i- introduction ii- nature and cities - world...
TRANSCRIPT
Hey, Planners, Leave the Slums Alone! Fifth Urban Research Symposium
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HEY, PLANNERS, LEAVE THE SLUMS ALONE!
I- Introduction
Public parks and Romanticism stay among the most representative productions of the
XIX century. They seam to evidence a new, more sensitive attitude towards nature. But
is this really something that appeared a couple of centuries ago, for the first time in
history? In order to understand the urban phenomenom, we need to open a very wide
historical perspective and explore it. We will not have a clear image of contemporary
urban regions and their relationship to nature unless we dare to follow the evolution of
the city from its very origins.
II- Nature and cities
1. Patterns across history
Many people would argue that the human attitude towards nature has undergone so
many paths that it is impossible to identify certain patterns across history. What we can
see, they’d say, is progress. Cities in the industrial countries two centuries ago were
polluted, ugly, and they showed little or no sensitivity for nature. A few decades later, in
the second half of the 19th
century, urban parks were one of the most pregnant
components of the same cities.
Image 1- Pugin compares the harmony expressed by many cities during the Middle
Ages and the disruption caused by industrialization.
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Image 2- Paris and Haussmann. Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes: Back to nature?
What Jauzer has explained since 1993, is that it is possible to recognize similar patterns
in the evolution of cities and urban cultures since the prelude of the Neolithic era. He
proposes a Modernometer with five different modernity levels, each one of them related
to specific indicators and attitudes. According to his Theory, people and cultures on
Level 1 show a tendency to innocence and authenticity, they don’t try to impose
themselves upon anyone or anything, they don’t search for conquering or dominating.
Oriental visions like Taoism would perfectly fit into this level. A very nice example of a
human settlement on Modernity Level 1 is provided at the beginning of Gabriel Garcia
Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude:
At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on
the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs.
But as soon as humans reach the next level, arrogance, domination and control emerge.
The main difference between Level 2 and 3 is that the former is brutal and rude, while
the other is guided by rationalism. The principal characters at Modernity Level 2 are
taken by warriors and individual leaders who accumulate power and possessions. Level
3 represents the era of institutions. History of cities, from their foundation to their
optimistic prosperity, can be traced mainly into these two frames, regardless of the
epoch when they exist.
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2. Modern is not recent
A very important contribution of Jauzer’s Theory is his demonstration that some human
creations and cultures were more modern than others that appeared at a more recent
time. The city of Timgad (Thamugadi), founded around AD 100 in the Roman province
of Africa by Emperor Trajan and the 3rd
Augustan Legion (Legio Tertia Augusta), had
a rational, fully modulated grid that was imposed from the plan to the territory in a very
clear, efficient and categorical manner, highlighted by the decumanus maximus and the
cardo, that terminates in the magnificent forum. Temples, basilica, libraries, thermae
and a 3500-seat theater provided the basic ingredients needed by the system in terms of
political and social activities, recreation being one of the most important among them.
Image 3- Timgad: A 2000 year old rational city.
In contrast, most of the european cities that existed one thousand year later were less
modern. They didn’t have an orthogonal plan. Instead, their streets were bent and had an
irregular section along their length, they were not paved and had no drainage systems. It
has just been an almost universal mistake to accept that modern is synonimous with
recent.
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Image 4- Nördlingen: A more recent but less modern city than Timgad.
The official foundation of Nördlingen is refered in AD 898. Under the streets and
buildings of the central area lie the rests of an older city, called Septemiacum, that was
founded by the Romans in AD 85. Again, the rational pattern of the former castrum
shows a higher level of thinking and abstraction than the more recent settlement.
While Level 1 implies a naïve relationship between humans and nature, Levels 2 and 3
exclude it as an undoubted demonstration of human power and supremacy. No matter if
they appeared in Mesopotamia around 2000 BC, in Italy AD 1500, or elsewhere less
than one century ago, these constructs belong to the same spirit, the one that considers
that the city is “a human operation directed against nature“ (Le Corbusier, 1923).
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Image 5- Lo Sposalizio della Vergine. A city at Modernity Level 3: Lo spazzio pubblico
è la Piazza, non il parco.
Among the most characteristic components of primitive cities, walls are of great
importance. A city wall defines the limits between two completely different universes:
the urban and the rural, the first one being far superior than the other. Walls protect the
most important elements of cities: citizens and their precious belongins, which are rare
and created by humans. Vegetation is so abundant and irrelevant that it’s not included
inside the city. Agricultural fields are too large as to surround them with expensive
walls (although this might partially occur at later epochs).
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Image 6- Ur, the root of Urbanism.
3. Hypermodernity and apparent recoveries
Only after a long tradition of urban life will an unavoidable factor of modernity emerge:
Nostalgia, literally, pain and longing for the (missing) nest. This ingredient , refered by
Jauzer as “the dark side of progress”, is always present after Level 1, but it is dimished
or masked by optimism and the sense of gaining power that serve as fuel in Levels 2
and 3.
Nostalgia, fragmentation of rational systems and the crisis of consolidated legitimations
are the typical indicators of Level 4. Society cannot simply trust or be guided by
previous dualistic schemes, were, as the old song (Mann and Weil, 1966) puts it, “the
answers seemed so clear”.
When the world and I were young, Just yesterday. Life was such a simple game,
A child could play. It was easy then to tell right from wrong.
Easy then to tell weak from strong. When a man should stand and fight,
Or just go along. But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light. Today there is no black or white,
Only shades of gray.
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I remember when the answers seemed so clear We had never lived with doubt or tasted fear.
It was easy then to tell truth from lies Selling out from compromise Who to love and who to hate,
The foolish from the wise.
But today there is no day or night Today there is no dark or light. Today there is no black or white,
Only shades of gray.
[instumental interlude] It was easy then to know what was fair
When to keep and when to share. How much to protect your heart
And how much to care.
But today there is no day or night Today there is no dark or light. Today there is no black or white,
Only shades of gray. Only shades of gray.
Vegetation in the city is one of the first evidences that an urban culture has undergone a
process of modernization that, after having excluded it for the sake of efficiency and
overwhelming rationalism, longs for a compensation and thus seems to make an attempt
to balance their existence. This is far from being a renunciation of modernity. On the
contrary, it’s both a nostalgic recovery and a gesture to further legitimate progress.
Societies at Modernity Level 4 tend to be highly complex and contradictory. This is
where Hypermodernity begins.
For levels 2 and 3, urban and rural are like day and night, vegetation and nature
represent a dark, hostile and dangerous reality that must be conquered, while civilization
means a safety environment conducted by enlightenment, where the answers seem so
clear. Cities at Level 4 include many aspects that belonged to the dark, mean and
unworthy context, like insecurity or vegetation.
Babylon probably was the largest city in the world during two periods of its existence:
in the times of Hammurabi (18th
century BC) and under Nebuchadnezzar (around 600
BC). The first stage represents one of the oldest essays towards establishing a system, to
transit from Level 2 to Level 3, even if rationalism was in disadvantage compared to the
influence of gods and warriors. The Code of Hammurabi is a precious testimony of this
process. In a similar way, the new Babylon offered an indicator that civilization had
long existed in the region, and consequently produced one of the earliest nostalgic urban
signs: The Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Babylon is
one of the first examples of a hypermodern city, as early as 2600 years ago.
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Image 7- Babylon: First Hypermodern City?
Image 8- The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: The one and only creation among the seven
wonders of the Ancient World whose essence was vegetation. All that was solid melted
into Earth, Wind and Water (Jauzer, 1995).
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Of course, the gardens of Babylon were not public, and this is a clue element in the
development of modernity: In order to continue and be accepted, it has to become
epidemic. This phenomenon is normally (and absurdly) described as democratization.
The early inhabitants of Rome lived in huts surrounded by large vegetation areas.
Image 9- The very modest origins of Rome.
After eight centuries of modernization, the plebs in Rome were confined to insulae
where as many as 40 people could be accommodated in an area of less than 400 m2.
Image 10- High density: a proud achievement of the Roman leaders.
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Meanwhile, the leaders could escape from the tyranny of urban pressure and flee into
their suburban villae, with plenty of gardens and fountains.
Image 11- Villa Adriana. Low density and vegetation: a proud achievement for the
Roman leaders.
As a sort of compensation, some forums (fora) and many termae inside the metropolis
were provided with trees and gardens that can be considered as a prelude to public
parks. Had the Roman civilization continued, public parks would have made their
appeareance 15 centuries before they did.
Of all the ingredients that help develop modernity, two of them are indispensable:
1. Technology
2. Persuasion
Romans were good engineers but their technology was nevertheless primitive, they kept
on applying old constructive systems derived from Mesopotamia and Grece, they were
not really innovative. And, perhaps even more important, they weren’t able to spread
modernity and convince their Germanic neighbors to join the system. If the Roman
Empire have had television, we all would speak Latin (Jauzer, 1995).
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III- CASE OF STUDY: GUADALAJARA
1. Small beginnings
Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico, with around 5 million inhabitants.The
city was founded in 1542, a time when the Renaissance was spreading its rational
dictates around Europe.
Image 12- The founding of Guadalajara: First attempts.
Grid, modulation and little care for natural elements were the main traces of the
primitive city. The peripheric areas were always left for irrelevant matters, like housing
for the poor and the indigenous workers needed by the Spanish population, composed of
some 100 families.
Image 13- Guadalajara: City map around 1600
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Jauzer always underlines how inaccurate it would be to pretend that a given society fits
completely into one single modernity level. Even Adolf Loos (1908) came close to
understanding this:
I am living, say, in 1912, my neighbour around 1900, and that man
over there in 1880. It is a misfortune for a state if the culture of its inhabitants stretches over too great a time span. The peasant who
farms in the shadow of the Grossglockner lives in the twelfth century. On the occasion of the festival procession to celebrate the Emperor's jubilee we shuddered to learn that here in Austria we still have tribes
from the fourth century.
Not only are societies spread over a wide spectrum of modernity, but this is also valid
for individuals. Spanish conquistadores had one foot in the Renaissance and the other in
the Middle Ages, most of them were far from being rationalists or mathematicians. One
of the main components of the conquista was religion, not excactly a pure rational
system or institution.
Image 14- Fray Juan de Zumarraga
Dualistic thinking, typical of levels 2 and 3, is clearly represented in Guadalajara at the
beginning of the XVII century: the core and its rational grid are oriented according to
the four cardinal points, while the secondary areas follow the natural axis of the small
river, named De San Juan de Dios after a convent placed onthe East bank. Ever since,
people speak of two Guadalajaras: the worthy city to the West and the unworthy to the
East, a dualistic pattern that also appears in many other cities aroun the world, from
Paris to Los Angeles. This is another research topic that is currently being addressed by
the Fundación RAUM.
West and East are but one of many possible dualistic cathegories. Another one is
straight versus tortuous, square versus crooked. The main settlements in Guadalajara
will grow in the Atemajac Valley. Broad valleys are very important for every city in the
New Spain that is developed for administrative purposes (Puebla, Querétaro, Mérida),
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as they allow consecutive expansion of the grid. In contrast, any topographic element is
considered an obstacle, a contaminant of the immaculate rationality that must be
imposed on the territory. We can find a great example of this lovely way of thinking,
about three centuries later:
A curved road is a way for donkeys, while a straight road is a way for
human beings. (Le Corbusier, 1925)
2- Growing old
The XVIII century represents a glorious epoche for the New Spain, similar in many
aspects to the European evolution across the Middle Ages. The Gothic is a fantastic
indicator of modernization and welth in Europe, that culminates a cultural process not
unlike the one experienced by the New Spain some centuries later.
Iberoamerican Baroque is equivalentart to Gothic, if not in formal terms, in its rich and passionate expression of an era that is comming to a decadent and luscious end. (Jarvi, 1996)
Guadalajara had one of its first and most dynamic growths during the XVIII century,
with an expansion towards North that soon met a natural frontier: Belen´s ravine. In the
next century, the city will extend its limits beyond this ravine, that will eventually be
filled, erased and urbanized. Still in 1985, some inhabitants of this area were
complaining and tried to sue the municipality because their houses suffered different
damages associated with weak soil and poor consolidation, part of which took place at a
time so recent as 1960.
Impetuous growth meant getting rid of small geographical irregularities, unworthy when
confronted with the expanding city. Gullies, streams and river beds were eliminated one
by one, the San Juan de Dios River was canalized and buried under a pretemptious
avenue named Calzada Independencia. In the 20th
century, this avenue and the urban
area reached in its northen end the great ravine of Huentitan, that with its depth of 600
meters has remained almost untouched.
Image 15- Guadalajara in 1732
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Image 16- Guadalajara in 1887: The Belen Ravine menaced by the city growth.
3. With a little help from some friends
Today, thousands of families in many different parts of Guadalajara’s metropolitan area
have to deal with floods every year during the rain season. In contrast, floods are almost
nonexistent in urban zones that have been developed by poor people through illegal land
invasions. At the lower economic layer of society, vegetation is normally less abundant
in planified housing projects than in slums, and these conditions are very similar in
many other Latin American cities.
Image 17- Recent floods in Plaza del Sol, Guadalajara.
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This topic implies a research that must be yet generated. As a previous indicator, the
Fundación RAUM has chosen three specific areas that have been developed in the last
50 years in Guadalajara, as they offer an illustrative contrast between planified and
spontaneous settlements:
1- Zona Industrial (industrial area)
2- Plaza del Sol (shopping mall and surrounding housing)
3- Huentitán (housing for low income families)
The first two of them were part of the optimistic city growth that accompained the urban
expansion in the sixties, when Guadalajara attained a population of one million
inhabitants, a fact that was celebrated as an inequivocal sign of progress: the city was
now a true metropole. Both have serious problems with recurrent floods during the rain
season (typically in the Summer months).
The third one begann with illegal invasions of communal land of very little value at that
time, just a residual area between the “real” (worthy) city and the big ravine, a sort of
backyard that was void, irregular, rustic and unworthy. The zone is now consolidated
and fully integrated, floods are not an issue and vegetation is abundant.
Image 18- Guadalajara and the happy sixties: To infinity and beyond!
As modernity increased, some members of the elite “discovered” another type of value
associated with this ravine and its surroundings: aesthetic dramatism. Towards the end
of the sixties, some leading architects of the Universidad de Guadalajara (public)
relocated the Architecture School at the north end of the Calzada Independencia, on the
edge of the ravine.
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Image 19- The north end of Guadalajara. To the right, the Architecture Faculty
inaugurated in 1969.
Today, this area has become famous becaus of two large projects that could modify the
whole silhouette and urban structure of Guadalajara:
1- The Guggenheim Museum
Image 20- Close to the edge.
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2- Puerta Guadalajara, an urban complex of housing, offices, shopping,
entertainment and multiple facilities.
Image 21- A very exclusive new project, yet to be realized.
Both projects praise highly what was unworthy for the tapatíos (inhabitants of
Guadalajara) until very recently: nature.
Image 22- The Huentitan Ravine as the perfect scenery. Will Guadalajara reborn from
the once unworthy and abandonned rustic limits?
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Methods?
Theoretical anarchism is the only acceptable path.
Conclussions?
Concludere means to close, to confine, to limit. Since modernity is an open matter, it
would be unacceptable to close this topic. It shall remain open.
Maybe a couple of questions would help to expand the perspective, instead of closing it.
Are people at a very low modernity level more authentically linked to nature?
Can these people hear and listen to the language of nature in a more comprehensive way
than some planners do?
Should we impose them the route of modernization as the only way to exist?
Is this what we call “progress”?
Is this the best we can do for our communities?
Is this the best for our planet?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jarvi, M. (1998). “Architecture and Identity”, Fundación RAUM, Guadalajara.
Jarvi, M. (1999). “XX Century Architecture: Achievements, Searches and ”, Fundación
RAUM, Alliance Française, Casa d’Italia, Goethe Institut, Guadalajara.
Jauzer, V. (1993). “Postmodernity?”, ITESO, Guadalajara.
Jauzer, V. (1995). “Everything you always wanted to know about Hypermodernity, but
didn’t know who to ask”, Alliance Française, Guadalajara.
Jauzer, V. (1996). “Guadalajara: From Big Ranch to Hypermodernity”, Universidad de
Guadalajara.
Jauzer, V. (1997). “Hypermodern City”, Siglo Veintiuno, Guadalajara.
Jauzer, V. (2003). “General Theory of Hypermodernity”, LoMo, Guadalajara.
Le Corbusier (1924). “Vers une Architecture”, G. Crès et Cie., Paris.
Le Corbusier (1925). “Urbanisme”, Vincent, Fréal et Cie, Paris.
Loos, A. (1908). “Ornament und Verbrechen”, http://www.neumarkt-
dresden.de/Texte/loos.html
Mann, B., and Weil, C. (1966). “Shades of Gray”
http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/monkees-lyrics/shades-of-gray-lyrics.html
IMAGES
1- http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/pugin_contrasts.jpg
2- http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/Map-of-Paris-During-the-Period-of-the-Grands-
Travaux-by-Baron-Georges-Haussmann-1864-Posters_i1588119_.htm
3- http://robert.portelli.club.fr/historique/timgad.jpg
4-
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HXx0e6I2Kk4/Rkau9pJnGWI/AAAAAAAAAI4/zMprX0Ke
pvs/s1600/20D15602_Noerdlingen.jpg
5- http://www.centroarte.com/images/raffaello/raf7.jpg
6- http://www.crystalinks.com/ur.jpg
7- http://www.uoregon.edu/~klio/im/ane/Babylon%20-%20Stadtansicht%20-
%20Zeichnung.jpg
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8- http://knowledgenews.net/images/7wonders-hanging_gardens_of_babylon.jpg
9- http://www.stevensaylor.com/RomaArcaica.html#Anchor-47857
10- http://www.latinistes.ch/Espace_jeunes/Caesar-IV/insula2.jpg
11- http://www.sitiunesco.it/pix/tivoli/plasticogrande.jpg
12- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-alvara.jpg
13- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1540%20siglo%20XVI%20Adaptación.jpg
14- http://www.adn.es/clipping/ADNIMA20080117_2417/4.jpg
15- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1732%20Adaptación.jpg
16- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1887.jpg
17-
http://www.dk1250.com/thumbnail.php?file=inundacion_plaza_del_sol_582459986.jpg
&size=article_medium
18- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1960.jpg
19- Jarvi, 2005
20- http://reticula7.blogspot.es/img/museo.jpg
21-
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YP1UpJN2GLE/R_P8R_tCj_I/AAAAAAAAAEg/SUkGLRu
0K84/S660/puerta+guadalajara.jpg
22- http://img8.echo.cx/img8/1097/gug19id.jpg