thursday effects in 1929 crisis. Figure 14. Comparative evolution between rent houses/bought houses and Spain vs. England. But this phenomenon was not only affecting Spain. All the Southern European countries experienced these consequences in a clear way. If we pay attention to these economies, they knew several concatenated expansions without any decrease, at least between 1985 and 2007. These years were punctually affected by local crises because of an unusual increasing of economic activity around specific events, like Olympic Games in Barcelona and International Exhibition in Sevilla, but in any case, the normal growing process was recovered in a short time. These processes would be initially assumed by the general European context, where Greece, Portugal and Spain would be integrated into the European Union. Greece would be integrated in 1981, meanwhile Portugal and Spain would be in 1986. It is not casual the celebration of two international Fairs in Lisbon and Sevilla and the Olympic Games in Barcelona. Neoliberal policies and thinking controlled so many countries around the world in a slow rhythm since the seventies. Their effects were visible in so many sectors, through the privatization of the different social resources and the progressive disappearance of the State intervention in the different sectors. This ideology was inside the different regulatory frameworks where the different countries of the EU would converge. The adaptation of so many laws contributed for a very positive attitude to liberate the control mechanism over the society. Architectural and Urban planning processes were not an exception on that. In practical terms during the “golden” years of the Spanish economy, the building sector gave employment to 12.5 % of the work hand in the country, with the highest ratio inside the EU. These values linked JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS, 2(2), 1-11 / 2018 José Manuel Pagés Madrigal 6 the economy process to the results of the Real Estate process with a high risk. In fact the bubble consequences were fatal for the whole economy involving banks in this global crisis. The results of the development of neoliberal laws in Spain, together with the generosity of the loan grant were the worst consequence from a progressive neoliberal statement since the seventies. An exponential increase of the prices, a high risk policy to impulse prices and markets with impossible loans and a creation of an artificial scenario where the banks suffered the consequences of a collapsed economy and a great percentage of unfinished public works all over the country. Similar scenarios were developed in other countries of Southern Europe. Italy got an important percentage of landscapes transformed into dismissed buildings of structures. Spain and Portugal knew similar scenarios. The task of recycling these scenarios is nowadays an important task. Figure 15. Guadassuar.Valencia.Spain before 2007 crisis. Figure 16. Guadassuar.Valencia.Spain after 2007 crisis. A real estate bubble with catastrophic territorial consequences in Spain and Portugal started in 2007. Spain can be considered as a paradigm in the economic crises in 2007, affecting important world economies. Prior to this debacle, Spain’s economy was largely admired by Western commentators. This country was able to create a total amount of 7 million jobs during the 1990s, with a yearly growth of nearly 4% in the period 1995-2007. Figure 17. Quijorna. Madrid, Spain before 2007 crisis. Figure 18. Quijorna. Madrid,Spain after 2007 crisis. The tourism sector modernization brought up the possibilities to think of reasonable wealthy perspectives (Iranfar, 2018). Property development was other sector which capitalized this extraordinary economic boom. House prices accompanied simultaneously to both sectors, becoming by 220%, with a total expansion of the sector around a 30% in the period 1997/2007; something like more 7 million units. One of the effects of this bubble is the large number of inhabited houses. The 13, 65% of the Spanish houses were waiting for an owner, after 2007 crises. It was a total of 3.443.365. Homes, as well as other 676.000 unfinished houses. Prices evolutions were linked to this situation, as seen in Figure 19. Spain has suffered several ups and downs in the ownership system. The Minister of Housing in 1957 defined the objective of converting the tenants in owners. The percentage of the renters changed coming from the 45.5% in 1960 to achieve less than 10% in the last 2000s and growing up till 21,2% in 2014.In any case the system to get the properties was always based on mortgage loans . The voracity of the financial entities dragged towards an unprecedented crisis that brought the crack of the whole system and forced the whole country to a long desert crossing till now. JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS, 2(2), 1-11 / 2018 José Manuel Pagés Madrigal 7 Figure 19. Comparative evolution between Spain and Ireland bubble effects. Source: Credit Suisse studies unit. It is important to remark that several characteristics were always kept during these crises: Countries with very low interest rates and low to moderate tax rate as well as high loan-to- value ratios have the potential to experience large property bubbles. The physical consequences if that are always visible throughout the respective landscapes and territories. 5. Economy and Landscape Transformations Economy has even influenced in other scales and spaces. Landscape transformations are usually based on economic decisions. Mediterranean terraces obsolescence is linked to the unfeasibility of economic processes on them. (Figure 20) It provoked the ruined landscapes of important territories where other purposes were got through agricultural activities. Geologic and ecological stability as well as fixing populations were parallel goals to be achieved. Figure 20. Abandoned terraces in Alto Douro. Plots redistribution in Galician territories, commonly known as re-parceling brought up important landscapes transformations in the last 50 years. (Figure 21) These processes consisted of new property distributions to easy better economic results in the agriculture production. Regional economy is based in this case on a family scale, rather than major ones. Figure 21. Plots redistribution in Galicia Spain 1964. We can realize important changes in the Argentinian Pampa landscapes when the irruption of the soy within a scenario mainly dominated by the wheat. (Figure 22) Figure 22. Argentinian Pampa region with wheat 2015. The optimization of economic results was the main factor for a new strategy in Badajoz during 1950´s and 60´s. Badajoz Plan was able to transform an important area (196943 Ha) and 50 new towns. The total implementation was an JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS, 2(2), 1-11 / 2018 José Manuel Pagés Madrigal 10 contribution was interesting, when he defined this phenomenon as a global urban strategy in despite of being initially emerged as a sporadic quaint, and local anomaly in the housing markets of some commander-cities”5. He defended the idea of these processes have been “thoroughly generalized as an urban strategy that takes over from liberal urban policy.” Much as the neoliberal state becomes a consummate agent of rather than a regulator – the market the new revanchist urbanism that replaces the urban policy in cities of the advanced capitalist world increasingly expresses the impulses of capitalist production rather than social reproduction. As globalization bespeaks a rescaling of the global, the scale of the urban is recast. 8. Conclusions A strong relation between Economy, Urbanism and Architecture was always remarked. This relationship has been a fundamental piece in the development of the best and worst scenarios in the several scales, Territorial, landscape, urban planning and architectural scales. A good example would be the Suez Canal. This relationship is not reflected on the academic curricula in the schools of Architecture and it was better welcomed in the departments of Economy, Several examples can illustrate this fact: The current department of Economy and Management of the University of Ferrara was named Dipartimento di Economia Istituzioni e Territorio, with important contributions to these relations, like the Master in city management or the Master in Environmental management and sustainable development. It makes sense to deep on the idea of joining Architecture and Economy as the basis for new academic paths for learning both fields. Eventual paths of schools of Architecture must be based on these three eventual principles. 1. The idea of insetting economy in outcomes in some courses. As an example, the integrative design studio courses would include notions about Economy and production 2. The concept of proposing elective courses, or even major ones, with a clear economic vocation. IE gives to their 5 Smith, Neil: “New globalism, new urbanism :”Gentrification as a global urban strategy ” Architecture students the possibility of doing a minor related to this area. 3. The concept of master programs joining these two concepts. Masters in Urban economy are linked to this idea of transversality. MAPAUs, as a transversal experience for five years. The links between Economy and Urbanism were more developed nowadays. The coming challenges are the links between both of them, the last Pritzker Aravena and the previous writings from Koolhaas define future lines to be followed. Figure 28. Hiedanranta Bay's new master plan Tampere. Master Plan by Schauman & Nordgren Architects. Figure29. Master course in Urban Economy, University Torcuato di Tella, academic year 2016/2017. 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