The protection of the baserri as a system for organising rural landscapes in the context of the urban sprawl processes: the “SLaM” model versus the Utopia of “smart cities” A. de la Fuente, U.Gaztelu, V.Benedet & A. Azkarate Fundación ZAIN Fundazioa, GPAC (UPV-EHU)
ABSTRACT: The baserri is a vernacular efficient agricultural productive system that has shaped the Basque landscape. As industry was undergoing mass expansion, many baserris were abandoned. After the industrial crisis, the value of these bucolic farms increased, but not as agricultural undertakings and forestall exploitations. This landscape has begun to be perceived as a continuous metropolis that needs a different model of consumption and performance. The neoliberal concept of “smart cities” gives priority to immediate economic profitability and technology, which are only applied to the fastest-growing neighbourhoods in metropolitan areas with the highest financial capability, dispossessing them of their identity. In contrast, we regard 'smart landscapes of memory' (SLaM) as heritage districts of a high cultural level and generators of a feeling of identity and belonging. They are subject to coordinated management and urban planning in order to achieve the sustainable development of the territory and, above all, of its inhabitant.
1 CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE BASERRI AS A PRODUCTIVE AND HABITATIVE MICROCYSTEM THAT STRUCTURES A TERRITORY The population in the rural landscape in the Basque Country's Atlantic valleys remains disaggregated (not dispersed, in the strictest sense), following the productive patterns of traditional agricultural and livestock undertakings. The production units that have moulded the Basque landscape have remained family-owned and self-sufficient since the middle ages, despite important structural changes, in a humid, midmountain setting. Since the 16th century, the building used for agricultural purposes are compact, with living quarters for humans and animals, and areas for storing and processing farm products all under one roof. The houses (called caseríos, or hamlets, when they were grouped into isolated neighbourhoods) sought to optimize the surrounding resources, such as the available sunlight, work areas (e.g. larrain or threshing floors) and farmlands. Therefore, the system goes beyond the idea of a building to encompass the Basque word baserri (which probably comes from baso – forest – and herri, in the sense of earth). The proliferation of baserri, with their houses, threshing floors, vegetable gardens, orchards and forests, formed a highly characteristic anthropoid landscape that, with few variations, stretched from the Adour to the Zadorra and Arga Rivers, and from the EncartacionesOrientales region to the headwaters of the river Erro, an area 200 Km long and barely 80 Km wide.
2 SPRAWL AND SUSTAINABLE REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF THE BASERRI The baserri's profitability declined sharply in the mid-20th century with the industrialization of many of the valleys surrounding the capital cities, particularly Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Bayonne. Hectares of pastures, woodlands and forests were neglected and invaded by undergrowth, while the newcomers' demands for comfort and urban sprawl turned the outlying hamlets into residential areas and satellites of the big cities. The downturn in the real estate sector put an end to the suburban expansion which, in fact, had thrived in the Basque Country less than elsewhere in Spain. A return to agriculture, animal husbandry, organic farming and food processing (to make cheese and txakoli, for instance), regional plans for sustainable transport, improvements in conventional transport and environmental concerns pointed to a positive rururbanization process that would replace invasive, unsustainable urban sprawl. 3 SMART CITY In 2050, 75% of the population will probably be concentrated in big cities, rendering the current model of consumption and operation obsolete. Many of those who defend the new method for building cities based on the 'smart' concept begin their arguments with this Manichean prediction. The adjective 'smart' has a connotation of 'belonging to a common project'. Obviously, like the term 'bioclimatic', it is sometimes tinged with opportunism and marketing strategies, but the definition includes aspects that are essential for interventions in landscapes and regional planning. The whole concept of cities has undergone a profound revision in the 21st century. When the adjective 'smart' is added to the word 'city', it leads to the powerful, versatile concept of 'smart cities', accurately described by the Dutch economist Peter Jijkamp and other authors as a city in which “investments in human and social capital, and in conventional communication infrastructures (transport) and modern communications (ICT, information and communication technology) promote sustainable economic development and high quality of life, in which participative government leads to wise management of natural resources” (CARAGLIU, DEL BO, NIJKAMP, 2009). The most recurrent aspect of this definition is associated with the technification of infrastructures, in line with the research conducted by the Mitchell team at MIT. This approach is interesting owing to an organic perception of territory organised into strata: “cities have all the subsystems that are needed by living organisms: structural skeletons, various layers of protective skins and artificial nervous systems” (MITCHELL, 2007). His development of 'mobility on demand' mechanisms that bring urban solutions based on new ideas in transport systems, such as the ones in Singapore, Brisbane, Stockholm and Maastricht, are another seminal contribution.However, his decision to rely on energy saving and his management of a combination of "software with digital telecommunication networks, the ubiquitously integrated intelligence, sensors and identifiers" (MITCHELL, 2007), as in the case of Malaga1 and Amsterdam2, seems more debatable owing to their restricted and circumstantial usefulness. The socio-economic and cultural approach that has emerged from such interesting experiences as the Distrito22@Barcelona project, a new model of compact city in which highly innovative companies are set up in the same area as centres for research, education and technology transfers, as well as houses (4,000 new subsidized housing units), facilities (145,000 sqm of land) and garden areas (114,000 sqm). From a neo-liberal standpoint, however, the economic aspect has been over-emphasized as the only basis for urban development, which implies the risks indicated by Hollands: "the 'spatial fix' inevitably means that mobile capital can often 'write its own deals' to come to town, 1
“Málaga Smartcity. Un modelo de gestión energética sostenible para las ciudades del futuro”. http://portalsmartcity.sadiel.es/ 2 “Smart Amsterdam”. http://amsterdamsmartcity.com/#/nl/home
only to move on when it receives a better deal elsewhere. This is no less true for the smart city than it was for the industrial, [or] manufacturing city�(HOLLANDS, 2008, pages 303-320). On the basis of giving priority to economic profit and applied technology, it is logical that only the cities with the highest financial capability are taken into consideration when planning projects and actions to add intelligence to their infrastructures. Nonetheless, urban sprawl (BERRY, 1976, pages 17-30), in the more precise definitions of expolis, metapolis, generic city or dispersed city, have systematically gone beyond the harmonious areas to which smart cities apply, normally in a spontaneous and disorderly fashion. Some authors settle the matter by ignoring the edge city phenomenon, considering it to be undesirable and that "urban sprawl is an enemy of sustainable cities" (VEGARA, DE LAS RIVAS, 2005, page 4). As a solution, they extend the city's scope to include the territory defined in the smart places concept. Yet such definitions do not always manage to distance themselves from the conventional meaning of metropolis: "they are innovative cities that are capable of attaining a balance between economic competitiveness; social cohesion and development; and ecological and cultural sustainability" (VEGARA, DE LAS RIVAS, 2005, page 8). The socio-economic reality of some European centres of development, particularly in the northwestern area (The Netherlands, Belgium and the German North-Rhine-Westphalia lander) have counterbalanced this negative view of sprawl with systems such as the 'polycentric metropolitan area' or 'city-region' (FRANCO, ETXEBARRIA, 2005). 4 SLAM The cultural landscape of the baserri is liable to become a polycentric metropolitan region that is closely linked to medium-sized and small cities that complement them. In fact, there is a hypothetical approach to this (CALZADA, 2011) and it has materialized in the Basque Euro-city of Bayonne-Donostia, which has emerged from the agreements entered into between the crossborder administrations since 1993. Currently, the city includes 42 local entities in an area that covers 50 of the 200 Km that concern us here. Planning the cultural landscape of the baserri and, above all, of the cities that are closely related to them, should not remain in the Manichean and conservative twin notions of 'old and new urban developments' as opposed to 'empty spaces in between' (MUÑIZ, GARC�A Y CALATAYUD, 2002). We should progress from an 'urban approach' to a 'territorial approach' in every aspect, including cities, nature areas, cultural-heritage spaces and the unprotected intermediate spaces that "are the target for the intensive artificialization of Spain and, therefore, of the most invasive and unsustainable territorial changes" (AGUDO, 2007, page 197). Therefore, we need to go beyond the scope of cities and enter the broader area of landscape, which Art. 1.a of the European Convention of 2000 defines as "an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors". Putting what Lynch said more than fifty years ago into context, we could assert that landscape, "among its multiple roles, is also something that must be seen, remembered and cause delight" (LYNCH, 1998, preface). In other words, landscapes are our memory. Not all landscapes can be viewed as memory, however. Some do not manage to "give a feeling of connection with others and contribute to an understanding of the nature of the society we live in and a feeling of identity and place" (THORSBY, 2001, page 43). The potential derived from a common yearning to belong arises from identification with a common project focusing on cultural heritage which, avoiding "exhaustive symbolism, disdaining cultural heterogeneity and the customs and periods to which accumulated assets belong" (CHOAY, 2007, page 222), manage landscape with a global vision adapted to local conditions, from 'glocalization' or dochakuka (from the Japanese term dochaku, 'one who lives in his own land'). Thus, perceived adequate connectivity and lively mobility contribute to the desired comfort in the use of a territory. "Connectivity breathes life into a city" (DUPUY, 1998). In a space with a strong natural element, such as the one made up by the baserri, the connection must not only be fluid but ecologically sustainable. The desired result should be the consolidation of a system we call SLaM (Smart Landscape of Memory). It could be defined as heritage districts generated by a feeling of identification and
belonging, of a high cultural level3, that are the objects of a common management and urban planning project for the physical, social, cultural3, ecological and economic sustainability of the territory and, above all, of its inhabitants. In 2050, 25% of the population will probably be concentrated outside of the big cities, rendering the current model of consumption and operation obsolete. REFERENCES Agudo González, J. 2007.Paisaje y gestión del territorio. InRJUAM, nº15. Berry, B. J.L. 1976.The counterurbanization process: Urban America since 1970. In BERRY, B.J.L. (Ed) Urbanization and Counterurbanization. Beverly Hills. Caragliu, A.Del Bo, C.Nijkamp, P. 2009 Smart cities in Europe. InSerie Research Memoranda 004.Amsterdam. Calzada, I. 2011. ¿Hacia una Ciudad Vasca? Aproximación desde la Innovación Social.Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco (eds).Vitoria- Gasteiz. Choay, F. 2007. Alegoría del patrimonio. Gustavo Gili (eds) .Barcelona. Dupuy, G. 1998. El urbanismo de las redes.Oikos-Tau (eds). Barcelona. Franco, H., Etxebarria, G. 2005. La función del sistema de ciudades en el desarrollo regional. InEkonomiaz nº 58. Hollands, R. G. 2008.Will the real smart city please stand up?.In City12 (3) Lynch, K.1998. La imagen de la ciudad. Gustavo Gili (eds). Barcelona. Mitchell, W. J. 2007. Ciudades Inteligentes. In Lección inaugural del curso 2007-2008 de la UOC. Muñiz, I.García, M. A., Calatayud, D. 2006. Sprawl: definición, causas y efectos. In Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona: 4. Barcelona Throsby, D. 2001. Economía y cultura. In Cambridge University Press (eds). Madrid. Vegara, A., De las Rivas, J. L. 2005.Territorios Inteligentes. In Fundación Metrópoli (eds).
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"The places that are catalogued with the HC (high cultural level) distinction are artistic and cultural areas in which economic, non-economic and institutional stakeholders decide to use certain shared idiosyncratic resources (artistic, cultural, social and ecological) to develop a common project that is economic and, at the same time, a way of life" Luciana Lazzeretti, “El distrito cultural” in Los distritosindustriales, MediterráneoEconómico, nº 13, FundaciónCajamar, 2008