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Call for papers Revista de Arquitectura N.º 47. 

Ways of looking at architectural sustainability + FREE THEME

 

Deadline for receipt of articles:  September 10, 2024

Guidelines for authors: https://dearquitectura.uchile.cl/index.php/RA/about/submissions

Urbanspace Design in Postindustrial Barcelona. Defending the “urban” vs. the “urbanal”.

Authors

  • Alfonso González Aguado Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña

Abstract

Ever since the Modern Movement, architects have been responsible for the design of cities and urban spaces. The architectural conception of cities has led our profession to the mistaken belief that designing streets, squares and parks is equivalent to generating public spaces. However, public space depends more on the social, cultural, political and economic conditions of the city than on the shape of its architectural elements. Within the frame of the postindustrial city and using Barcelona as a case study, the following article explores the implications of understanding the city only as an architectural object. To do so it compares Francesc Muñoz’s concept of “urbanalization” (as the contemporary paradigm of production of cities) to Manuel Delgado’s concept of “the urban” (as a paradigm of public space as the social space), in an attempt to ask ourselves if we as architects should approach the urban phenomenon from an inter-disciplinary point of view that explores beyond the city’s shape.”

Keywords:

postindustrial city, Barcelona model, “urbanalisation”, “the urban”, public space