Deeping in the genetics of medium-sized cities. Heritage as an identity feature in Andalusia

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering PAPER • OPEN ACCESS Deeping in the genetics of medium-sized cities. Heritage as an identity feature in Andalusia To cite this article: Clara Mosquera Perez et al 2019 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 603 042089 View the article online for updates and enhancements. This content was downloaded from IP address 81.37.111.114 on 21/09/2019 at 19:38 Content from this work may be used under the terms of theCreativeCommonsAttribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 1 Deeping in the genetics of medium-sized cities. Heritage as an identity feature in Andalusia Clara Mosquera Perez1, Juan Rodriguez-Lora2, Javier Navarro-dePablos2, Teresa Perez-Cano2 1University of Seville, History, Theory and Architectural Composition Department, Avenida Reina Mercedes, 2. 41012 Seville, Spain. 2University of Seville, Urbanism and Territory Management Department, Avenida Reina Mercedes, 2. 41012 Seville, Spain. cm[email protected] Abstract. Interest in urban agglomerations, metropolitan areas, large cities and in general the spaces where the majority of the world's population is concentrated, has occupied the interest of an urban research for decades. According to the United Nations sources, today, the world population is 7.6 billion, is going to reach 8.6 billion in 2030 and 9.8 billion people in 2050. In Spain, according to sources from the National Institute of Statistics, the population reaches 46.57 million inhabitants, although its distribution is not uniform in the territory. Andalusia, with 8.37 million, is the first most populated Spanish autonomous community, followed by Catalonia (7.55) and the Community of Madrid (6.50) with almost one million fewer inhabitants, respectively. Following the same indicators, most of this population already lives in large cities and in the upcoming years, this figure will increase exponentially. This means that a large part of people will be concentrated in a small part of the territory and, on the other hand, which we begin to have large areas of the territory without inhabiting or with a very low population density. Examining aspects traditionally considered as secondary, involving a minority of the population, has been one of the disciplinary general constants in the last century and that not only affects architects or urban planners. To say medium-sized cities in Europe is to think about urban-territorial heritage, historic landscapes that continue shaping wide territories. In Andalusia (87600 km2), the effects of metropolization are still punctual (3.72 % on 778 municipalities). Totalling 778 municipalities, up to 122 of them are listed for their Historical Centres. We find that only 3.72 % of these municipalities exceeds a population of 50 000 inhabitants. The Heritage constitutes its ‘genetic heritage’. Both considering international and national scales, its historic relevance is noted in Civitates Orbis Terrarum (with 25 Andalusian cities from 34 Spanish). Nowadays, its heritage value is represented by the Historic Centres (the first two listed cities in Spain, 1929, were Andalusian), and World Heritage inscriptions. This outlines the necessity of decoding the Heritage DNA, as an indissoluble variable prior to planning. The aim of this research is to characterize the European medium-sized cities and their territory in the heritage terms, defining what is the Andalusian territory. Different cultural and productive landscapes are the main actors of the medium-sized Andalusian cities: the landscape of fishing, the art of the almadraba, the wine cellars, the olive trees plantations, the urban networks of convents are only a sample. The dynamics experimented at this regional level could be extended to the rest of the European countries analysed in the project. This research will gather partial results of an R&D project "Patrimonial Urban Characterization and Cultural Tourism Model in the Middle Cities. Potentialities and WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 2 Challenges for its Internationalization: Inner Baetica”, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain. 1. Introduction The interest in urban agglomerations, metropolitan areas, big cities and in general the spaces where the majority of the world’s population are concentrated, has occupied for decades the interest of urban research. According to United Nations sources [1], the world’s population is currently 7.6 billion, will reach 8.6 billion by 2030 and will reach 9.8 billion by 2050. Following the same indicators, most of this population already lives in the big cities and in the coming years, this figure will increase exponentially. This means that a large proportion of people will be concentrated in a small part of the territory and, on the other hand, we begin to have large areas of the territory uninhabited or with a very low population density. If we think about the range of population or size of the city that we can take as a measure and reference for defining what we call a large city, the concept will vary according to the cultural environment where we are. This is influenced by the context of the region, the country or even the continent. What, for example, the People’s Republic of China is a middle city [2] being the largest and most populous country in the world, where more than a dozen cities are above the population of the metropolitan area of Madrid or where among its three most inhabited cities -Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhouis concentrated the equivalent of more than the entire Spanish population, we are sure that the Chinese scale cannot be a reference for Spain and even less for Andalusia. In Spain, according to sources from the National Statistical Institute [3], the population reaches 46.57 million inhabitants, although its distribution is not uniform throughout the territory. Andalusia, with 8.37 million, is the first most populated Spanish autonomous community -region-, followed by Catalonia (7.55) and the Community of Madrid (6.50) with almost one million fewer inhabitants respectively. But in fact, by the area, Andalusia (87 600 km²) is the second largest community in Spain, after Castile and Leon (94 200 km²) and ahead of Castile the Mancha (79 500 km²), which is the third. Catalonia, as we have seen the second most populated, occupies the sixth place (32 100 km²) and the Community of Madrid, the third in number of inhabitants occupies the 12th place (8 000 km²). This shows that we have a very diverse territory, but with certain common constants. The higher population density is always associated with large cities and metropolitan areas, which gives a certain homogeneity to the territory that houses them. But if we insert the variable size of the autonomous community, the picture varies substantially. The Community of Madrid is the most extreme example, since practically its metropolitan area has been almost the whole of the surrounding territory. At the other extreme, communities like Castile and Leon, with 2.42 million people, talk about other ways of living and relating to the environment. In short, we could say that large cities and metropolitan areas play a different league. Each population, depending on its actual capacity at any given time, participates in local, regional, national, international or even global competition. 2. Medium sized cities and growth models Research on aspects traditionally considered secondary, involving a minority of the population, has been one of the general disciplinary constants in the last century and it does not only affect architects or planners. The idea of profitability, the always scarce resources, implies the need to bet on those urban solutions that involve as many people as possible. Hence, large cities are the traditional benchmarks, such as models of study, analysis and research. Rural centres, small towns and mediumsized towns are not a regular subject of disciplinary interest. They are considered as minor elements, devoid of academic interest and whose problem, affecting a small population, is for the concept of little relevance. These cities are a kind of "rare pathologies" where it is not profitable, for the current WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 3 urban pharmaceuticals understood in the way of the old laboratories of urbanism, to investigate. Even in most cases, the development models envisaged, the corrective measures applied, etc. follow the validated guidelines and designed for large cities without realizing that the scale of the piece itself where it is operated, and their needs and circumstances are quite different. At the territorial level, we can also establish parallel situations between autonomous communities (Figure 1), the number of provinces and the municipalities that make it up. The structure of the territorial fabric will show us clear differences that can help us to understand the functioning of the territorial system from another perspective. Figure 1. Ratio of km2 / municipality according to Community and Autonomous City Just as on an urban scale the plot identifies the most ‘functionalized’ parts of the city with greater economic pressure, where same spaces even have a symbolic character. We can verify like the attraction and the struggle for the use of space leads to the price of the floor going up and consequently in a small and intense lot. The territories are also different; the historical process that has shaped them over the centuries characterizes them differently [4]. Taking as a reference to the Andalusian region and if we establish some comparisons, we find that in an area of 87 600 km2 coexist 778 municipalities, spread in eight provinces. However, if we think of another similar community in population and with a strong coastal presence, as is the Catalonian one, we see that, with an area of 32 100 km2, are 947 the different municipal terms that compose it, belonging to four different provinces. If they were equivalent territories, Andalusia should have 2 584 municipalities, or if we turn it over, it would have to be 285 the total number of Catalonian municipalities. It is clear that we cannot apply WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 4 the same recipes with so much diversity, nor can certain cases be taken as referents as such, when the territorial support is so different1. 2.1. The case of Andalusia If we talk about medium sized cities, the first reflection would be to ask ourselves what we call medium sized cities in Andalusia (Figure 2). Most authors [6] agree that there are two parameters to consider. First, the size of the population, coded in our scope around the 50 000 and second, capacity of functional leadership of a territory by the city that, understood as head, exerts it on the immediate territorial context [7]. In both cases, these are more or less quantitative parameters, as they objectively measure the amount of population and economic activity, having as a link the communications. However, we understand as necessary disciplinary position the addition of another new variable, very important in Andalusia: the patrimonial value of the city, its properties and the territory where it is implanted [8]. Figure 2. Interpretation of the Andalusian City System The Regional Planning Plan of Andalusia [9] establishes a territorial strategy that organizes and divides the community into Regional Centres, Medium Sized Cities and Rural Areas (Figure 3, 4). For our research have been differentiated those that are located in the Inner Baetica linked to the valley of the river Guadalquivir (our study area) and those of the Coastal, for responding these last to differentiated dynamics, motivated by the presence of sun and beach tourism. 1 This situation is not a minor one, as it concerns such crucial issues as state funding, political representation, cost of services, etc. [5]. WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 5 But in Andalusia, of the 778 existing municipalities, with 122 of the Historical Sites, we find that, above this area of 50 000 inhabitants, scarcely 3.72 % of them are located. In fact, only 12 cities, representing 1.54 % of the total of Andalusia, exceed 100 000 inhabitants. Among them, besides the well-known eight provincial capitals, are the cities of Jerez (Cadiz), Marbella (Malaga), Dos Hermanas (Seville) and Algeciras (Cadiz). We see how the capital of the province acts as a pole of attraction of the population, but not always, because Jerez is ahead of Almeria, Huelva, Cadiz (its capital) and Jaen. Marbella and Algeciras, due to their coastal position (and tourism and industry, respectively as their main economic activities) also stand out, being Dos Hermanas, in the metropolitan area of Seville, the other population that stands out. If we advance to the 50 000 inhabitants, we would only reach the municipality that occupies the 29th place, which represents 2.18 % of the total, that nowadays would be Utrera (Seville). In this step, we find many historical cities of relevance, whose role in the cultural construction of Andalusia has been transcendental [4], like the cities of San Fernando, Chiclana, El Puerto de Santa Maria or Sanlucar de Barrameda, all of them in Cadiz. Figure 3. Models of growth of the coastal medium sized cities of Andalusia Lowering the ratio to the level of 10 000 inhabitants, the number of Andalusian municipalities located in this area is shot up to the number 153, occupied by Gelves (Seville), which means almost the 16 % of the total or 124 municipalities in absolute value. Seville is the province that gathers more terms with 32, followed at a certain distance by the 20 municipalities of Granada. However, the largest WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 6 number of populations in Andalusia, more than its half (53.85 %) are between 10 000 and 1 000 inhabitants, representing a total of 419 municipalities, being Granada, Jaen and Almeria the provinces that concentrate this other way to inhabit the territory. But what would be the reflection beyond the figure 4, at least from the perspective of the teaching of Urbanism that is taught in most schools of Architecture? Thus, between the two options of the spatial distribution of the population in the territory or concentration of population in large cities, it has always been more interesting to work on the latter [10]. The study of the cities that exponentially increase their population, in purely urban keys, the forms of dominant growth in the last centuries, always since the requirements of the city, without assessing in most cases the consolidated city and the surrounding territory, they have also concentrated most of the investigations. Small cities, not studied, are like "rare diseases", not investigated because they do not interest, do not move the economy, are not centres of power. We are moved even subliminally that they are not the prototypes of being a city, the usual, the model, the perfect… that since they haven’t had or don’t have what it takes to be a city, they just aren’t. That is why the challenge is to ask us what the other cities are? Are they abnormal cities? Are they imperfect cities? WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 7 Figure 4. Models of growth of the medium sized cities of Andalusia: Inner Baetica Returning to the concept of the city as a space of coexistence brings us to the medium sized cities and if they also enjoy good heritage health, much better. 2.2 When weakness becomes strength When the Instructions for the Defence of Historic-Artistic Site, volume 1, were published in 1964, we hesitate if Gabriel Alomar was aware of the important consequences of his publication today and the successive volumes that would have followed him. The figure of this precursor of modern urbanism and its significance on the Spanish cities with listed Historical Centres has been scarcely studied. Considered as an international planner [11], he was General Commissioner of the National Artistic Heritage Defence Service between 1963 to 1965 and collaborator of the Council of Cultural Cooperation for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Europe (1965 - 1975). His latest publication [12] speaks in part to his legacy. WMCAUS 2019 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 603 (2019) 042089 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/603/4/042089 8 A total of twelve texts were published by the National Heritage Defence Service, three of a more theoretical and normative nature, numbers 1, 2 and 11, although in reality, the latter does not correspond in the numbering with the order of how the different volumes were published and came out in the sixth position. The other part of the collection, volumes from 3 to 10, plus the last edited, number 12, are monographically dedicated to historical-artistic joint cities (Figure 5). It may be surprising that the first two Spanish cities listed as Historical-Artistic Complex, the Andalusian cities Cordoba and Granada, both in 1929, do not have a number in this collection. Figure 5. Time line of the Andalusian Historical Sites The first city to appear with the number three of the series was Palma de Mallorca, recently listed as Historic-Artistic Site (1964). At the end of the day, it was Alomar’s hometown and, nevertheless, the 46th to be listed. The number four is for another city with the little route as Historic-Artistic Site, Leon, listed in 1962, which was the 33rd city. The number five is about Toledo (listed in 1940) and the fourth Spanish city to hold that category. The number six is Santiago de Compostela, listed in 1940 and third of the aforementioned list. Volume seven is dedicated to Tarragona, just after being listed in the same year, in 1966. Volume nine is devoted to Avila, surprisingly, if we think that although initiated its historicalartistic ensemble in 1961, it is not finally listed until 1982. The tenth is for Segovia, listed in 1941, and sixth Historic-Artistic Site, and finally volume twelve is occupied by Caceres (1949) the sixteenth. As we can see, they are all major cities in their provinces. We have consciously jumped the volume eight, because it is the only one not dedicated to provincial capitals, but to two middle cities, the Andalusian ones Ubeda and Baeza. The early lucidity of this association is remarkable. Both cities are located in the province of Jaen, separated by just nine kilometres, were listed Historic-Artistic Site at different times. Ubeda, in 1955, was the 24th in the list of national historical-artistic ensembles; and Baeza, in 1966, was the seventy-one. With the passage of time, this duality would become the guiding thread for the postulation of both cities as World Heritage, what would happen in 2003, as an example of exceptional universal value, of urbanism and Renaissance architecture. But if we go back to the mentioned cities: Palma de Mallorca, Leon, Toledo, Santiago de Compostela, Tarragona, Avila, Segovia and Caceres, and we think of the current Spanish cities that are World Heritage -excepting Palma de Mallorca and Leon-, the rest of the list are all cities listed by