Vicente Guayart: "I see the mission of the chief architect in combining innovation and heritage"

Vicente Guayart, Spanish urbanist, chief architect of Barcelona in 2011-2015, co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), took an active part in the work of the 100+ Forum for high-rise and unique construction in October 2017 in Yekaterinburg. In an interview, Vicente Guayart explained what the concept of "the city of the future" means to him and when we need to start shaping the city we want to live in tomorrow.

- Barcelona is a city whose structure and architectural appearance have long been formed, a city with a centuries–old historical and cultural heritage. What is the function of the chief architect in it in the 21st century?

- I took over the post of chief architect of the city almost immediately after the crisis of 2008. The last large-scale transformation and renovation of Barcelona before that took place during the years of preparation for the Summer Olympic Games in 1992. And it was then that the tourist potential of the city began to develop. By the time I started working for the City Council as chief architect, the phenomenon of the tourist boom in Barcelona had already been formed, and the world was beginning to move away from the global crisis.

The concept of smartcity is being implemented in Barcelona, and it was necessary to correlate these principles of development with the post-crisis situation and find solutions that would allow the city to develop further. When, with my participation, the Institute of Contemporary Architecture of Catalonia was founded 15 years ago, we were just starting work on the global image of the city in the modern world, in the 21st century, and we did it even before there was a clear demand for time for this.

We were thinking about how new information technologies and inventions could affect the development of the city, and we tried to stay ahead of the time. In my position, I tried to implement an integrated approach to the development of the city, since the chief architect is not only engaged in new buildings and construction projects, he must see the city as a single organism, a system. These include the environment, energy, water resources, residential construction, and population migration within the city. This means that the role of an architect is not only to build by developing a master plan for the development of the city, but also to "see" the city from a global perspective.

For example, we paid attention to the development of electric transport in Barcelona. We have studied how the appearance of factories and factories for the production of electric vehicles will affect the citizens – this includes a change in the transport structure, the environmental component, and the emergence of new jobs. This is an analysis of the city and new ways of its development in the modern world, which is becoming more and more digital.

- What is a self-sufficient city and is it applicable to a 21st century metropolis like Barcelona?

- Today, the industrial economy and innovations are developing at a tremendous pace, what previously seemed like only an idea can be put into practice. And this has a direct impact on the residents. Those who preferred to live in the center are moving to the suburbs, other regions of the country, and eventually to China.

One of Barcelona's problems is that we don't produce anything, even if we have a powerful internal resource for it. We buy energy or oil, as well as food products – from Brazil, Colombia – although we can potentially produce everything ourselves. A city should be productive and be able to provide for itself from its internal resources. This is one of the ways to develop effectively in a globalized world. Because globalization is about sharing knowledge and technology, building business relationships. And cities simply have to use their opportunities. Barcelona has a "skew" in the service sector, but there are three other important aspects: energy, industry, and the food industry. The ideal self-sufficient city is one that uses the global scientific achievements of the world, using its own resources. And thus he finds himself included in global progress.

- Barcelona and Yekaterinburg are about the same in terms of population, but even a tourist notices that there are no serious traffic jams in Barcelona during rush hours – this can be understood by traveling both by public transport and by car.

- Our city is quite compact, people often live close to their place of work, and when the city is compact, people walk more. The city is "decentralized" and structured by districts, and this allowed us not to build new highways to eliminate traffic jams, but rather to make some streets with single-lane traffic or pedestrian, with bike paths. And the public supported us. Perhaps this concept can be partially implemented in Yekaterinburg – I am not so familiar with the city yet, but its existing structure, which is not radial, unlike Moscow, makes it possible to do this in the future.

- What is the city of the future and what are the prospects for its appearance?

- Throughout the ages, mankind has lived with the idea of a "city of the future." If we talk about long–term planning, then the duration of such changes, when they become visible and noticeable, is at least 25-30 years. During this period, there will be no flying houses, but what Yekaterinburg is talking about today is getting rid of traffic jams – this is one of the components of your "city of the future", the foundation of which is already being formed. What we see in Barcelona today was laid down in the early 90s, when the city began to change for the Olympics. If we talk about some futuristic ideas like flying houses and something like that, then it takes 50-60 years for such drastic changes. But this is too far away from us living today, and therefore we must have a realistic discussion about urban development.

- Barcelona is a city that Antonio Gaudi and his buildings had a huge impact on. Did you feel any special responsibility towards the legacy of this great architect?

- Gaudi is one of the best architects of his generation and the beginning of the 20th century. But there are also many medieval buildings in Barcelona, built in the 18th and 19th centuries. And each generation of creators tries to leave a visual memory of themselves: architecture, their view of the era and its values through the city and its spaces. And I see the mission of the chief architect as combining innovation and heritage. After all, Gaudi was a true revolutionary for his time, and he gives inspiration to today's urban planners.

I am not a fan of conservatism, because it is a dead-end branch, there is no development and new ideas in it. And everything that we see now in cities with rich architecture was once innovative for its time. Architecture is a cultural statement, and your task is to preserve it by putting it in a modern context.