blog de notas de juan freire

De entre las múltiples revoluciones que Internet trae consigo, el e-commerce, el comercio a través de la Red, es una de las más importantes económica y socialmente. Aunque nuestro país no esté a la cabeza en esta faceta -como no lo está prácticamente en ninguna que tenga que ver con el entorno digital-, se estima que este año los españoles habremos gastado 9.400 millones de euros (el 3,5% del total del gasto comercial) en compras online. Estamos lejos, por supuesto, de EE UU (en volumen, 15 veces el de España), pero también lo estamos de países del entorno de la UE como Reino Unido (seis veces más en volumen y un peso relativo más de tres veces superior), Francia, Suecia o Alemania. Solo Italia, entre las grandes economías europeas, tiene un peso relativo del comercio online similar (aunque ligeramente superior) al de España (Online Trends 2011, www.retailresearch.org).

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… el comercio es un elemento de estructuración del espacio social de importancia difícil de exagerar. Cerremos un momento los ojos y despojemos al paisaje urbano que nos resulte más familiar del ingrediente comercial. Una ciudad sin tiendas, sin escaparates, sin más luces al anochecer que las del alumbrado público y las de los bares… Lo que queda es una película de ciencia-ficción, una de esas distopías al estilo de Blade Runner o Fahrenheit 451 con empleados de logística en lugar de replicantes o quemadores de libros. Repuestos del horror, imaginémonos a nosotros mismos reducidos a una experiencia de consumidor que no tiene más interlocutor que la pantalla del ordenador, la tableta o el smartphone. Da un poquito de escalofrío ¿no? …

… People on streets presage change. But do they as well signal transition? Transition means more than mere change: “transition” means a passage from a here to a there – but in the case of people on street or city squares only the “here” from which they wish to escape is given, but the “there” at which they aim is at best wrapped in fog. People took to streets in the hope to find an alternative society; what they’ve found thus far is the means to get rid of the present one; more to the point though, to get rid of one of its features on which their diffuse indignation – resentment, vexation, rancour and anger – have momentarily focused. As demolition squads, people taking to the streets are faultless – or almost. The faults surface though once the ground has been cleared and laying foundations and the erection of new buildings is to follow. And the faults derive their prominence from the same things to which the demolition squads owe their uncanny efficiency: from the variegation, contrariety and even incompatibility of interests suspended for the time of demolition but coming into their own and pushing to the fore the moment the job is finished; and from achieving the feat of reconciling the irreconcilable through synchronizing emotions – qualities notorious for being as easy to arouse as they are prone to burn out and fade – burn out and fade much, much faster than it takes to design and build an alternative society in which the sole reason for the people to take to the streets will be to relish the joy of togetherness and friendship. Or, as Richard Sennett has recently described the modality of the urgently called-for variety of humanism: for the sake of an informal, open-ended cooperation. Informal: that is, rules of cooperation not being set in advance, but emerging in the course of cooperation. Open-ended: that is, no side entering cooperation with a presumption of knowing already what is true and right – each being reconciled instead to playing the role of a learner as much as a teacher. And cooperation: that is, interaction being aimed at the mutual benefit of the participants rather than at their division into victors and the defeated …

… The assignment of dealing consequently with the flexible city contains two important dimensions. On one hand the exploring of opportunities for temporary use of both private and public space which have become obsolete. On the other hand the search for new forms of construction, urban planning and architecture where principles of change, movement, (dis)appearance or extensions are embedded. Our aim is to create a network of a wide range of professionals who are interested in dynamic urbanism.

… The real work of architecture that adapts and reflects this new mediated world is yet to come. A discussion about “social media and architecture” is still more likely to consider how architects can use Facebook—or Architizer—to market their work, rather than how social media changes our experience of it. And a conversation about “technology and architecture” is probably about parametric modeling, not about how the two spaces we inhabit—one physical, one virtual—might be pulled together. A world where we are all “alone together,” in Turkle’s formulation, is a haunting image of the future. But there remains the possibility of a new richness arriving along with our divided attention, an additional layer in our experience of the built world.
“Public spaces are always going to be sites of negotiation. They are not places, like your laptop screen, where you can do whatever you want,” David Benjamin, of The Living, told me. But what if our screens engaged in that conversation? If our building facades didn’t just communicate information to us (à la the Jumbotron), but we communicated back, communally? After all, what makes cities vital are their color and diversity, the wild mix of scales, even the noise and confusion. This has been the defining sensation of modernity, from the Parisian boulevard to the contemporary aerotropolis. Social media has the potential to amplify this quality, making people feel disoriented and overwhelmed—but also focused and inspired. Great cities have always done both, and architecture’s role has always been to help make sense of it all. It took Mies to show how the lowly industrial I-beam could be transmuted into something as grand and symbolically profound as the columns of a Greek temple. What architect will turn the networked screen into a chapel?

Fronte á proclama dos poderes desta cidade de que “lo que quieren los ciudadanos es ir a los centros comerciales”,

DICIMOS:

Establecer como hipótese que unha zona da cidade pode ser simultaneamente lugar de permanencia e tranquilidade para moitas, de paso para algunhas e de intercambio e asombro para todas, e  que a súa estrutura física e mental é feita pola colectividade, agás se esta chegou a ser parasitada por organismos autoritarios que só pretenden obter dela producións e obediencias e temen por enriba de todo calquera desorde, insumisión, invención na rúa, xurdimento de ritmos internos, de fluencias, de xeitos de estar sen medo nin tensións, confianzas, capacidades de traballo colectivo, de apoio mutuo, educación non autoritaria, curación e arte sen manipulación, autoorganización sen ánimo de mando nin lucro …

Como poden establecerse un urbanismo e unha arquitectura que axuden ás persoas a organizarse para rehabilitar, recuperar, adaptar directamente os espazos que precisan para xogo, encontro, experimentación e vivenda?

Que lexitimidade poden pretender xs intérpretes da lei que lle dan mecanicamente ou seu contido máis reaccionario e supersticiosamente mercantil? Que valor moral pode ter unha lei que non respecta nin os seus presupostos “democráticos” e “sociais” e simplesmente organiza a máis rápida e efectiva desposesión das posibilidades de vida autónoma dos seres vivos, intelixentes e sensibles?

Que desexos existen na sociedade de falar sinceramente das necesidades de vivenda adaptada aos ritmos de rapacxs, adultxs e vellxs? Como se combinan o urbanismo e a arquitectura popular con estruturas abertas que faciliten a vida cotiá, as mediacións e axudas que unha colectividade complexa precisa? O urbanismo do curro en común, das rehabilitacións urxentes, da resistencia á extorsión e os desafiuzamentos, da axuda e coidados respectuosos aos grupos e persoas que o precisen, sempre coa condición da súa liberdade, participación e autonomía …

Como deixa de cumprir unha cidade as súas funcións na sociedade mercantil para ser zona de encontros, aprendizaxes, emocións, reintegrada no medio ambiente, capaz de reorganizar ecolóxicamente a produción e circulación de cousas e ideas?

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