Rural (Re)Population: Utopia Or Dystopia?
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Rural (re)population: utopia or dystopia? Case study: the village of Els Guiamets Víctor Enrich Tarrés Bachelor thesis Bachelor's Degree in Architecture Urbanism Department ETSA Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech Le cœur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point . Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662) Tutor / director: Carles Crosas Armengol Examination committee: President: Jordi Franquesa Sànchez Vocal: Inés Aquillué Junyent Vocal: Eduard Callís Freixas Fig 1. Next pages, Barcelona urban pattern within the silhouette of Els Guiamets municipality (Own composition) 1 2 3 4 Table of Contents Abstract Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 6 Motivation A long journey back to architecture ............................................................................ 7 Now, what? ................................................................................................................ 11 In this document I describe the sudden outburst of interest towards moving to the countryside by a Introduction growing amount of people currently living in cities and as a consequence of the application of tough 2020: year one .......................................................................................................... 15 measures, such as the restriction of movement and the prohibition of close social interaction during 2020, resulting from having to control the spread of the Covid 19 pandemics. I also point out that a Hyperconnectivity ..................................................................................................... 17 massive migration from cities to the rural environment is still, to this date, a very complicated operation due to several reasons and I intend to prove that an urban-rural migration may perhaps not be that Moving to the countryside ........................................................................................ 19 beneficial as expected for those who end up enrolling in such a challenging upgrade of their lives. Justification ............................................................................................................... 23 In a clear utopic/dystopic approach, I set the timing of this document in a non-distant future when Purpose & methodology ............................................................................................ 24 small villages may eventually start to compete with each other for the sake of attracting as much Els Guiamets discontent urban citizens as possible with the goal of gaining enough population to invigorate their depleted economies. Among all the contenders in this eventual competition I choose the village of Els The municipality ....................................................................................................... 25 Guiamets, located in the province of Tarragona, Spain, of which I describe its pros and cons as a candidate from a rural, landscaping and urbanistic perspectives. Elements as diverse as the topography Acces to water ........................................................................................................... 31 of the place, its connectivity with the outside world, the network of existing rural homesteads in the The village ................................................................................................................. 35 municipality or a major factor in every rural context such as access to water are analyzed. Utopia & Dystopia Before concluding whether rural (re)population might belong to the utopic or dystopic realm, I decide Past utopias ................................................................................................................ 47 to dive into the history of utopia. Firstly, as a genre in literature, pointing out how the urban environment has been the context in which most of the plots were set, leaving the rural world almost Contemporary utopias ............................................................................................... 51 untreated. Then I also add notes on several rural utopias of the past and the present, such as the one that took place during the first Soviet years or the one depicted in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre Conclusions city in 1932. Finally, more recent utopic examples, such as the permaculture phenomenon, are General aspects .......................................................................................................... 53 discussed. Els Guiamets ............................................................................................................. 57 I end this document by stating how the nonexistence of a rural imaginary in western culture may be a major drawback in the attempt of enrolling in a rural move and by acknowledging that even if the Epiloque .................................................................................................................... 62 potentialities of our case study to attract rural migrants are fairly good, only the involvement of all the Reference list ................................................................................................................. 64 society would allow for the expansion and consolidation of this new chapter in the “back to the land” history. List of figures ................................................................................................................ 67 5 6 Motivation A long journey back to architecture Professional years Many things have happened to me since 2002, Those were the times when, looking at my Money started flowing in huge loads. The of penalties with “Hacienda”) and what began as the year when I decided to drop my architecture school mates, I discovered an incipient lack of market was favorable to me with an increasing a love story with the 3D craft, working for studies. passion for the craft. At the same time, I saw the demand and very little offer in the 3d area. By clients considered as some of the best architects rise and consolidation of other interests that, simple inertia, this situation pushed me to grow in town and working in projects that helped me I was in my eighth year at the E.T.S.A.B. and while being a child, made me perhaps mistake a company that, at its very peak, reached 20 understand what true architecture is about, many of the dreams and visions about architecture for some other, yet undiscovered, employees. The obvious downside was that, degenerated, with time, in the management of a architecture that, before entering college, grew occupation. Besides that, I was also suffering with every new assignment, I had less and less firm only focused in trying to make ends meet in my mind had almost completely faded away. from severe economic difficulties so I needed to time to go on with my architecture studies. every month, working for higher budgets only I have always been a dreamer, and the school get a job urgently. Some of my school teachers Where this situation ended up leading me is found in projects made for real estate years helped me understand that architecture is liked the way how I made the 3d renderings of something quite predictable. developers. In this context, as the owner of this mostly about dealing with reality. Dreams were my projects so they asked me whether I was firm, I couldn’t even recognize my own dreams. welcome, of course, but as long as they open to accept assignments from them. In an On the other side, and without any MBA I had actually completely forgotten about what contributed to something a bit more than just outburst of self-confidence, I said yes. That was education, I learnt the hard way what actually really is the joy of work. mere personal fulfilments. 1996 and almost nobody knew anything about means to manage a company (especially in terms 3D. Fig 2. 3d rendering of a skyscraper in Barcelona. Fig 3. 3d rendering of the Disseny Hub project. Fig 4. 3d rendering of a residential building. Fig 5. 3d rendering of the Hotel Maricel, Mallorca. Antonio Sanmartin, 2000. MBM arquitectes, 2003. IMPSOL 2003. ADD arquitectes, 2005. (Own composition) (Own composition) (Own composition) (Own composition) 7 8 Motivation A long journey back to architecture Entering the art world Oil painting Tired of this self-annihilation, in 2008 I decided person grabs the attention of half of the world But at the same time, I saw my last digital In fact, my 3d works, in order to reach top levels to shut down my own company, burn bridges around herself, are pretty exceptional, that in fact creations, even if much better in the making than of hyper realism, demanded months focusing and start a career in the most unpredictable and not everything that one touches turns into gold. the first ones, and conceptually richer, were not into completing full digital re-construction of dangerous world that anyone could ever choose: The constant publications in such media came gaining as much attention from the media. whole entire urban areas to a level of detail of art. The journey ended up being much longer with their own conversions too: a growing So, moved by a rather bizarre intuition I just few centimeters. For an artist, adopting than expected. Several years during which some number of art collectors that, even to this date, gradually began to abandon the digital world and shorter production times means having to face completely unexpected situations, good and bad, keep contacting me to buy some of my limited- start working in another format: painting. much