+ ReadingSPACE: Urban Futures

Someone somewhere is on the floor howling (other than me)! Possibly a satirical stab at the practice of contemporary architecture?

An intimate photo of Richard Meier’s Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona is the subject of contention. It’s not the façade in the photo that makes it so intriguing; rather, it’s the lonesome man with his dog in the bottom right corner of the cover. Now I haven’t read through this whole book yet and I’m not entirely familiar with author Malcolm Miles’ attitude towards specific architects or architectural movements but I’m pretty sure that the dog in the photo is preparing to take the biggest *crap* ever on the plaza in front of Meier’s museum!

Don't get me wrong, I’ve been to this museum before and although it wasn’t as spatially interesting as I had anticipated, it captured some nice moments within different areas of the building. Contextually, the museum stands in stark contrast to its surrounding fabric. As you make your way through the narrow winding streets of Barcelona you arrive at this unexpected intervention.

It is located in the Raval area of Barcelona which is just beyond the remains of the medieval Roman city: Ciutat Vella. The Raval is notorious for its somewhat 'sketchy' reputation but as a way of enriching its organizational space, the city of Barcelona has taken great measures towards building various cultural institutions in unique - and sometimes controversial - locations throughout the city. Meier’s museum is just one of many examples of this and it seems to work. Its purpose is to attract visitors internationally and locally to an otherwise "undesirable" part of the city in order to dispel notions of negativity associated with the Raval.

Since the 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona has been rigorously involved in an effort to generate planning initiatives which attempt to address issues concerning economic and social disparity. While it is debatable whether some projects were succesful (Diagonal Mar), Barcelona’s perseverance to invest architecturally in innovative planning + design are admirable.

As for the cover art: There are few places for dogs to *crap* in around Barcelona seeing that much of the surface is paved with stone or brick. Possible interpretations of the photo could include: a need for more green space? Or possibly it's a criticism of the institutionalization/privatization of art? Or maybe it's just an audacious protest for more public washrooms which, I might add, are totally impossible to find! What I do know though, is that it is in no way a reflection of what is contained within the pages of this book.


So how is this at all related to the content of the book? ....Well, it isn't *really*...

+ Read it! :: Urban Futures: Critical Commentaries on Shaping the City by Malcolm Miles 2003.

+ Say it! :: taken from the article: “Public art: a Renewable Resource” by Patricia Phillips from the book: Urban Futures: Critical commentaries on shaping the city by Malcolm Miles

“Public art balances at the boundaries, spaces between public and private, architecture and art, object and environment. In reality and rhetoric, it operates in the seams and margins.”

“Art is not a thing; it is a dynamic exchange of invention, production, delivery, reception and action rather than a stable collection of formal characteristics. It questions what occurs when people encounter and experience it. “

“Art is thrillingly imprecise. it can shape a public space of imagination and suggests a sense of consequence of individual desires and actions within a community. But it is not risk-free or precisely programmed.”