Neil Fraser
7 June 2002
The 20th century history of Barcelona and of the Catalan people has resulted in interesting 21st century parallels to our own current situation particularly relative to culture and heritage.
The Catalans had fiercely resisted the nationalist government of General Franco and, as a result, he was particularly harsh in dealing with them both in terms of reprisals and in suppressing all aspects of their culture.
Amongst other issues, the Catalan language was banned - it could not be taught in schools and it was not allowed to be spoken publicly nor were publications in Catalan permitted.
I believe that the city was even flooded with Madrid number plates on motor vehicles so that everyone would be reminded where the seat of power lay. All Catalan culture was suppressed. Resistance was dealt with quickly and brutally and we visited some public places where surrounding walls were pockmarked with the scars of the bullets of the execution squads.
Since Franco's death in 1975, the province and the city have been recapturing the long period of cultural suppression and today one is able to enjoy the results.
Whilst the Catalans have had some 27 years to re-establish their local identity, heritage and culture off a base of many centuries, in our case, we are still at the earliest stage of grappling with our colonial and apartheid past. Because Johannesburg is a young city in world terms and because we possessed a 'mining mentality' of 'when it's served its purpose pull it down' we have far less left physically for us to build on.
That makes preservation all that more important for us so we can learn from how other cities and countries are tackling the issue. I was for instance interested to learn that whilst France has education as their first priority, culture comes second and this is reflected in that country's budget spending.
On the other hand Spain appears to be more conscious of controlling the effects of globalisation on urban areas than France. The French certainly do not seem to be too particular in regard to their planning and many of the towns that dot the countryside of southern France are branded with the "Golden Arches" and traditional Big Mac buildings. In the little bit of Spain that I've seen, McDonalds appears to be confined to existing buildings.
Globalisation has a neutralising effect on cities. Donovan Rypkema defines it as the "McDonaldisation", "Disneyfication" or just plain "westernisation" of towns and cities. He says; "Downtown's strength is not homogeneity with everywhere else, the strength of downtown is its differentiation from anywhere else. The trip from someplace to anyplace and the trip from anyplace to no place is far shorter than many would like to admit."
In one of the British weekend papers I recently read of how a group of people in Primrose Hill, a north London enclave of writers, lawyers and intellectuals, successfully petitioned their town council to refuse an application for the establishment of a Starbucks coffee outlet in their town centre. Somehow we seem to have lost that passion, a passion that once had Joburgers loudly denouncing proposals to demolish buildings that differentiated us from other cities and added to the value of the city.
Barcelona is a city that has differentiated itself from other European cities in many ways. It is described as "obsessed with playful and innovative interpretations of everything from painting to theatre to urban design and development."
In many ways it is of course physically similar to other European cities with its wide tree lined avenues offering shade to pedestrians and to those sipping coffee and stronger in its many pavement cafes and in its dozens of squares.
Its tapas bars offer a huge assortment of delicious food to be enjoyed over numerous glasses of wine and a continuous stream of buskers provide background music played on a wide variety of instruments from South American pan pipes and Aboriginal digeridoos to classical Spanish guitars.
Its differentiation comes more through its art and architecture than anything else. Joan Miro, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso all had strong links with the city. Its Romanesque and Gothic history endowed the city with many fine buildings of those periods.
But it was in 1854, when the medieval walls surrounding the city as it was then were removed to accommodate huge expansion pressure, that the real individualism of the city blossomed.
A rigid grid system of streets was introduced but with the corners of each intersection chamfered, giving the city a unique footprint. The new plan coincided with a period of economic prosperity and nationalistic fervour that in turn gave birth to the Modernisme movement, a variant of Art Nouveau.
Pragmatic design gave way to ornamental profusion, the curve replaced the straight, coloured facades, stained glass and undulating roof lines and ceramic clad turrets and chimneys were combined as a reaction to "the misery and massification brought about by technology and the industrial revolution."
This year Barcelona celebrates one of its most famous architects of this period, Antonio Gaudi, and many Gaudi buildings are open to the public for the first time. We visited a number of these including the stunning "Temple of the Sagrada Familia". This Cathedral, under construction since 1896 and now only 50% complete completerly blew my socks off!
So what can we learn from a very old, very European yet unique city such as Barcelona? Well it has the diversity of meanings which Rypkema talks about - aspiration, civic pride, prosperity, confidence, responsibility, sustainability, evolution. Its buildings have meanings and its buildings reflect its values. That provides a great challenge to us and challenges provide great opportunities!
