Reconquistando nuestras ciudades históricas

Abstract

The paper addresses a general reflection upon the need of recuperating our emblematic historic cities and their architecture, in order to return it back to their citizens and users. A certain sort of “museumization” is detected in the mentioned cities, where their great heritage and historical character seems to be a priority over the right of free mobility and enjoyment of the people, minimizing the urban daily life and transforming the environment in pure images only to be admired from the distance, in a kind of simile of frozen heritage in the form of a great sculpture. This consideration comes from the study and results generated by the Intensive Program “LOCUS – Let‟s Open Cities for Us”, which has faced, during three consecutive years, the problematic of mobility and accessibility in historic city centers with strong heritage value and complex and steep topography. In most occasions these sites are fortified cities, protected by a medieval wall on the top of a hill, due to their first defensive origin, indispensable at that time but in a total contemporary contraposition: we must, therefore, rethink our historic cities and ensure their frank access. Our duty of ensuring completely equal terms of use and our right to enjoy a good quality of life, leads to the research on those adequate tools that will allow accessing the heritage in an equitable manner for all people, regardless their diverse special needs. It is about innovating an intelligent architecture able to offer an answer to our present demands, without renouncing the perception of beauty and harmony of our inheritance. The objective is to improve the relationship between architecture and society: by means of an accessible architecture we can guarantee a better comfort for all users and, consequently, and improvement of the quality of life, the profitability and the sustainability. Architecture will be only sustainable when its utilization is permitted, being an accessible architecture the maximum guarantee of an inclusive society. LOCUS (www.etsav.upc.edu/locus) has been coordinated by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and has the partnership of eight architecture schools coming from diverse European universities. The paper will present conclusions resulting from the analysis of four Iberian cities studied by LOCUS: Tarragona (February 2008), Girona (July 2008), Évora (July 2009) and Ibiza (April 2010). It is worth mentioning the diversity of approaches and solutions generated by a study like this, being a great orientation for future similar urban interventions.