The Double Death of Welfare and the Nation State The title for this workshop is The Double Death of Welfare and the Nation State. We have this workshop just after the Scottish referendum. At the same time, the Catalan, like the Scots, also want a referendum on independence. When we take a closer look of European regions, it is not hard to find several regions who want to be independent from their existing nation state. The trend of decentralization becomes a cross-cut theme of Design as Politics. In the studio we emphasize the current progressive dispersion of the services once centralized by the welfare state, and the utopian thinking needed to create an alternative to that. We were divided in 3 groups to explore the Utopia visions, basing on hypothesis of independence of Scotland, Catalonia and Veneto. The workshop took place in Venice Biennial, we were also asked to be more sensitive and get some inspiration from the exhibitions. Our work will be part of exhibition in Swiss Pavilion, build up a relation between our work and Cedric Price’s Fun Palace is another requirement. This booklet contains: 1. Our Utopian ideas for a “non-existent” independent state; 2. An idea of a pavilion for the independent state.
Catalonia Republic Catalonia is one of the most known and productive regions of Spain, with a rich culture and history. The regions constantly fighting for its independence and culture identification. During this workshop we tried to build up an Utopian plan for the independent state of Catalonia, with an exaggeration and the main focus on enhancing the identity and culture of Catalonia. The main driving force that was chosen for this state of Catalonia is education. In terms of enhancing the culture, language and history. Based on this, the system of “School of life“ is proposed, where everyone in Catalonia Republic have to participate in theoretical study and practical production. In order to provide for the local needs and for exporting goods & culture worldwide.
Catalonia Republic—— School of life Catalonia /kætəˈloʊniə/ (Catalan: Catalunya; Occitan: Catalonha; Spanish: Cataluña) is a nation state independent from Spain in 2014. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea. It is the education centre of Europe, famous for its Catalan cultural university league. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. When it was part of Spain, it experienced suppression on its culture for decades, which leads to their special polities to protect Catalan culture. For example, they filter all other culture by forbidding cultural goods import. “The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture. At the beginning of the journey to the next world, one’s education and culture can either provide the greatest assistance, or else act as the greatest burden, to the person who has just died.” —— Plato, The Republic of Plato Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Before independence 1.2 Independence of Catalonia 2 Culture 2.1 Symbols of Catalan culture 2.2 Regional culture 3 Education 2.3 Universities in Catalonia 2.4 Education system 3 Strategy of spatial planning 3.2 Regions 3.3 City 3.4 School 3.5 Administration 4 Economy 4.1 Industry 4.2 Import and export
History [edit]
In the first third of the 20th century, Catalonia several times enjoyed and lost varying degrees of autonomy like other parts of Spain until the Second Spanish Republic confirmed the autonomies of Spain’s traditional autonomous regions, including the autonomy of Catalonia and the official use of its language. During 1939 -1975, a great effort was made by Franco’s regime to crush all regional cultures, languages and identities within Spain but without success. In 1975 Franco died, bringing to an end his dictatorial regime, and in 1978 Catalonia voted overwhelmingly for the new democratic Spanish constitution that recognised Catalonia’s autonomy and language.
Before independence [edit] Catalonia given a statute of autonomy. Catalan become the joint official language of Catalonia with Spanish. 1979
Dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Prohibited any recognition of Catalan language, culture and public usage. 1931
1939
Spain becomes a republic; an autonomous Catalan regional government is created under the leadership of the Revolutionary Left of Catalonia.
Catalan Way 1.8 million participants
Catalan independence demonstration
2012
2014
Referendum on independence
Democracy
2010
Catalan autonomy protest. Constitutional Court in Madrid strikes down part of the autonomy statute, ruling that there is no legal basis for recognising Catalonia as a nation within Spain and that Catalan should not take precedence over Castilian in the region.
2013
Catalan Way 1.6 million participants
Victory of independence [edit] On 24th, September 2014, Catalonia’s local government got more than 50% people voting for “an independent state of Catalonia“ in the referendum, under the pressure of the opposition of Spain’s Constitutional Court. From then on, a new state was established: Catalonia Republic.
Culture [edit]
The language of Catalonia republic is Catalan language. Since Catalonia has been independent from Spain, a lot of policies were made to promote more people to speak Catalan. Now it is the only official language in Catalonia Republic. It is an important part of Catalonia culture. With a rich history and lots of famous artists, such as Antoni Gaudí, Salvador Dalí, it develops education industry combined with Catalan culture which attracts people all over the world to come to study. “GREEN HOUSE of Catalan culture“, people calll it.
Symbols of Catalan culture -The flag of Catalonia, called La Senyera, is a vexillological symbol based on the heraldic emblem of Counts of Barcelona and the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon, which consists of four red stripes on a golden background. It has been an official symbol since the Statute of Catalonia of 1932. -Castells are one of the main manifestations of Catalan popular culture. The activity consists in constructing human towers by competing colles castelleres (teams). This practice originated in the southern part of Catalonia during the 18th century. The tradition of els Castells i els Castellers was declared Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2010. -The sardana is the most characteristic Catalan popular dance, other groups also practice Ball de bastons, moixiganga, galops or jota in the southern part.
Culture [edit] Regional culture Geographical Identities: Catalonia has four provinces with different topography. Barcelona Province is located at the central east coast with sandy beaches. Girona Province is located at the north east close to the French Border. It has a national park with dead volcano and rocky coast. Lleida Province located at the north west with the highest mountain in the north and plains in the south. Tarragona Province is located in the south east coast with flat lands. Resources Identities: Catalonia has different landscape and resources which enable it to have diverse industries. Barcelona Province has cotton, wool, lether, fabric industry. Girona Province has wood industry as the main drive with furniture and ceramic industry as well. Tarragona Province has mainly olive oil and wine industry while Lleida Province focus more on agriculture.
Education [edit] Catalan League The Catalan League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising institutions of higher education from 4 regions in the Catalonia Republic. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those schools from Catalonia republic aiming to educate people with Catalan culture. The four institutions are School of Sports and Recreation from Lielda, School of Arts and Fashion from Barcelona, School of Ceramics and Furniture from Girona, School of Food and Wine from Tarragona. The term Catalan League provides equal education chance for every Catalan, covering all Catalan culture. The slogan of Catalan League is “School of life“, they aim to organize people’s life around university and build up a solid Catalan culture through education.
“The Utopian belief in education as a right and a necessity is surprisingly familiar to modern readers but a far cry from the policies of Europe in which only the rich and powerful could hope to be educated. Utopian education is systematized and uniform. Education, then, in Utopia is not just a means of intellectual enlightenment; it is a program of moral and cultural development designed to make sure that Utopia will always replenish itself through its children.” ——<Utopia> Thomas More
Education System
People in Catalonia is provided with education and employment throughout their whole life. In early age, people get to know basic skills for further education and classes from all the schools. When they grow up to 20-year-old, they have freedom to choose the school they like. Later you can also find someone from other schools to exchange with you. This is a mechanism to ensure there is a balance in the number of people between different schools and provinces.
People in Catalonia will get free education for their whole life, people who are elder than 10 years old need to work everyday to produce things they need for daily life. The work is always related to their study topic, during work, they can practice what they learn in classes. When people are elder than 10 years old, they are also allowed to teach other people with their own knowledge and skills. Knowledge is not always related to age, people learn from each other and debate with each other equally in school.
Strategy of spatial planning [edit]
INDEPENDENT STATE OF CATALONIA
STATE WITH DIFFERENT REGIONS
TRADE OF LOCAL PRODUCTION BETWEEN REGIONS
IMPORT AND EXPORT POLICY
CATALONIA
2. Separate regions (sectors) for different clusters and fields of education. Based on variety of landscapes and possibilities for production. - FOOD - ART - ARCHITECTURE - CLOTHES - WINE - FURNITURE
Administration [edit]
3. Cultivation of local production and trade between the regions. To provide all goods for citizens of Catalonia.
4. Catalonia as “A factory“ for Catalan culture. Strict policies for import products related to other culture identities to filter Catalan culture. Education will be exported as a product of Catalan culture spreading in the world. - BRANDING AND ADVERTISING
The leader will be elected by all citizens among all the presidents of the schools. People believe in knowledge and they trust more in academic people. For ensuring the justice, all the decisions made by the leader need to be supported by a committee consists of presidents from all 350 schools in Catalonia Republic.
Urban planning [edit]
We provide a ideal prototype for all cities in Catalonia. We think it is the best solution that can meet the needs of combination “production” and “education“.
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The edge area of a city would be area for trading different goods between cities. Big ports and airports are located here, people do package for the goods, prepare for exporting.
MODEL OF A CATALONIA CITY
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The area out of schools will be production area, big factories are located there to produce more cultural goods for exporting. The farmland in school community will extend into the production area to ensure enough green space there.
PROTOTYPE OF CITY
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In urban planning, schools will be the centre district of the city, Inbetween schools, there are farmlands with houses for students’ daily life. Small studios are combined with schools that provide place for students to do practical production after they finish their study. The products will also be consumed by the themselves, which allow them to live in a self-sufficient block.
School [edit]
Schools are all in a cylinder shape which has a inner yard in the middle of the building. Inspired by the Platonic Academy founded by Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) in ca. 387 BC in Athens, a olive tree is in the middle of the yard, provides a shelter for students and teachers debating in the yard. After classes, students go to farmland around schools to work. In the middle the school community it is “Citizens Square” for all citizens come to argue about political issues.
All roads lead to school
Economy [edit]
Making Catalonia a cultural production centre is to strengthen and promote the Catalan identity as well as branding Catalonia to the world. People are attracted from abroad to study and work in different schools learning Catalan art, sports, furniture or wine culture and production. Each of the schools are also exported to different countries to establish branches so other people can learn Catalan culture in their countries as well.
Export
Cedric Price and Lucius Burckhardt were both much concerned with the idea of the present moment, of the need to relate to “now” and chart a future path for their contemporary society. Both Burckhardt and Price critiqued the traditional tertiary education system and were interested in rethinking the basic concept of a university. Cedric Price was guided by a fundamental belief that architecture must ‘enable people to think the unthinkable’. Inspired by our workshop in Swiss pavilion, we, becomes a part of the exhibition happening there, our Pavilion will also provide workshop for people. The workshop becomes a performance, people sitting on the stage in the middle become the audience. As people keep coming in and going out, the “actors“ and “audience“ keep changing all the time, every moment becomes different.
The main idea of the pavilion is to create a space for workshops, where people could learn some of the Catalan culture. This way of exhibition is chosen in the same logics as the whole idea of the Utopia, it is based on learning to publicize Catalan culture. The pavilion is shaped as a circle, which reflects on the shape of the proposed plan for the city and the school.
It has four different spaces stand for 4 institution of Catalan League in ‘Catalonia Republic’. Each sector has a space for working, and a big screen, which is showing movies and tutorials about the different themes. In the middle of all the sectors, there are designed stairs for sitting and watching the exhibition and a movies. It is shaped as a one of the Catalan activities——Castel.
Section of Catalan Pavilion
Plan of Catalan Pavilion
Di Fang 4297962, Justina Stefanovic 4322606, Joan Kwong 4248481. Design as Politics. 2014.