Faculty
Joan Busquets
Professor in Practice
Urban Planning and Design
Professor in Practice
Urban Planning and Design
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Toledo and its Future
The approval of the Special Plan for the Old Quarter of Toledo (P.E.C.H.T.) has been a prominent event in recent municipal life. It was the most important urban planning document drawn up by the Council in the nineties. Several local corporations, governed by parties with different ideologies, and a large number of public institutions and private entities were involved in compiling and approving it. The challenge consisted of putting on paper the guidelines for the urban development of the historical part of the city, outlining the keys to ensuring its conservation and fostering the development and revitalization of these marvellous historical monuments which have become the undeniable hallmark of our capital. It gives me great satisfaction to be writing this foreword to the book in which the content of the Plan is published. This pleasure is justified, as it was during the final months of my term as mayor, between 1987 and 1991, that the first steps were taken towards drawing it up. Since then, the Special Plan has been completed with all-round consensus and approved, and some of its norms are already being developed. The Special Plan came into force in February 1997. Since then Toledo Council has worked in three different areas: applying the new regulations when processing requests for planning permission, carrying out work on infrastructure and major facilities and refurbishing housing. Significant steps have been taken in all these fields. Since the Special Plan came into force, construction activity has been increasing in the old quarter and citizens and developers have a new set of planning decisions with a sounder and clearer legal basis, compared to the previous lake of criteria. As for infrastructure, the Programme for the Renewal of the Old Quarter, a good part of which has already been implemented, has enableed us to invest over Ptas 6.2 billion. With respect to the refurbishment of housing, our municipal housing authority (EMV) has work underway in Corralillo de San Miguel, one of the Integrated Refurbishment Areas set out in the P.E.C.H.T. In addition, we have started to draw up the specifications for projects for the rest of the Areas, which envisage work on over seven hundred dwellings. New bylaws are being formulated concurrently, together with documents to supplement the Plan. As I write, I have the sensation of putting an end to what has been a cycle of far-reaching significance for the city and for the dynamics of municipal life. At this point, it is appropriate to underline the work of the local corporations presided over by Joaquín Sánchez Garrido and Agustín Conde Bajén, who are largely responsible for formulating and approving these documents. This sensation does not mean I am about to sign the last page and end the cycle; rather; the publication of this book ushers in a period of great hope for the refurbishment of our Old Quarter. The Special Plan, so far kept at the premises of the minicipal authority, is being published and disseminated so that all Toledans can freel we are a part of it and commit ourselves to implementing it. Its completion, under the magnificent guidance of city planner Joan Busquets, involved major research, data collection, dianosis and proposals. All this effort deserves to be acknowledged, particularly in view of the fact that our Special Plan was awarded a prize by the Royal Foundation of Toledo and has been the focus of special attention at national and international forums. The city's inhabitants and the public and private entities are entitled to an in-depth knowledge of its content, as this will make it easier for us all to contibute to conserving and revitalising the Old Quarter. And the running of the future City Consortium, the executive arm of the Royal Trust of Toledo, will be decisive to this endeavor and will help transform what we have yearningly desired for so many years into a reality. The future of our Old Quarter largely depends on the common effort we are able to make as a whole. The Special plan establishes the rules for its development and guides us towards the paths to be taken. The success or faliure of its proposals rests in our hands. As Mayor of Toledo, I will promote understanding and good relations between institutions and inhabitants at all times in order to make the revitalisation of the Old Quarter a reality, by simplifying procedures, speeding up the granting of subsitdies, providing clear planning regulations and, above all, encouraging housing refurbishment policies and making the effort, day by day, to ensure that this maginificent Special Plan is wholly implemented. This is a time for special optimism, which we should all share.
Joan Busquets: Ten Projects at Urban Scale, 1988-1994
"Live keeps its miracles hidden/Until, all at once, it reveals them in their highter state. — J.C. Bloem (1946) When the dictatorship ended in Catolina, a miracle took place. All the pent up architectural creativity and the sinlently tensed town planning skills were unleashed and worked together as if inspired. They brought new life to Barcelona . Joan Busquets was and is one of the leaders of this urban revival. Brought up in the compact capital of Catalonia, and an expert on the qualities of city life, he now works and teaches throughout the old and new worlds. In recent decades the centres of Dutch cities have been enriched by some interesting new buildings, but the urban environment has become increasingly impoverished and has sunk to a miserable level for the ordinary user without a car. Attempts are being made here and there to call a halt to this trend and remedy the recent decline. Fortunately, in a number of cases Joan Busquets has put his talents and professionalism at our disposal. He is currently working in Rotterdam, The Hague and Haarlem, and form time to time he teaches at the Delft University of Technology. His method of working as an urban designer always begins with a close examination, both historical and morphological, of the terrain layer by layer in which he seeks explanations for events in the appropriate social context. In this way he has acquired a vast knowledge of the Western architectural and planning culture of our age, roughly since the Industrial Revolution. When you see him at work, he most resembles a detective of the scientific school, on the lines of Sherlock Holmes. The initial examination is followed by a phrase of handwork in which an inventory is made of the projects built or yet to be realised; this often anticipates the work of the local authority, as in the case of the huge site known as the «Spui quarter» in The Hague. He works his way through the piles of drawings of buildings, pavements and tram routes and literally maps the terrain from room to viaduct. This labour requires perseverance and restraint; it is scientific, dull and entirely lacking in glamour. As he says himself «the gap between architecture and city design, should be solved on the intermediary scale», his solutions are usually a bridge between architecture and town planning. They create space in a masterly fashion and emerge as if self-evidently, after all the analyses, from concealment. The detective has suddenly become a magician. Solutions are born by the dozen and their viability is checked. A few are cosseted, put to the test and finally found worthy to be developed as a «plan» and shown «in their higher state». His creations are probably—I agree entirely with Geert Bekaert—of the greatest importance for the future of town planning and architecture in our country.
La urbanización marginal El libro recoge los trabajos de estudio del fenómeno de la urbanización marginal en Barcelona y hace referencia a otras situaciones urbanísticas también en proceso de creimiento rápido y escasa urbanización. Combina los aspectos metodológicos de comprensión de este fenómeno irregular, también denominado del sector "informal", a partir del cual todavia se está produciendo un gran crecimiento en todo el mundo. Discos trabajos se orientan también a hacer de puente entre el compente analítico que puedan canalizar su reconversión urbana, o bien permitir un mejor despliegue de formas urbanas que se construyen en el tiempo pero que, en definitiva, acaban siendo ciudad y que significan un tercio de la construcción de la ciudad contemporánea. De Landtong Rotterdam architect Frits van Dongen
De Lantong residential project by architect Frits van Dongen,
on a large central dike of the Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam, has
a number of interesting characteristics, all of which are worthy
of comment. The particular characteristics are the scale of the
residential operation, the complexity of its morphology, the interest
of its typological research – in short, the urban architecture
that has been created in this enclave of restructured docklands.
Barcelona : evoluciâon urbanâistica de una capital
compacta
Barcelona puede ser considerada como prototipo de ciudad mediterránea europea con larga tradición urbana. La primera Barcelona, germen de la ciudad actual, se origina en el sigo I a.C., entre el año 15 y el 13 bajo la dominación romana. Las ciudades de la Europa del Sur presentan characterísticas formales y un proceso de formación histórica específicos: la densidad y compacidad urbana y su evolución por extensión más que por reforma. El proceso de formación urbana de Barcelona está lleno de grandes contradicciones históricas; por ejemplo, la «gran capital mediterránea» sin puerto. Joan Busquets, con un enfoque inhabitual en el estudio de las ciudades, emprende en esta obra una interpretación de la evolución y formación de Barcelona a partir de aquellos elementos urbanísticos significativos, que pueden ser communes a los de la constitución de otras ciudades europeas, destacando las reglas de orden o de proyecto que dan forma a la ciudad y también su relación con las formas de organización social y de administración de poder.
Rotterdam's Kop Van Zuid: Rethinking the Plan in Progress through
Urban Projects
During the later part of the twentieth century, at the same time
that we are experiencing increasing levels of globalization and
the diminution of spatial distinctions between one place and another,
we are also becoming In order to gain a practical as well as theoretical appreciation of these phenomena, and to develop a greater awareness of the various classes of urban design problems confronting societies in various parts of the world, the Graduate School of Design at Harvard has created a studio program with a deliberate outward orientation and involvement in real-world issues. This is particularly apparent in urban design, perhaps where such an orientation matters most, providing both faculty and students with opportunities to gain a firsthand understanding of foreign design contexts, as well as different ways of conceptualizaing and making urban environments. For the host community involved, these design studio experiences often provide those concerned with fresh and unorthodox views of old and existing problems, as well as a venue for reflecting on proposals outside of the usual controversy of local debates. The studio, conducted in the Rotterdam port area of the Netherlands by Professor Busquets during the fall semester of 1997, is an excellent example of this two-fold experience. As the following pages document, proposals were prepared by students which provided those participating from Rotterdam with points of comparison and potential insights for their own deliberations. From their perspective, the students profited enormously from firsthand acquaintance with the City of Rotterdam adding appreciably, in turn, to both the breadth and depth of discussion on urban issues within the School. Consequently, for at least these reasons, we are all grateful to the City of Rotterdam for its support and continuing interest in our collective efforts.
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