Hey, Planners, Leave the Slums Alone! Fifth Urban Research Symposium

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HEY, PLANNERS, LEAVE THE SLUMS ALONE!

I- Introduction

Public parks and Romanticism stay among the most representative productions of the

XIX century. They seam to evidence a new, more sensitive attitude towards nature. But

is this really something that appeared a couple of centuries ago, for the first time in

history? In order to understand the urban phenomenom, we need to open a very wide

historical perspective and explore it. We will not have a clear image of contemporary

urban regions and their relationship to nature unless we dare to follow the evolution of

the city from its very origins.

II- Nature and cities

1. Patterns across history

Many people would argue that the human attitude towards nature has undergone so

many paths that it is impossible to identify certain patterns across history. What we can

see, they’d say, is progress. Cities in the industrial countries two centuries ago were

polluted, ugly, and they showed little or no sensitivity for nature. A few decades later, in

the second half of the 19th

century, urban parks were one of the most pregnant

components of the same cities.

Image 1- Pugin compares the harmony expressed by many cities during the Middle

Ages and the disruption caused by industrialization.

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Image 2- Paris and Haussmann. Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes: Back to nature?

What Jauzer has explained since 1993, is that it is possible to recognize similar patterns

in the evolution of cities and urban cultures since the prelude of the Neolithic era. He

proposes a Modernometer with five different modernity levels, each one of them related

to specific indicators and attitudes. According to his Theory, people and cultures on

Level 1 show a tendency to innocence and authenticity, they don’t try to impose

themselves upon anyone or anything, they don’t search for conquering or dominating.

Oriental visions like Taoism would perfectly fit into this level. A very nice example of a

human settlement on Modernity Level 1 is provided at the beginning of Gabriel Garcia

Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude:

At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on

the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs.

But as soon as humans reach the next level, arrogance, domination and control emerge.

The main difference between Level 2 and 3 is that the former is brutal and rude, while

the other is guided by rationalism. The principal characters at Modernity Level 2 are

taken by warriors and individual leaders who accumulate power and possessions. Level

3 represents the era of institutions. History of cities, from their foundation to their

optimistic prosperity, can be traced mainly into these two frames, regardless of the

epoch when they exist.

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2. Modern is not recent

A very important contribution of Jauzer’s Theory is his demonstration that some human

creations and cultures were more modern than others that appeared at a more recent

time. The city of Timgad (Thamugadi), founded around AD 100 in the Roman province

of Africa by Emperor Trajan and the 3rd

Augustan Legion (Legio Tertia Augusta), had

a rational, fully modulated grid that was imposed from the plan to the territory in a very

clear, efficient and categorical manner, highlighted by the decumanus maximus and the

cardo, that terminates in the magnificent forum. Temples, basilica, libraries, thermae

and a 3500-seat theater provided the basic ingredients needed by the system in terms of

political and social activities, recreation being one of the most important among them.

Image 3- Timgad: A 2000 year old rational city.

In contrast, most of the european cities that existed one thousand year later were less

modern. They didn’t have an orthogonal plan. Instead, their streets were bent and had an

irregular section along their length, they were not paved and had no drainage systems. It

has just been an almost universal mistake to accept that modern is synonimous with

recent.

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Image 4- Nördlingen: A more recent but less modern city than Timgad.

The official foundation of Nördlingen is refered in AD 898. Under the streets and

buildings of the central area lie the rests of an older city, called Septemiacum, that was

founded by the Romans in AD 85. Again, the rational pattern of the former castrum

shows a higher level of thinking and abstraction than the more recent settlement.

While Level 1 implies a naïve relationship between humans and nature, Levels 2 and 3

exclude it as an undoubted demonstration of human power and supremacy. No matter if

they appeared in Mesopotamia around 2000 BC, in Italy AD 1500, or elsewhere less

than one century ago, these constructs belong to the same spirit, the one that considers

that the city is “a human operation directed against nature“ (Le Corbusier, 1923).

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Image 5- Lo Sposalizio della Vergine. A city at Modernity Level 3: Lo spazzio pubblico

è la Piazza, non il parco.

Among the most characteristic components of primitive cities, walls are of great

importance. A city wall defines the limits between two completely different universes:

the urban and the rural, the first one being far superior than the other. Walls protect the

most important elements of cities: citizens and their precious belongins, which are rare

and created by humans. Vegetation is so abundant and irrelevant that it’s not included

inside the city. Agricultural fields are too large as to surround them with expensive

walls (although this might partially occur at later epochs).

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Image 6- Ur, the root of Urbanism.

3. Hypermodernity and apparent recoveries

Only after a long tradition of urban life will an unavoidable factor of modernity emerge:

Nostalgia, literally, pain and longing for the (missing) nest. This ingredient , refered by

Jauzer as “the dark side of progress”, is always present after Level 1, but it is dimished

or masked by optimism and the sense of gaining power that serve as fuel in Levels 2

and 3.

Nostalgia, fragmentation of rational systems and the crisis of consolidated legitimations

are the typical indicators of Level 4. Society cannot simply trust or be guided by

previous dualistic schemes, were, as the old song (Mann and Weil, 1966) puts it, “the

answers seemed so clear”.

When the world and I were young, Just yesterday. Life was such a simple game,

A child could play. It was easy then to tell right from wrong.

Easy then to tell weak from strong. When a man should stand and fight,

Or just go along. But today there is no day or night

Today there is no dark or light. Today there is no black or white,

Only shades of gray.

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I remember when the answers seemed so clear We had never lived with doubt or tasted fear.

It was easy then to tell truth from lies Selling out from compromise Who to love and who to hate,

The foolish from the wise.

But today there is no day or night Today there is no dark or light. Today there is no black or white,

Only shades of gray.

[instumental interlude] It was easy then to know what was fair

When to keep and when to share. How much to protect your heart

And how much to care.

But today there is no day or night Today there is no dark or light. Today there is no black or white,

Only shades of gray. Only shades of gray.

Vegetation in the city is one of the first evidences that an urban culture has undergone a

process of modernization that, after having excluded it for the sake of efficiency and

overwhelming rationalism, longs for a compensation and thus seems to make an attempt

to balance their existence. This is far from being a renunciation of modernity. On the

contrary, it’s both a nostalgic recovery and a gesture to further legitimate progress.

Societies at Modernity Level 4 tend to be highly complex and contradictory. This is

where Hypermodernity begins.

For levels 2 and 3, urban and rural are like day and night, vegetation and nature

represent a dark, hostile and dangerous reality that must be conquered, while civilization

means a safety environment conducted by enlightenment, where the answers seem so

clear. Cities at Level 4 include many aspects that belonged to the dark, mean and

unworthy context, like insecurity or vegetation.

Babylon probably was the largest city in the world during two periods of its existence:

in the times of Hammurabi (18th

century BC) and under Nebuchadnezzar (around 600

BC). The first stage represents one of the oldest essays towards establishing a system, to

transit from Level 2 to Level 3, even if rationalism was in disadvantage compared to the

influence of gods and warriors. The Code of Hammurabi is a precious testimony of this

process. In a similar way, the new Babylon offered an indicator that civilization had

long existed in the region, and consequently produced one of the earliest nostalgic urban

signs: The Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Babylon is

one of the first examples of a hypermodern city, as early as 2600 years ago.

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Image 7- Babylon: First Hypermodern City?

Image 8- The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: The one and only creation among the seven

wonders of the Ancient World whose essence was vegetation. All that was solid melted

into Earth, Wind and Water (Jauzer, 1995).

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Of course, the gardens of Babylon were not public, and this is a clue element in the

development of modernity: In order to continue and be accepted, it has to become

epidemic. This phenomenon is normally (and absurdly) described as democratization.

The early inhabitants of Rome lived in huts surrounded by large vegetation areas.

Image 9- The very modest origins of Rome.

After eight centuries of modernization, the plebs in Rome were confined to insulae

where as many as 40 people could be accommodated in an area of less than 400 m2.

Image 10- High density: a proud achievement of the Roman leaders.

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Meanwhile, the leaders could escape from the tyranny of urban pressure and flee into

their suburban villae, with plenty of gardens and fountains.

Image 11- Villa Adriana. Low density and vegetation: a proud achievement for the

Roman leaders.

As a sort of compensation, some forums (fora) and many termae inside the metropolis

were provided with trees and gardens that can be considered as a prelude to public

parks. Had the Roman civilization continued, public parks would have made their

appeareance 15 centuries before they did.

Of all the ingredients that help develop modernity, two of them are indispensable:

1. Technology

2. Persuasion

Romans were good engineers but their technology was nevertheless primitive, they kept

on applying old constructive systems derived from Mesopotamia and Grece, they were

not really innovative. And, perhaps even more important, they weren’t able to spread

modernity and convince their Germanic neighbors to join the system. If the Roman

Empire have had television, we all would speak Latin (Jauzer, 1995).

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III- CASE OF STUDY: GUADALAJARA

1. Small beginnings

Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico, with around 5 million inhabitants.The

city was founded in 1542, a time when the Renaissance was spreading its rational

dictates around Europe.

Image 12- The founding of Guadalajara: First attempts.

Grid, modulation and little care for natural elements were the main traces of the

primitive city. The peripheric areas were always left for irrelevant matters, like housing

for the poor and the indigenous workers needed by the Spanish population, composed of

some 100 families.

Image 13- Guadalajara: City map around 1600

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Jauzer always underlines how inaccurate it would be to pretend that a given society fits

completely into one single modernity level. Even Adolf Loos (1908) came close to

understanding this:

I am living, say, in 1912, my neighbour around 1900, and that man

over there in 1880. It is a misfortune for a state if the culture of its inhabitants stretches over too great a time span. The peasant who

farms in the shadow of the Grossglockner lives in the twelfth century. On the occasion of the festival procession to celebrate the Emperor's jubilee we shuddered to learn that here in Austria we still have tribes

from the fourth century.

Not only are societies spread over a wide spectrum of modernity, but this is also valid

for individuals. Spanish conquistadores had one foot in the Renaissance and the other in

the Middle Ages, most of them were far from being rationalists or mathematicians. One

of the main components of the conquista was religion, not excactly a pure rational

system or institution.

Image 14- Fray Juan de Zumarraga

Dualistic thinking, typical of levels 2 and 3, is clearly represented in Guadalajara at the

beginning of the XVII century: the core and its rational grid are oriented according to

the four cardinal points, while the secondary areas follow the natural axis of the small

river, named De San Juan de Dios after a convent placed onthe East bank. Ever since,

people speak of two Guadalajaras: the worthy city to the West and the unworthy to the

East, a dualistic pattern that also appears in many other cities aroun the world, from

Paris to Los Angeles. This is another research topic that is currently being addressed by

the Fundación RAUM.

West and East are but one of many possible dualistic cathegories. Another one is

straight versus tortuous, square versus crooked. The main settlements in Guadalajara

will grow in the Atemajac Valley. Broad valleys are very important for every city in the

New Spain that is developed for administrative purposes (Puebla, Querétaro, Mérida),

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as they allow consecutive expansion of the grid. In contrast, any topographic element is

considered an obstacle, a contaminant of the immaculate rationality that must be

imposed on the territory. We can find a great example of this lovely way of thinking,

about three centuries later:

A curved road is a way for donkeys, while a straight road is a way for

human beings. (Le Corbusier, 1925)

2- Growing old

The XVIII century represents a glorious epoche for the New Spain, similar in many

aspects to the European evolution across the Middle Ages. The Gothic is a fantastic

indicator of modernization and welth in Europe, that culminates a cultural process not

unlike the one experienced by the New Spain some centuries later.

Iberoamerican Baroque is equivalentart to Gothic, if not in formal terms, in its rich and passionate expression of an era that is comming to a decadent and luscious end. (Jarvi, 1996)

Guadalajara had one of its first and most dynamic growths during the XVIII century,

with an expansion towards North that soon met a natural frontier: Belen´s ravine. In the

next century, the city will extend its limits beyond this ravine, that will eventually be

filled, erased and urbanized. Still in 1985, some inhabitants of this area were

complaining and tried to sue the municipality because their houses suffered different

damages associated with weak soil and poor consolidation, part of which took place at a

time so recent as 1960.

Impetuous growth meant getting rid of small geographical irregularities, unworthy when

confronted with the expanding city. Gullies, streams and river beds were eliminated one

by one, the San Juan de Dios River was canalized and buried under a pretemptious

avenue named Calzada Independencia. In the 20th

century, this avenue and the urban

area reached in its northen end the great ravine of Huentitan, that with its depth of 600

meters has remained almost untouched.

Image 15- Guadalajara in 1732

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Image 16- Guadalajara in 1887: The Belen Ravine menaced by the city growth.

3. With a little help from some friends

Today, thousands of families in many different parts of Guadalajara’s metropolitan area

have to deal with floods every year during the rain season. In contrast, floods are almost

nonexistent in urban zones that have been developed by poor people through illegal land

invasions. At the lower economic layer of society, vegetation is normally less abundant

in planified housing projects than in slums, and these conditions are very similar in

many other Latin American cities.

Image 17- Recent floods in Plaza del Sol, Guadalajara.

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This topic implies a research that must be yet generated. As a previous indicator, the

Fundación RAUM has chosen three specific areas that have been developed in the last

50 years in Guadalajara, as they offer an illustrative contrast between planified and

spontaneous settlements:

1- Zona Industrial (industrial area)

2- Plaza del Sol (shopping mall and surrounding housing)

3- Huentitán (housing for low income families)

The first two of them were part of the optimistic city growth that accompained the urban

expansion in the sixties, when Guadalajara attained a population of one million

inhabitants, a fact that was celebrated as an inequivocal sign of progress: the city was

now a true metropole. Both have serious problems with recurrent floods during the rain

season (typically in the Summer months).

The third one begann with illegal invasions of communal land of very little value at that

time, just a residual area between the “real” (worthy) city and the big ravine, a sort of

backyard that was void, irregular, rustic and unworthy. The zone is now consolidated

and fully integrated, floods are not an issue and vegetation is abundant.

Image 18- Guadalajara and the happy sixties: To infinity and beyond!

As modernity increased, some members of the elite “discovered” another type of value

associated with this ravine and its surroundings: aesthetic dramatism. Towards the end

of the sixties, some leading architects of the Universidad de Guadalajara (public)

relocated the Architecture School at the north end of the Calzada Independencia, on the

edge of the ravine.

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Image 19- The north end of Guadalajara. To the right, the Architecture Faculty

inaugurated in 1969.

Today, this area has become famous becaus of two large projects that could modify the

whole silhouette and urban structure of Guadalajara:

1- The Guggenheim Museum

Image 20- Close to the edge.

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2- Puerta Guadalajara, an urban complex of housing, offices, shopping,

entertainment and multiple facilities.

Image 21- A very exclusive new project, yet to be realized.

Both projects praise highly what was unworthy for the tapatíos (inhabitants of

Guadalajara) until very recently: nature.

Image 22- The Huentitan Ravine as the perfect scenery. Will Guadalajara reborn from

the once unworthy and abandonned rustic limits?

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Methods?

Theoretical anarchism is the only acceptable path.

Conclussions?

Concludere means to close, to confine, to limit. Since modernity is an open matter, it

would be unacceptable to close this topic. It shall remain open.

Maybe a couple of questions would help to expand the perspective, instead of closing it.

Are people at a very low modernity level more authentically linked to nature?

Can these people hear and listen to the language of nature in a more comprehensive way

than some planners do?

Should we impose them the route of modernization as the only way to exist?

Is this what we call “progress”?

Is this the best we can do for our communities?

Is this the best for our planet?

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jarvi, M. (1998). “Architecture and Identity”, Fundación RAUM, Guadalajara.

Jarvi, M. (1999). “XX Century Architecture: Achievements, Searches and ”, Fundación

RAUM, Alliance Française, Casa d’Italia, Goethe Institut, Guadalajara.

Jauzer, V. (1993). “Postmodernity?”, ITESO, Guadalajara.

Jauzer, V. (1995). “Everything you always wanted to know about Hypermodernity, but

didn’t know who to ask”, Alliance Française, Guadalajara.

Jauzer, V. (1996). “Guadalajara: From Big Ranch to Hypermodernity”, Universidad de

Guadalajara.

Jauzer, V. (1997). “Hypermodern City”, Siglo Veintiuno, Guadalajara.

Jauzer, V. (2003). “General Theory of Hypermodernity”, LoMo, Guadalajara.

Le Corbusier (1924). “Vers une Architecture”, G. Crès et Cie., Paris.

Le Corbusier (1925). “Urbanisme”, Vincent, Fréal et Cie, Paris.

Loos, A. (1908). “Ornament und Verbrechen”, http://www.neumarkt-

dresden.de/Texte/loos.html

Mann, B., and Weil, C. (1966). “Shades of Gray”

http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/monkees-lyrics/shades-of-gray-lyrics.html

IMAGES

1- http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/pugin_contrasts.jpg

2- http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/Map-of-Paris-During-the-Period-of-the-Grands-

Travaux-by-Baron-Georges-Haussmann-1864-Posters_i1588119_.htm

3- http://robert.portelli.club.fr/historique/timgad.jpg

4-

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HXx0e6I2Kk4/Rkau9pJnGWI/AAAAAAAAAI4/zMprX0Ke

pvs/s1600/20D15602_Noerdlingen.jpg

5- http://www.centroarte.com/images/raffaello/raf7.jpg

6- http://www.crystalinks.com/ur.jpg

7- http://www.uoregon.edu/~klio/im/ane/Babylon%20-%20Stadtansicht%20-

%20Zeichnung.jpg

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8- http://knowledgenews.net/images/7wonders-hanging_gardens_of_babylon.jpg

9- http://www.stevensaylor.com/RomaArcaica.html#Anchor-47857

10- http://www.latinistes.ch/Espace_jeunes/Caesar-IV/insula2.jpg

11- http://www.sitiunesco.it/pix/tivoli/plasticogrande.jpg

12- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-alvara.jpg

13- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1540%20siglo%20XVI%20Adaptación.jpg

14- http://www.adn.es/clipping/ADNIMA20080117_2417/4.jpg

15- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1732%20Adaptación.jpg

16- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1887.jpg

17-

http://www.dk1250.com/thumbnail.php?file=inundacion_plaza_del_sol_582459986.jpg

&size=article_medium

18- http://www.avacorp.com.mx/images/P-1960.jpg

19- Jarvi, 2005

20- http://reticula7.blogspot.es/img/museo.jpg

21-

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0K84/S660/puerta+guadalajara.jpg

22- http://img8.echo.cx/img8/1097/gug19id.jpg