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)

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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 Moving to the countryside ...... 19 due to several reasons and I intend to prove that an urban-rural migration may perhaps not be that 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 Epiloque ...... 62 major drawback in the attempt of enrolling in a rural move and by acknowledging that even if the 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

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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)

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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 less risk of failure when engaging with happened to me on the way. At least I was finally edition prints in what has become a major source every new project and, on the other hand, a dreaming again. of passive income. One of the beauties of working in oil painting, higher capability to interact with the besides the fact that one can correct, change and contemporaneity of the times, thus, increasing Few years later, some of my artwork started I started living off my own past so, with every modify every single part of the work any time the chances of impact and exchange. My logic suddenly being published in major media from new day, I had plenty of time for myself. I could until the very end of the work, is the room for proved right, in one year I was able to make 30 all over the world, not just once but many times. spend hours every day reflecting on so-called improvisation that it embraces. Also, the times paintings, several of them selling at very decent And simply overnight my life just changed. I got “deep” subjects and dive back into an insatiable involved in creating a new painting are much prices. addicted to success. It took me several years to reading mood. shorter than those involved in any highly process that this kind of life events, in which a detailed 3d rendering.

Fig 6. “Medusa” Fig 7. "Deportation" Fig 8. "Telan". Fig 9. "Pati". 3d rendering and digital photography, 2010. 3d rendering and digital photography, 2012. Oil on wood panel, 97x74 cm, 2018 Oil on wood panel, 97x74 cm, 2019 (Own composition) (Own composition) (Own work) (Own work)

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Motivation Now, what?

Approaching permaculture Time to face reality

During this artistic transition, however, I started precisely, the “Cooperativa Integral Catalana” So, I tried joining several of these communal my first (and hopefully my last) serious to notice an irrational fear growing in me: the (CIC). An “anti-system”, pro-anarchistic, group projects, but most of them, beautiful in their relationship with a woman, who rapidly fact of not being able to resume my architecture of people working on alternative economic ideology, had one main drawback in common: reminded me of the importance of finishing my studies. The Barcelona Tech University had systems beyond capitalism. The co-op was human nature. Multilateral arguments among its studies. Destiny wanted that my decision was changed the studies’ plan twice, in 2010 and in founded by, the yet to this date exiled, Enric members were a constant, exhausting, element made at the beginning of the pandemic. The 2014, and it could be perfectly possible that my Duran which at the time became famous for to deal with. Then I understood why humans world was going to slow down for a while and it academic records were outdated, lost, or even having requested several banks for loans worth thrive better in larger communities, such as was a good chance for me. It took 6 months for worse, lost. In that time, it didn’t occur to me to half a million euro with the sole intention of cities. Robert Ezra Park, the American urban the “Servei de Gestió Acadèmica” to resolve my check my records. Obsessed with and blinded by never giving them back and use them instead in sociologist, was right when saying that cities are case, during which time everything could be the certainty that I was not going to work in 3d social projects., some of them rural, running the perfect place to develop our individuality as decided on my academic reports. Finally, the architectural visualization again, my only throughout Catalunya. Most of these rural human beings. So, after 10 years having surfed resolution came out. I only had to attend to worries were to find a complementary way of projects were based on permaculture (a the globe, then tried the countryside and finally “Estructures IV” because it didn’t exist in my life that could provide that too-long-craved-for phenomenon analyzed later on in this grown a career as an artist I found myself back old plan. 18 years after my drop out, I was going economic stability. document). For me, discovering permaculture to the starting point: Barcelona. But, in an to hit the restart button having to focus on the was love at first sight since it is the perfect craft attempt to hack my own logic (which evidently same matter that any architect needs to when This is the context when I discover the for those like me, without a degree, as it belongs was not working properly), I decided to make starting any construction site: the foundations. cooperative movement in Catalunya and more to the realm of the self-learners. things differently. After few months I went into

Fig 10. Enric Duran. Fig 11. Som Pujarnol, a CIC rural project Founder of the Cooperativa Integral Catalana (plaestany.cat) (Wikipedia)

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Motivation Now, what?

A final project in urbanism

I have never been a person good enough at making our first intrusions into the rich world of I also used to spend a lot of time in the library of In resume, this document is about urbanism and keeping memories. I guess that’s because I urban planning utopias, such as a project I made the American Institute, at Via Augusta, where the rural world because it intends to connect spend much time drifting and “walking on the and that consisted in completely covering the they were keeping an extraordinary collection of these two worlds of mine. I believe the document moon” while things in the real-world pass by me “Baix Llobregat agricultural park” with bodies books, and photo books, among which many is tinted, though, with some sort of naïveté; the unattended. Sometimes, it can be very of Arturo’s Soria’s Lineal City, each of which about the American city. Books that fascinated innocence of a man only capable of living on the frustrating to having completely forgotten an following the traces of the rural roads within this me and which probably became the very reason very edge between what is and what could be, event from the past that your peers recall without huge area of artichoke fields. On the other hand, why I finally decided to choose architecture. always wishing to find solutions to irrelevant much difficulty as if something freshly I have to admit that since childhood I have been On the other hand, I like to say that my whole problems while overlooking the most undergone the day before. After 20 years, I don’t a lover of cartography and the urban form. When artistic portfolio is about the urban form in some traumatizing and urgent ones, and perhaps keep many memories of my college years. I was a kid, instead of playing ball in the way. The collection of more than one hundred attempting against his own instincts after having However, what I do remember is what impacted courtyard with other kids, I was spending whole 3D recreations and 40 paintings I made over 15 decided to write a piece about a subject, a me the most. And, by some sort of chance, many afternoons in the Catalan Cartographic Institute, years is the result of my hundreds of full-day dystopia on urban disintegration to which it’s yet of these memories belong to the realm of at Balmes street, burning out all my savings in walks throughout the cities I lived in, always in not clear if in the future he will be for or against. urbanism. I remember, back in 1994, some of the covering Catalunya with stripes of 1:50000 an attempt of discovering the last little urban best sessions I got with Maria Rubert in her maps that, then at home, I studied thoroughly exception or configuration. A passion that I still class, “Urbanística I & II”, where we were . have today.

Fig 13. The Bollman map of Manhattan, New York , 1962. Fig 12. Fragment of the "Ciudad Lineal" by Arturo Soria. (geographicus.com) (garciabarba.com)

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Introduction 2020: year one

Leaving nature for good (?)

The Covid-19 pandemic, in the drama of its The progressive “abandonment” of nature has In Catalunya, as part of the first world and with problem per se . To the contrary, it is important lethality towards the most vulnerable groups of been taking place rather slowly since the a strong industrial past itself, the dominance of to acknowledge that urban concentration has our society, has allowed us to become aware of appearance of the first urban settlements of urban settlers over the rural ones is even higher. been fairly beneficial to our society over the our many vulnerabilities as a species when which we know of, back in 4500 BC. A process According to the “Observatorio del mundo centuries since it has allowed for the facing the interactions with a microorganism not exempt of interruptions, such as the times of rural”, in 2019 just a mere 3,798 people, out of a establishment of safer, and fairer, forms of social that is new to us because it has allegedly been the Black Death in the Middle Ages or when the total population of 7,5M, lived in rural areas, interactions as well as for the development of all kept hidden within the dominions of wildlife. Spanish flu hit the world, right after WWI, living off the land. Not to mention that a 63% of forms of cultural manifestations. As far as we Over millennia we, humans, a rather weak during which many cities lost population. But it all the urban population (4,8M) lives in just the know, cities have always been the best species compared to other animals, but with a was with the establishment of the industrial 7.5% of its area, a small portion of land environments for many of the most important more developed brain instead, in what has been forma mentis , born in the XVIII century in the concentrated around the biggest Catalan advances and discoveries that mankind has made considered the most important evolutionary step United Kingdom, when urban population metropolis, Barcelona. over time in all areas of knowledge, from social that we have ever made, have been constantly acquired a level of acceleration of such rights to science. improving our skills and capacities in order to dimension that ended up leading us to the This high level of concentration of population in get rid of the dangers involved in living within present situation, at the beginning of the twenty- urban areas must not necessarily be seen as a wildlife. It all started with the colonization of first century, in which more than a 50% of the caves thousands of years ago and has ended in world’s population (and growing) lives already the building of megacities. in a city.

Fig 16. Population density (hab/km2) per health areas. Fig 14. View of Uruk. Fig 15. Urban and rural population of the world. (L’efecte de La Densitat de Població En La Propagació Allegedly, the oldest settlement in the world (4500 b.C.) 1950–2050. de La COVID-19 En El Territori Català / AQR COVID- (Tobey Travels) (UNDESA, 2014) 19, n.d.) (Daily overview & www.apsf.org)

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Introduction Hyperconnectivity

The global urban microorganism The homogenization of problems

Few centuries back, however, villages and cities But, in the era of full interconnectivity in which This aspect is not new to us. Governments have In the case of Covid-19, the virus profited from were not so interconnected as they are today. we are now, be it physical or virtual, a new always put into practice measures of social this worldwide interconnectivity too. Goods and people were not moved from one problem has come up with enough power to put control. A clear manifestation of it, for instance, Now that the pandemic is about to end, it seems place to another in a massive scale as it happens all the world’s urban activity into check. A new we find it in the transformation of the clear that the poor management of the pandemics today. In the past, many of the problems of day- problem, the solution of which mankind is downtowns of several major European cities made by certain governments, focused more in to-day management could be dealt within the struggling hard to find without generating over the XIX century with the excuse, among keeping their popularity rates as high as possible city walls, in ways perhaps considered not collateral damages in all the social advances others, of making condensed cities breathe. A (in order to win elections) instead of in doing politically correct today. Only wars between already acquainted. For the nth time, our process that Schumpeter defined as “creative what is right to do when it’s time to do it, is what countries (or even cities) could eventually governments are taking decisions as if the hardly destruction” (1974, p. 83). in the end may be leading society to another represent a real danger to the urban settlers since gained liberties of the people could be easily torn With hyperconnectivity, all the big cities now form of extinction, that of our actual paradigm cities have historically been main military down, just for the sake of an alleged better function as cells of one same global organism. In of social interaction, where social separation and targets. Some of these wars, such as the conflicts control of the spread of the new problem. a context like this, when one city-cell gets progressive virtualization of processes may between several state-cities in Tuscany during infected, its damage easily spreads to other cells become the norm. the Middle Ages, have led to rivalries that without much interference, affecting, in the end, continue to exist today. the whole organism: the cosmopolitan way of life.

Fig 17. Tuscan popular saying against the Pisans. Fig 18. Palmanova and SARS COV 2. Fig 19. "Devolved parliament", 2019. (viverelatoscana.it) (Own composition + (Banksy) Daily overview & www.apsf.org)

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Introduction Moving to the countryside

Towards a new social paradigm Telework made rural

It was not so long ago when we were still place once the main sources of terror had been As telework becomes the new rule, we witness However, “moving to the countryside” actually boarding planes with almost no security successfully neutralized. how those who took it harder during the worst may mean “moving next to the countryside”. As measures, in a similar way in which we grab a weeks of the pandemic lockdowns are starting to former urbanites, they might have little or no cab today. If a traveler from those years could With the Covid-19 pandemics, society as we rid themselves of the consequences of abiding to knowledge at all of what really means living in see the way we are flying today probably would know it may be on the verge of facing a similar the new imposed forms of interaction. Their the country. Their actual expectations are to get describe it as nothing less than science fiction, to situation. I have many reasons to believe that mindset is: “if we have to be in a lockdown, then rid of all the restrictions suffered in big cities, say the least. Obviously, that person coming most of the new control measures designed better if we face it in the countryside because especially those related with the increasing from the past would not have witnessed the Al against the propagation of the virus and that are there will be more of them”. These people are property prices and costs of life, while keeping Qaeda September 11 attacks, so would not have being “temporarily” implemented today, such as seriously thinking of actually leaving town as as many urban benefits as possible in the little been able to understand the reasons why this compulsory telework, will probably be they have reached the conclusion that, once in village such as a nearby supermarket, a bar to increase in security measures was established in adjourned sine-die once the spread of the the open, they will be able to keep their dignity meet with the locals, or a good internet the first place. microorganism will be taken back down to non- and quality of life at safe levels. connection (Badal, 2018). dangerous levels. Company CEOs are starting to What is hard to understand now however is why realize that working from home means less these security measures, certainly justifiable management problems as well as less running right after those terrible events, were kept in costs for the companies they manage.

Fig 20. Airport security footage, Airplane II: the sequel. Fig 21. Guifinet network of interconnected broadband. (Ken Finkleman) (ruralc.com)

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Introduction Moving to the countryside

Misconceived rurality The demographics of the rural

There’s actually a very small portion of these There is another danger that urban migrants will But even if these migrants-to-be were capable of To this date, though, July 2021, the amount of new rural migrants who will actually transfer certainly face and it is none other than their own moving in the country, what they would people that have already decided to leave the city their main means of subsistence to true preconception of the countryside. Due to the probably find is a very unbalanced local for a better life in the country is still small agricultural activities or will point towards more needs of feeding an ever-increasing population, population, exceeding with elderly people, most (Marsh, 2020) but if the new paradigm persists self-sustained, environmentally friendly, ways most of the “agro-firms” grow plants to feed of them being males (Gobierno de Aragón, over time, and if the worst predictions, made by of life. On the other hand, many of these urban livestock, not people. This activity represents a 2017). A segment of population that, besides some renowned scientists (IPBES, 2020) that migrants are already suffering from economic big economic portion of what we call the that, has not been majorly influenced by the say that we are entering the era of pandemics precariousness, making it for them nearly agroindustry, a sector that has colonized, and recent ardent social upgrades that are constantly become true, we can expect that a growing impossible to afford land plots legally eligible to sequestered, most of the rural land available and taking place in the cities and that have, for portion of urbanites may finally decide to house a home in them. Budget might prevent that is responsible of a non-despicable 19% of instance, allowed for the consolidation of migrate. And if this happens, we will have a them from going for a 100% homesteading way the total emissions of greenhouse effect gases, feminisms or LGTBI+ movements. The rural problem, because the countryside is not ready to of life unless they were lucky enough to access such as Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) or Nitrous Oxide world lacks social biodiversity and unless urban rapidly absorb such an increase in demographic some of the few properties listed in the land (N₂O) (Gates, 2021). Western diet has modified to rural migration becomes mainstream, it will pressure, mainly due to the lack of infrastructure banks, such as the “Banc de Terres del Priorat”, the territory in a dramatic way. stay like this for a very long time. or residential equipment, to name the least. that some Catalan municipalities gladly provide in association of few politically aware landowners.

Fig 22. "Garden of eden", 1615. Fig 23. Agroindustry in the USA. Fig 24. Rosa and Enric. (Jan Brueghel the Elder) (Jahoo Clouseau) Two locals from Els Guiamets, Priorat. (Own photo)

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Introduction Introduction Justification Purpose & methodology

I find the family of issues described in the previous chapter as a very pertinent matter in the times we With this premises in mind, the main purpose of this work is to determine whether moving to are living. Issues that can be dealt from many different approaches, being the urbanistic one not an countryside is a realistic outcome for a large portion of the actual urban population and whether may exception. From a demographic standpoint, and as seen in the results of a recent poll made by the send our society to a better or worse state. I intend to shed light on this subject by analyzing whether Barcelona City Hall regarding the quality of life in the city, an unprecedented 30% of the population a small sample of territory located in the countryside is ready or not to permanently host these potential said that actually wants to leave town (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2020). This is a phenomenon not migrants within its boundaries in the short term or whether it needs of some adjustments instead, be it only circumscribed to the Catalan capital but extended to larger metropolises, such as New York, minor or major, to achieve so. where high middle class is changing Brooklyn for Upstate. So, the wish towards a life in the country On the other hand, another important goal is to find out whether there is some room for an utopic is not only very much real but it is even a growing trend. In response to this survey however, the urbanistic approach in areas eligible for (re)population or whether is better to stick to the harsh reality Barcelona Mayor’s Office has pleaded that this high percentage of people responded this way due to of the place and go for something more conventional and less risky. Solutions that would be considered the exhaustion caused by the pandemics and that, once overcome, it may go down back to normal utopic not due to their eventual unorthodoxy in their design but more due to the social and economic figures. This last assumption is yet to be contrasted since, by the time of writing this document, the transformations that these solutions would need to become feasible. pandemic is still causing damage in our society even if the vaccination process already started, so the wish for the rural is still higher than usual among urbanites. Analyzing the countryside as a whole would be too vague as an option here since, even if there are Questions such as “once the pandemic will be over will this percentage of unsatisfied urbanites go many situations that can be found almost everywhere in the countryside, it encloses many different back down or will it keep going up?” or “will the pandemics act as the first contemporary realities. Which is why I have decided to restrict this work to the study of one village and its direct acknowledging catalyzer that perhaps urban ways of life promote social inequalities and thus are environment, in an exercise to extract its potential capabilities to host urban newcomers with the starting to be obsolete?” or “are we entering the era of de-urbanization in a massive scale?” go beyond assumption that some conclusions obtained here could be extendable to other similar places. The study the scope of this document but are definitely in the worries of the author. focuses in underlying the attractiveness (or lack of it) of the village to the eyes of a new kind of I find thus mandatory to hereby deal with these issues because they stand at the core of my positioning inhabitant, the urban one, that is accustomed to enjoy life in a very different way, perhaps staying close in regards of my approach towards the future of architecture and urbanism. to a major communication infrastructure or, as an eventual telework user, living close to a natural park, not just agricultural fields, that may compensate for the long lonely hours spent working from home. The time frame of the document, in a clear tribute to the utopic/dystopic imaginaries of the past, is set in a near future. A future in which the village might eventually have to compete against other ones for the sake of attracting a higher number of urban migrants and, thus, being able to collect a higher collection of taxes. The chosen place is the municipality of Els Guiamets. A village that regardless of its very small size introduces itself with a series of potentialities, the combination of which may not available to other Catalan villages and that conform it as an excellent candidate in the eventual future “ruralization” of our society.

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Els Guiamets The municipality

Apparent remoteness

The municipality of Els Guiamets, of about 300 Paradoxically, to this date, trains running There are some towns in Catalunya that also On the other hand, even if the village looks quite inhabitants only (Idescat, n.d.), is located at the through this line, which connects Barcelona and have to deal with steep topographies, such as isolated, its distance with the nearest very south of the Priorat county, a small region Zaragoza through Mora la Nova and the nuclear Gelida in the Alt Penedès, that are also located international airport of Reus is just 44 km and of about 500 square kilometers and limiting with power plant of Ascó, do not stop at Els Guiamets relatively far away from their own train stations with the nearest AVE train station, (“El Camp de the neighboring county of the Ribera d’Ebre, so often as in other stops. Besides the already because these mainly were designed to serve an Tarragona”), just 58 km. both in the province of Tarragona, Spain. known low population and the fact that locals adjacent industrial complex. To solve this issue, Definitely these are not comfortable distances Regardless of its low population it has its own use private transportation to move around the Gelida decided long ago to build a for the urban dweller, used to high levels of train station which, in opposition to what area, this lesser stopping factor may be due to the complementary transportation system, the proximity to almost everything but are definitely happens in other train stations of nearby villages distance of about one kilometer existing between funicular, that connected the station with the much shorter than for many other villages, such as Capçanes or Marçà, it was not built as a the train station and the actual village, a distance village. The funicular in Gelida was justified especially located in the Pyrenees area or central simple stopover. To the contrary, it sees the that makes this stop quite impractical for because the village acted as a second residence Catalunya. railway lines extended up to three. This travelers without a car. place for the high society of the nearby exceptionality was due to the need of having to Barcelona, a premise that Els Guiamets does not bring materials and heavy machinery for the enjoy. So, the only way for locals to reach the construction of the Els Guiamets reservoir, village from the station is by car. about which I will talk later.

Fig 25. Map of Catalan Territorial Commissions for Fig 26. Els Guiamets train station. Fig 27. Funicular de Gelida Urbanism (Gencat.cat) (Own photo) (Trenscat)

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Els Guiamets The municipality

Landscape diversity

The municipality of Els Guiamets is located at existing landscapes in Catalunya so that The second definition, the “Llaberia” area, to the The municipality enjoys of both landscaping the border of two landscape definitions that are geographic areas that share them can be drawn south, is itself shared with the neighboring systems making it visually appealing to visitors. completely different from each other: The “Baix in the map afterwards. The “Baix Priorat” county of the “Baix Camp” (Lower Camp). It is Priorat” (Low Priorat) and The Llaberia definition, at the north of Els Guiamets, is an 10,000 square kilometers big and is made of an definitions. area of 8300 hectares which, compared to the abrupt topography of Mediterranean mountains These definitions, included in the Landscape neighboring areas, is dominated by milder mostly covered by white pine trees ( Pinus Catalogs made by the several Territorial slopes small creeks and sees agriculture as the halepensis ). Only in some of the small valleys Commissions for Urbanism of Catalunya, (in main activity with fields that can raise from within takes place some agricultural practice our case by Camp de Tarragona commission), vineyards, olive trees and hazelnuts to almond (Observatori del Paisatge de Catalunya, 2010). are based on a prior identification of all the trees, in order of importance.

Fig 28. Baix Priorat landscape area. Fig 29. Llaberia landscape area. (Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya) (Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya)

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Els Guiamets The municipality

Topographic richness

The place enjoys of a very interesting and Els Guiamets, back in the 14 th century (Cot i Both slopes, the northern one and the southern The works for the construction of the dam attractive variety of topographic situations too. Miró, 2000), might have thought that it was most one, begin with a very steep mood, a factor that started in the early 60s and finished in 1971. One can find, just within the 12 square appropriate to settle on one of the many crests may be at the core of the little growth of the Needless to say that the reservoir has become, kilometers of the municipality, several valleys, along the area, in a very similar way to that of village over centuries. After the first steepness, with its 62 hectares of area and its 10 cubic creeks, crests, hills and mountain ranges many other towns and villages that were born in the northern side rapidly gets milder as long as hectometers of total capacity (Ministerio para la combined with relatively flat areas. This makes the middle ages. In this case, the village is one gets closer to the Marmellans creek Transición Ecológica, AEMET, n.d.), an a strong differentiation with the rest of the located mostly at a height of 220 meters along a (“Barranc de Marmellans”), which follows a extraordinary water resource for the region as I Priorat landscape which is mostly made of rather very clear east-west orientation, literally making meandering fashion. On the other hand, the will explain later. abrupt and difficult, perhaps labyrinthine, one half of the village face south while the other southern slope continues to fall down to an topography. In this scenario, the first dwellers of half is facing north. altitude of 135 meters just about 200 meters away, ending in the Olles creek which when passing by the village forms the narrowest valley of all the municipality. Not by chance it was precisely here where engineers decided, back in 1920s (Cot i Miró, 2000), to locate the dam for the future reservoir of Els Guiamets.

Fig 30. Clinometric map of Els Guiamets Fig 31. View of the Montsant range, to the north. Fig 32. View of the LLaberia mountains, to the south. (Own composition out of 3D topographic model) (Own photo) (Own photo)

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Els Guiamets Acces to water

The reservoir The local irrigation system

The construction of the reservoir has made of water running through these creeks nearly the To solve this water scarcity, and following the Almost the 80% of the lots that are served by the Els Guiamets a very privileged municipality sole responsible to shaping this territory, I must construction of the reservoir, the region saw the irrigation system are located beyond the limits of since, according to the meteorological station acknowledge that most of the year these creeks birth, years later, of the Baix Priorat Irrigation Els Guiamets. To be more exact, in the located in the village and managed by the run completely dry so, in opposition with what Community (“Comunitat de Regans del Baix municipalities of El Masroig, also in the Priorat “Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro” (Ebro happens in other regions of the world, such as Priorat”). This artificial network takes water county, and Tivissa, Garcia and Mora la Nova, River hydrographical Confederation), at Els the Veneto plain (Italy) where the water paths, from the reservoir which, in turn, gathers water located in the Ribera d’Ebre county, as a Guiamets there is an average rainfall of only 480 artificially made, and full with water all year from a basin as large as 70 sq. km. located within beautiful example of supra-municipal mm per year, most of them concentrated in the round, have shaped the territory in a very the domains of the Llaberia mountains, and management. months of October and November. Definitely different way (Viganò et al., 2016), at Els distributes it, along 90 km of pipelines, to more not enough to cover expanded agricultural Guiamets the water paths cannot be directly than 500 land properties adding up to more than needs. profited for conventional agricultural activities. 17 square kilometers of agriculture fields. Actually, there are very few structures that link On the other side, the geologic substrates of this these natural water paths to any economic particular region have allowed for the activity. Only Cot I Miró mentions the existence generation, after millions of years, of a territory of an ancient communal water deposit built on that appears to us completely scattered with the course of the Marmellans creek. dozens of creeks. But even if it has been the

Fig 33. Els Guiamets reservoir dam. Fig 34. Reservoir power plant headquarters Fig 35. Bridge-like structure. Fig 36. Empty aqueduct. View from the power station. (Own photo) Local irrigation system Local irrigation system (Own photo) (Own photo) (Own photo)

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Fig 37. Area harvested and areas served, detail. Graphic scale (ICC, Comunitat de Regans del Baix Priorat).

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Els Guiamets The village

Urban structure Public areas

Despite its small size, the village already If one continues to walk the streets of the core, Besides the open spaces mentioned above, the On the other hand, this oxygenation allows to put presents a typical structure in many towns born and besides finding the quite expectable “Plaça village has two more public spaces. The first one into direct visual contact the church with another during the Middle Ages, with a central core and de la Vila” (the Village’s main square), one is a recreation area, recently made and located at historic building, now occupied by a Bed & several suburban extensions. However, centuries crosses a very peculiar space, the Pau Castellví the very entry of the village to the east, next to Breakfast, providing the compound with some later and due to the continuous refurbishing of square, that, due to its elongated shape, can be the cemetery. The second one is a small garden sort of small-scale monumentality. the houses, one can barely notice the limits felt not as a very square but rather as a sort of area, filled with 2 rows of linden trees and between these two groupings. Entering by foot widened street. Beyond this, it is quite possible located at the very center of the village, right from either direction one gets to its very center that the market activities of the past took place opposite the church square, a space that seems to almost without noticing, reaching the church in this space, at the very center of which stands be obtained from the demolition of several which is strategically located at the highest point a fountain built in red brick and allegedly derelict buildings. of the crestline. The square at the front of the attributed to the famous Catalan architect Josep church has one of its sides open to the fields Maria Jujol. The fountain celebrates the arrival towards the northeastern side standing at lower of running water to the village by 1911. elevations, thus, offering astonishing views from the very center while making the church visible from afar.

Fig 38. Plan de Guiamets, 1908. Fig 39. Pau Castellví square eastern façace. Fig 40. Recreation area in the "outskirts" Fig 41. Gardens at the center. E 1:5106 Jujol’s fountain to the right. (Own photo) (Own photo) (Carreras Candi, ICC) (own photo)

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Fig 42. General plan of the village and surrounding areas. (Own composition)

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Els Guiamets The village

First expansions Recent extensions

The core is complemented with two suburban The buildings belonging to these suburban The next urban grouping dates from the Along this new street, it is possible to find some extensions, the first one following the east-west extensions and facing the northern side end just beginning of the 20th century, after the arrival of construction sites, like the one depicted in the trace of the old “Camí de Mora” which ran along few meters away from the crestline, giving place the TV-3031 road, whose 14 km connect the photo below, where even neither the astonishing the crest, and the second one, going down to the first fields of greenery and agriculture, broader N-420 road with the town of Tivissa. views nor the unbeatable orientation of the plot northwards and turning, few meters away, into which, in turn, act as a sort of actual backyards The road was designed to run tangent to the towards the south were aspects strong enough to the main agrarian pathway for the fields of the to these buildings. The fields gently stroke the southern side of the village in order to avoid complete the construction of the project by the northern side. There is no suburban counterpart built volumes in an irregular fashion, forming, traffic passing through it. The engineers made it time it was intended. towards the south from this period, probably due along the way, a little multitude of situations of pass at an enough distance from the existing to the continued steepness of the slopes and the potential beauty even if now the houses are village to allow for the construction of new subsequent difficulties, centuries ago, in land showing their back sides to them. buildings on both sides of it, otherwise the exploitation. backsides of the old buildings would have been exposed to the road.

Fig 43. Suburban extension on the Old "Camí de Mora" Fig 44. The built limits with the northern fields Fig 45. Carretera de Mora Avenue Fig 42.46. AvingudaConstruction de lasite Carretera interrupted. (Own photo) (Own photo) (Own photo) (OwnCarretera photo) de Mora Avenue (Own photo)

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Els Guiamets The village

Empty plots and houses Cultural facilities

To this date, the village has several empty plots, 15%) have been developed 30 years later. After To this date, the village doesn’t have any The building, designed in rational style, is the abundance of which is directly proportional conversations with the Mayor’s Office, conventional cultural center, museum or public located at the very middle of the new street, and to how young is the urban area where the plots information has risen that there’s an expectation equipment dedicated exclusively to any form of sees its back side architectonically joined with belong to. The most recent urban transformation, for this area to be filled up with architecture in cultural expression. The only spaces that offer one of the largest structures of the village, the made during the 1990s, and located on the the following years. some sort of entertainment to the locals are agrarian cooperative (“Celler dels Guiamets”). westernmost edge of town, is the opening and connected to popular gastronomy, drinks or The whole compound is perhaps the liveliest urbanization of the new “11 de Setembre” street. On the other hand, one discovers that there is an other entertaining practices associated with the area of the village This is a street that runs straight, at a lower unofficial census of empty houses in the village most usual pastimes. There is, though, one elevation, and parallel on its southern side to the that amounts to a total of 10. These are houses cultural association, that was created with the “Avinguda de la Carretera de Mora”. It that, always according to the municipality, are aim of re-opening what has always been the incorporates a rationalized sequence of not in conditions to host people in them due to most emblematic spot for the locals: the “Cafè rectangularly shaped plots of similar size and on their structural problems, thus they are subject to Ateneu”. both of its sides. Very few of these plots (just a important renovations.

Fig 47. Satellite view of “11 de Setembre” street Fig 48. Cafe Ateneu building main façade and tower. (Google maps) (Own photo)

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Els Guiamets The village

Urban limits The South side

The built structure of the village presents a rather But even if both sides are very different from This progressive loss of spatial quality is even This whole area seems to be the result a large heterogeneous way regarding its intersection each other, there’s a common factor that unifies more acknowledgeable in the most modern operation (relative to the size of the village) of with the surrounding plantation fields, being the them all: the presence of backyards. constructions of the south side, the backyards of land requalification, especially in those rural topography the major factor for this A vast majority of properties on both sides, and which have become (or were designed to be) properties that ran along the newly created heterogeneity. no matter their antiquity, see their back façades open air parking lots and junkyards. These Carretera de Mora avenue. The buildings face the slopes, with their main façades facing backyard spaces need a motorized access to the resulting from this requalification, or the urban The village has a tendency to grow towards the the inner streets instead. These backsides, some main road in order to function properly, a plan itself, were designed without any major south and along the “Avinguda de la Carretera of them without even a single window, form a condition that has ended up in the aperture of a preoccupation towards the way the future de Mora” mostly because the slopes have an continuum of spaces that, with the sole series of short narrow service streets, amounting residential buildings would intersect with the average of 17% compared with the 43% of the exception of few episodes in some properties of to a total of 4, that run perpendicular to the main fields right next to them. The result is the northern ones. This fact translates into the the old town that are facing north, progressively road, and that appear almost in every other unwanted birth of a new artificial limit that runs presence of two completely different lose their spatial singularity. Their existence is property. along all the back sides, in a never-ending intersections with the surroundings. While the the clearest manifestation of the progressive sequence of fences and other similar structures northern side, where the oldest buildings are abandonment of the rural activities that former as long as the village perimeter itself. located, is much cleaner and richer in shapes and inhabitants of Els Guiamets used to have and volumes, the one the southern side presents lots that in the past were an extension of the houses of inconsistent volumetric combinations. themselves.

Fig 49. Cross section (North-South) of the village. (Own composition)

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Fig 50. Map of visuals (Own composition)

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Utopia & Dystopia Past utopias

Urban utopias Rural utopias

Jumping into the world of utopias, I find effectively applied. In one of the most influential Since literature is essentially dystopic, reality, However, a quite astounding from that rural mandatory to start with literature since it has books about dystopian societies, “We”, by and most especially, rural reality is more of the revolution was that, to make it successful, the served as source of inspiration with what has Yevgeny Zamiatin, written in 1924, the author utopic kind. Back in the beginning of the 20th Soviet Union relied on the massive import of a happened later in the real world. And revisiting describes a world in which everyone lives in a century, and hand in hand with the Soviet new machine, the tractor, that was designed by some books in the genre, one can find a recurrent city of glass that is separated from the outside Revolution, a rural movement was born in the an American citizen: Henry Ford. But to avoid aspect: the city. world, the untamed nature, by a green wall U.S.S.R. The context was conducive, there was hurting the Soviet pride, the import of this Thomas More places utopia in an island (Porretta, 2014). So, the question is: where is the a large nation to build after the disasters of the machine was executed just for its first release. populated by 54 cities each of which is separated rural imaginary in the utopic/dystopic literature? First World War, a new political system to The designs of the following releases were 24 miles away from the other. The Big Brother It seems that the future, be it in its utopic or implement and, most importantly, a new hope to 100% Soviet. in Orwell’s 1984 fails to control the moves of dystopic variant, has been best pictured in urban attend to. This rural movement had its Winston Smith when he is released in the outside scenarios. The city is the place where power is instigators, among which, the agrarian world, beyond the limits of a city: London. The executed and the authors of the aforementioned economist Aleksandr Vasílievich Chayánov social effects of the public burning of books as books, in an attempt to appeal to the interests of who, in 1917, wrote a pamphlet in which he well as the constant bombardment of ads and the readers of their time, while avoiding being urged the return of all the land hoarded by the shallow entertainments to the future society banned, opted to disguise a critic to power under richest landowners to the people (Badal, 2018). described in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 abuses the costume of an invented and attractive story from the capillarity of a clear street mesh to be set the future.

Fig 51. Utopias and Dystopias are urban Fig 52. Cover of "We", Fig 54. Фордзон “Fordson” tractor Fig 53. Aleksandr Vasílievich Chayánov. (Unknown via Oscar Guayabero) Yevgeny Zamiatin By Henry Ford and licensed in the U.S.S.R., 1927. (Wikipedia) (fantlab.ru) (tractor.foroactivo.com)

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Utopia & Dystopia Past utopias

The Broadacre city

Frank Lloyd Wright, when defining the plans for the United States of America a country of part- Similarly to what happens in other rural utopias blend “country and town” (Fishman, 1977, p. his Usonian city (later called Broadacre City) time farmers, all of them evenly distributed in such as permaculture, in the Broadacre City 127) . We are in front a sort of panacea solution was very clear at stating that real democracy and millions of rationalized, one-acre-sized lots all project, everything begins with the house, the for all the unsolved issues that, according to freedom for the people was only achievable over the vast plains couldn’t be further from Usonian house, which Wright defines as a Wright, the American society had., including the when in possession of land, not in the big feasible, especially if Wright himself, unlike “natural feature of the landscape” (Fishman, way how people traded or sold their products. metropolises, which he identified as tumors in other utopian urbanists such as Ebenezer 1977, p. 130). On the other hand, “the concept The project is more a critic to capitalism than to the territory, and where man was mainly subject Howard, took little or no care on how to put his was born as a democratic utopia that merged cities, since he saw cities as the aftermath of to the eternal payment of rent or to other new agrarian-urban utopic concepts into practice agrarianism with technology toward human capitalism. He stated that “where poverty and unproductive forms of income (1932). His very (Fishman, 1977). progress.” (Crosas Armengol, 2019, p. 3) class conflict have been overcome, competition much pro-individualistic approach of making However, it is important to mention that the loses its grim, destructive aspect” (Fishman, Broadacre City goes beyond the simple rural 1977, p. 133). An ideal society where the county imaginary. It indeed includes rural activities in architect was a semi-god (“the most powerful its core ideas but clearly states that these are just man in the Broadacre City”) and where a fraction of the whole as the main goal is to universities would be forced to close.

Fig 55. Frank Lloyd Wright. Fig 56. Aerial perspective of the Broadacre City. Fig 57. Broadacre city map (Library of Congress) (franklloydwright.org) (franklloydwright.org)

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Utopia & Dystopia Contemporary utopias

Permaculture

Thoughts regarding the frailties of the western Profiting from the romantic idealization of life However, from a philosophical standpoint, Actions that many times have an impact in the world and its ultra-liberal approach to economy in the countryside, this movement is essentially permaculture defends an individualistic, even territory such as topographic modifications, are not new as we have seen. In fact, they have an Anglo-Saxon westernization of rural anarchistic, positioning towards the world as it construction of large structures or the been common since the birth of capitalism itself. knowledge that has been extracted from several promotes the development of complete self- implementation of large water catchment Also, some of these thoughts state that a major aboriginal cultures from all over the world used sustainable homesteads that many times forget systems. As an ultra-liberal movement executed cause for these frailties of the system can be to be orally transmitted generation after to follow the laws of the place. mostly by white people, it is not by chance that attributed to the urban way of life. A lifestyle generation. A knowledge a priori useful in the permaculture has mostly rooted in countries that that, with its back turned to nature, allegedly design of rural systems that aim to imitate From an urbanistic standpoint, permaculture have a dark past of destruction and annihilation promotes an excess in consumption and has as nature, while helping farmers reduce their load doesn’t work when the farmers-owners are not of their respective aboriginal peoples. well an abominable thirst for natural resources. of work, as nature does it (Mollison & free and almighty in their decision making. Among these currents of thought there’s a recent Holmgren, 1978). The permaculture white paper Decisions, the range of which hardly go beyond Fortunately, there are rural projects that have phenomenon that is worth mentioning: sets its focus in defending aspects such as a the limits of their own properties, and that are gone one step beyond of what permaculture has permaculture. decreasing economy and an environmental based upon the confidence provided as holders to offer and that are currently working from a preoccupation. of filtered ancestral knowledge that is allegedly social integration standpoint (Penniman & Born in the island of Tasmania, Australia, back deep enough to allow them for the Washington, 2018). This is the case, for in the 70s, permaculture has recently become a implementation of whatever action they might instance, of the Soul Fire Farm, in upstate New mainstream trend at a very much global scale. consider appropriate. York.

Fig 58. The co-originators of permaculture: Fig 59. Fragment of the book cover. Fig 60. Leah Penniman, founder of Soul Fire Farm. Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, Sydney, 2008. “Introduction to permaculture” by Bill Mollison. (Jamel Mously) (Russ Grayson) (Tagari foundation)

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Conclusions General aspects

Etymology, permaculture & technology

From an etymologic standpoint, the opening Holmgren, one of the co-originators of There are indeed pure 100% rural projects out However, not everything looks dark for those question for this document does not enclose two permaculture understood that pure rural there, such as the “Mas les Vinyes” (Sant Martí attempting to join the rural life. Technology is answers but three, being dystopia ( from the (re)population would be counterproductive for d’Albars, Lluçanès, Catalunya), but their model always on the progress and there’s no other ancient Greek δυσ- + τόπος ) meaning a “bad its effects in the environment. He didn’t decide is hardly replicable to this date because the better example than the development and place”, “eu-topia”, meaning a “good place” and to establish his farm (called Melliodora) in the premises on which it is based, such as finding an commercialization of ultimate machine, such as “ou-topia”, meaning a “non-place”. This leads to middle of the countryside but, instead, in the old “masia” in conditions good enough for a the 2-wheeled tractor, better known locally as the conclusion that we are dealing with a much middle of a village called Hepburn, surrounded small community of people to live in and with the “motocultor”. A machine that definitely ease more complex scenario than originally expected. by conventional homes. A step that he enough unspoiled land around to work, are not the pain associated with working the land. Many In fact, what can be “eutopic” for someone could summarized in his book “RetroSuburbia”. easy to find. Most of the “masies” in Catalunya former urbanites, having developed a business be “outopic” for a second one or even dystopic Movements such as “Re-farm the city” go in the are owned by people who have little or no mindset in the past, rely on these sorts of for a third one. In consequence, a massive same direction. interested in the “ruralization” of their property, machines in their attempt to live off their new (re)population movement seems unfeasible only tourism is attractive. rural projects. unless there is a prior analysis of the context, especially the economic one, from which each person might come from. The same David

Fig 61. Ancient Greek alphabet. Fig 62. Cover of the book “Retrosuburiba” Fig 63. Aerial view of Mas les Vinyes Fig 64. 2-wheeled tractor by BCS, model 750 Power Safe (mit.edu) By David Holmgren, 2018 (maslesvinyes.com) (bcsagri.it) (holmgren.com.au/)

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Conclusions General aspects

Economy, culture & water

Frank Lloyd Wright was completely aware that In addition to this, there is the cultural factor. But even if the economic and cultural factors are More related to urbanistic factors and from a ambitious rural or semi-rural plans such as the Over the years, rural depopulation has brought not some of the easy kinds, there’s always the permaculture approach, gaining permanent Broadacre City could not prosper without rural deculturization too. Culture is today an water factor which, in turn, is associated with access to water for those properties that do not proactively implementing a national program of almost strictly urban phenomenon, leaving the climate change. Accessing water is a privilege. belong to an irrigation system (the vast majority) land re-distribution. In Catalunya, we went countryside as just another touristic attraction. But a today’s privilege. William deBuys, in his would mean having to build rain harvesting through a similar process, at an industrial level, There have been several attempts, by either prophetic book “A great aridness” (2013) states systems, normally ponds, within the limits of during the years prior to the Spanish Civil war, artists or institutions, to establish the rural world it quite clearly. We must make our agrarian plans their properties. The spread of these structures with the Collectivization Decree, with which at the core of culture production and exchange, thinking of the water resources of tomorrow, not could damage the landscaping and urbanistic factories belonged to the workers. Decades later, being a very famous case that of Georgia those of today, because we will probably have balances of the territory, perhaps send it to a we find that the distribution of land is even more O’Keefe moving to New Mexico or, in a more less water to access to. This would mean, among point of no return. It should be more advisable to concentrated in fewer hands than it was in the local scale, that of events such as the Eufònic other things, forgetting about cultivating highly leave any water issues to the hands of the public past, with the agroindustry strongly pressing to Festival in Tortosa (Tarragona) or culture water demanding plants such as tomatoes (2000 administration instead of to the hands of keep it that way. Many things would need to centers such as the Nau Côclea in Camallera liters per sqm. per year) and going for more landowners, most especially for fresh water change, economically wise, in order to bring (Girona). To (re)populate the countryside we drought resistant plants such as the Tepary bean being an ever-scarcer resource. or the Agave Americana; crops that demand in back all that land to the hands of the people. must first “(re)culturize” it, otherwise people might not find it attractive enough. turn a higher level of specialization.

Fig 65. Catalan collectivization decree, 1936. Fig 66. Georgia O’Keefe portrait Fig.67. Tepary seeds Fig 68. Artificial water harvesting ponds. (Galderich) Platinum print (adaptiveseeds.com) Krameterhof farm, Austria. (Alfred Stieglitz) (seppholzer.info)

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Conclusions Els Guiamets

The unfeasibility of the “Catalonian” city The Homestead paradox

Frank Lloyd Wright assured that one acre of land families would go down to 840, or roughly 3500 In Catalunya, the urbanistic law allows building Els Guiamets made its own in 2011 and in there (0.4 hectares) could be easily managed by a people. But finally, if we wanted to use only a new home within a property catalogued as one acknowledges a poor presence of historic single family. So, in strict application of these those properties that are completely flat, in order rustic only where it has been proven, normally farmhouses, 7 in total. In the strict application of ratios, in the 11.9 sq.km of Els Guiamets to allow for a rapid ease of access and an almost via an accreditation such as the “Catàleg de the urbanistic law then, only 7 families, or 7 municipality there would be enough room for instant agrarian exploitation for the new Masies” (Homestead or Farmhouse catalog), projects, could be established in the 2940 new families. However, if we intended to dwellers, the total amount of families under this that an ancient farmhouse used to be in the municipality. And if it were not enough, only 3 use only those properties that have actual access vision would go down to almost zero. property, no matter of its actual state of out of the 7 have access to water from the to water (3.4 sq.km in total) that number of dereliction. The catalog is a document often irrigation system. The “pioneers” of the made by the same municipality but not every remaining 4 would be urged to connect their municipality in Catalunya has it. properties to the system, only if possible.

Fig 69. The Broadacre City model Fig 70. In Cyan, properties in the catalog served by the inside the limits of Els Guiamets municipality. communal irrigation system. In yellow, those not served. (Own composition & franklloydwright.org) (Cadastre, Comunitat de Regans del Baix Priorat)

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Conclusions Els Guiamets

Allowing a range of utopias

Over decades in Barcelona there was a This distribution is especially noticeable in the Els Guiamets is living its own dystopic time. It that these migrants might come from different widespread conviction that the city had grown fields that run along the northern side of the has seen itself get progressively disconnected origins and might have completely different with its back to the sea. With the exception of Church St. suburban extension which were from its direct surroundings. It has seen itself interests, ranging from those who are only the few hundreds of meters of the Barceloneta impossible to catch in photos due to the fences lose the vitality that once used to have. It has thinking in establishing their tele-work and Somorrostro beaches, the rest of its coastline that enclose the whole perimeter. Who builds seen the social dynamics that are mandatory to headquarters in the countryside to those who are was either a harbor, with docks and heavy fences in a place like this? Probably someone host quality of life almost disappear. In the age seriously thinking in starting up an organic farm. industries, or a narrow strip of inaccessible land who does not live in the village. of megacities, it has virtually become a ghost Only the arrival of the whole range of migrants compressed behind a railroad. The city, taking Almost the whole perimeter of the village is town. might end up upgrading the social dynamics of advantage of having become the host of the 1992 either a backyard, a junkyard, or a parking lot. the place, since they would probably come with Olympics, made a step forward and urbanized 4 There is no transition between these back sides At this point, (re)populating Els Guiamets seems requests and requirements that now the km of shore making the recovered area become and the tree plantations right next to them. There pretty (ou)topic rather than (eu)topic. The municipality does not need to face. a new façade towards the sea and for the people. are no communal vegetable gardens or any village seems to be closer to become a non-place This past situation, successfully overcome in communal spaces at all. Probably home owners than a good place. Chances that it has to become Els Guiamets needs pioneers. Aware people Barcelona, is the present time at Els Guiamets. that own land in the municipality as well have it a good place would demand establishing public, ready to take risks and to work hard to tell the The village is located in the country but it has located at some distance away from the village multi-institutional programs that resonate with world that life in the countryside is not only grown with its back to it, mostly as a and cultivate it as a monoculture, be it olive the minds and souls of those who are thinking of possible but a more sustainable choice for the consequence of the effects of private property. trees, vineyards or almond trees. leaving the big cities, taking in consideration future.

Fig 71. Sign indicating a private road. Fig 72. Abandoned Volkswagen Passat. Fig 73. Els Guiamets in its "ghost town" mood. Fig 74. British teleworker in the Canary Islands. (Own photo) (Own photo) (Own photo) (El País)

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Conclusions Conclusions Els Guiamets Epilogue

The greener belt The territory

Pioneers won’t come though if the public interaction, linked to the communal small-scale administration does not do its homework first. In management of land would take place. The strip “If we take a look into the functions that pathways have adopted, this case it might mean to completely rethink the might benefit from the diversity of the volumes these have been historically linked to the government needs of the edge of the village and its contact with the nearby, providing more or less shade. Also, from community and the territory. Progressively, with the new relations of surrounding fields. Els Guiamets has the its multiple orientations and from its changing production, first with the requirement of having to transport and potentiality to make amazing things happen topography, allowing for the development of a exchange the products coming from the operating surplus and second along this very edge, for instance, opening up a different range of crops, ensuring total supply to with the development of commerce and specialization, the pathway pedestrian pathway that would make walking its inhabitants. Access of water would not be a benefitted from acquiring new different functional and positional around the village a pleasure. A pathway with problem here, being so close to the water significance, providing the term trail with a series of new small vegetable gardens on its sides, directly network of the village. Only minor upgrades “adjectivations” such as: public, private, real, local, military, for accessible from the homes nearby too. A utopic should be made. The strip could project itself to animals, and others…” (Eizaguirre Garaitagoitia, 2019, p. 48) Els Guiamets might have its own green belt, or the main roads and streets of the village filling greener belt (since it is already surrounded by up the remaining empty lots, making the green). A strip were newer forms of social inhabitants understand the importance of its role. Having reached this point, it seems clear that any Village extensions, the construction of state-of- type of rural (re)populating initiative can’t be the-art new settlements, be it big or small, the successful at a larger scale if it’s only born from implementation of rooftop gardens at a large the last awareness on the burdens of capitalism. scale or designing a new deal in terms of water The rural world can’t be used as an escape way, resources are some of the aspects that will need because it may end up putting rural migrants in to be taken into serious consideration, always situations of even more difficulties than the ones with the goal of full energetic self-sufficiency of from which they tried to escape. In the rural the territory in mind, not just of cities. A world a mouse is for real and doesn’t have a complex operation that will need the wireless adapter attached to it. Before making involvement of everyone but most especially of the step, society must understand that what the brightest minds from every single area of seems an empty place, is in fact a series of knowledge. Professionals, including architects layers, consolidated over time, and stacked one and urbanists, that will be urged to reformat their on top of the other, that give shape to what we crafts to adapt themselves to the ever-changing know as territory. Showing respect to the cartography of social needs. Needs that, this territory is a mandatory first step to start a time, may finally involve the great challenge of successful rural (re)population trend. Only a going rural. close and detailed observation of the territory before executing any action on it can become the necessary safe net that will prevent us from destroying what we already have while we want This…or accepting our most dreadful dystopic Fig 75. A Utopic greener belt for Els Guiamets to introduce new elements and forms of life in it. fate… (Own composition)

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Fig 76. A frame of the movie "Mad Max", 1979. (George Miller)

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Reference list

An Update on the Perioperative Considerations for COVID-19 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Marsh, S. (2020). Escape to the country: how Covid is driving an exodus from Britain’s cities. The Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) - Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation . (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, Guardian. 2021, from https://www.apsf.org/article/an-update-on-the-perioperative-considerations-for- covid-19-severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-2-sars-cov-2/ Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica, AEMET, S. C. (n.d.). Pantano Guiamets , Embalse Guiamets , Presa Guiamets . Retrieved April 7, 2021, from https://www.embalses.net/pantano- L’efecte de la densitat de població en la propagació de la COVID-19 en el territori català / AQR 249-guiamets.html COVID-19 . (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2021, from https://www.ub.edu/aqr/covid19/?p=1 Mollison, B. C., & Holmgren, D. (1981). Perma-culture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Badal, M. (2018). Vidas a la intemperie | Pepitas de calabaza . Cambalache. Settlements . Tagari. https://www.pepitas.net/libro/vidas-a-la-intemperie Nagesh, A. (2020). Coronavirus: Children “developing post-traumatic stress” from pandemic - BBC News . https://www.bbc.com/news/education-53097289 Comunitat de Regants del Baix Priorat . (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2021, from https://crbaixpriorat.cat/ Observatori del Paisatge de Catalunya. (2010). Catàleg de paisatge del Camp de Tarragona . www.catpaisatge.net/cat/cataleg_presentats_ct.php Cot i Miró, A. (2000). Els Guiamets: des dels orígens a la plenitud municipal (1343-1800) . Oficina de dades de Barcelona. (2021). https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ Crosas Armengol, C. (2019). Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies , 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0506 Penniman, L., & Washington, K. (2018). Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land . Chelsea Green Publishing. DeBuys, W. (2013). A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest . Oxford University Press; Illustrated edition (May 1, 2013). https://www.amazon.com/Great- Porretta, D. (2014). L’immagine della città del futuro nella letteratura distopica della prima metà del Aridness-Climate-American-Southwest/dp/0199974675 ’900. In TDX (Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa) . Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. https://upcommons.upc.edu/handle/2117/95444 Eizaguirre Garaitagoitia, X. (2019). El territorio como arquitectura (Primera ed). Laboratori d’Urbanisme de Barcelona (UPC). Priorat, P. (n.d.). Banc de terres . http://www.pectpriorat.cat/operacions/banc-de-terres-sostenibilitat- del-sector-primari-del-priorat Finkleman, K. (1982). Airplane II: The Sequel . Schumpeter, J. A. (1974). Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy . Routledge, 2013. Gates, B. (2021). How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need . Knopf. Viganò, P., Secchi, B., & Fabian, L. (Eds.). (2016). Water and asphalt. The project of isotropy (Paperback). Park Books. Gobierno de Aragón. (2017). Successfully combatting RURAL depopulation through a new model of rural development: : The Highlands and Islands Enterprise Experience . 86. Wright, F. L. (1932). The Disappearing City . William Farquhar Payson.

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List of Figures

Fig 1. Barcelona urban pattern within the silhouette of Els Guiamets municipality (Own composition). Fig 39. Pau Castellví square eastern façace. Jujol’s fountain to the right (own photo). Fig 2. 3d rendering of a skyscraper in Barcelona. Antonio Sanmartin, 2000. (Own composition). Fig 40. Recreation area in the "outskirts" (Own photo). Fig 3. 3d rendering of the Disseny Hub project. MBM arquitectes, 2003 (Own composition). Fig 41. Gardens at the center (Own photo). Fig 4. 3d rendering of a residential building. IMPSOL 2003 (Own composition). Fig 42. General plan of the village and surrounding areas (Own composition). Fig 5. 3d rendering of the Hotel Maricel, Mallorca. ADD arquitectes, 2005 (Own composition). Fig 43. Suburban extension on the Old "Camí de Mora" (Own photo). Fig 6. “Medusa” 3d rendering and digital photography, 2010 (Own composition). Fig 44. The built limits with the northern fields (Own photo). Fig 7. "Deportation" 3d rendering and digital photography, 2012 (Own composition. Fig 45. Carretera de Mora Avenue (Own photo). Fig 8. "Telan". Oil on wood panel, 97x74 cm, 2018 (Own work). Fig 46. Construction site interrupted. Carretera de Mora Avenue (Own photo). Fig 9. "Pati". Oil on wood panel, 97x74 cm, 2019 (Own work). Fig 47. Satellite view of “11 de Setembre” street (Google maps). Fig 10. Enric Duran, founder of the Cooperativa Integral Catalana (Wikipedia). Fig 48. Cafe Ateneu building main façade and tower (Own photo). Fig 11. Som Pujarnol, a CIC rural project (plaestany.cat) Fig 49. Cross section (North-South) of the village (Own composition). Fig 12. Fragment of the "Ciudad Lineal" by Arturo Soria (garciabarba.com. Fig 50. Map of visuals (Own composition). Fig 13. The Bollman Map of Manhattan, New York, 1962 (geographicus.com) Fig 51. Utopias and Dystopias are urban (Unknown via Oscar Guayabero). Fig 14. View of Uruk, allegedly the oldest settlement in the world (4500 b.C.) (Tobey Travels). Fig 52. Cover of "We", Yevgeny Zamiatin (fantlab.ru). Fig 15. Urban and rural population of the world. 1950–2050 (UNDESA, 2014). Fig 53. Aleksandr Vasílievich Chayánov (Wikipedia). Fig 16. Population density (hab/km2) per health areas. (L’efecte de La Densitat de Població En La Propagació de La Fig 54. Фордзон “Fordson” tractor by Henry Ford and licensed in the U.S.S.R., 1927 (tractor.foroactivo.com. COVID -19 En El Territori Català / AQR COVID -19, n.d.) Fig 55. Frank Lloyd Wright (Library of Congress. Fig 17. Tuscan popular saying against the Pisans (viverelatoscana.it). Fig 56. Aerial perspective of the Broadacre City (franklloydwright.org). Fig 18. Palmanova and SARS COV 2.(Own composition + (Daily overview & www.apsf.org). Fig 57. Broadacre city map (franklloydwright.org). Fig 19. "Devolved parliament", 2019 (Banksy). Fig 58. The co-originators of permaculture:Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, Sydney, 2008 (Russ Grayson). Fig 20. Airport security footage, Airplane II: the sequel (Ken Finkleman. Fig 59. Fragment of the book cover. “Introduction to permaculture” by Bill Mollison (Tagari foundation). Fig 21. Guifinet network of interconnected broadband (ruralc.com). Fig 60. Leah Penniman, founder of Soul Fire Farm. (Jamel Mously). Fig 22. "Garden of eden", 1615 (Jan Brueghel the Elder). Fig 61. Ancient Greek alphabet (mit.edu). Fig 23. Agroindustry in the USA (Jahoo Clouseau). Fig 62. Cover of the book “Retrosuburiba” by David Holmgren, 2018 (holmgren.com.au/). Fig 24. Rosa and Enric, two locals from Els Guiamets, Priorat (Own photo). Fig 63. Aerial view of Mas les Vinyes (maslesvinyes.com). Fig 25. Map of Catalan Territorial Commissions for Urbanism (Gencat.cat). Fig 64. 2-wheeled tractor by BCS, model 750 Power Safe (bcsagri.it). Fig 26. Els Guiamets train station (Own photo). Fig 65. Catalan collectivization decree, 1936 (Galderich). Fig 27. Funicular de Gelida (Trenscat. Fig 66. Georgia O’Keefe portrait, platinum print (Alfred Stieglitz). Fig 28. Baix Priorat landscape area (Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya. Fig 67. Tepary seeds (adaptiveseeds.com). Fig 29. Llaberia landscape area (Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya). Fig 68. Artificial water harvesting ponds. Krameterhof farm, Austria (seppholzer.info). Fig 30. Clinometric map of Els Guiamets (Own composition out of 3D topographic model). Fig 69. The Broadacre City model inside the limits of Els Guiamets municipality (Own composition & Fig 31. View of the Montsant range, to the north (Own photo). franklloydwright.org). Fig 32. View of the LLaberia mountains, to the south (Own photo). Fig 70. In Cyan, properties in the catalog served by the communal irrigation system. In yellow, those not served (Cadastre, Comunitat de Regans del Baix Priorat). Fig 33. Els Guiamets reservoir dam. View from the power station (Own photo). Fig 71. Sign indicating a private road (Own photo). Fig 34. Reservoir power plant headquarters (Own photo). Fig 72. Abandoned Volkswagen Passat. (Own photo). Fig 35. Bridge-like structure. Local irrigation system (Own photo). Fig 73. Els Guiamets in its "ghost town" mood (Own photo). Fig 36. Empty aqueduct. Local irrigation system (Own photo). Fig 74. British teleworker in the Canary Islands (El País). Fig 37. Area harvested and areas served, detail. Graphic scale (ICC, Comunitat de Regans del Baix Priorat). Fig 75. A Utopic greener belt for Els Guiamets (Own composition). Fig 38. Plan de Guiamets, 1908. E 1:5106 (Carreras Candi, ICC). Fig 76. A frame of the movie "Mad Max", 1979 (George Miller).

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