“Barcelona, proud of its present, seems to have forgotten its origins, with risk of endangering its future. The metropolis of today, is inheriting the industrial world: without the factories, on which is constructed our modernity, not the economic raise, nor the modernism or the capacity to lay the foundations - in secrecy antifrancoist - of a society able to respond to the new challenges on a positive way. Recovering the democracy, the re-use of many manufacturing spaces can contributed decisively to the urban renovation. Nowadays, there is the risk of ending up with a 'tabula rasa' of the industrial landscapes of more interest than the city has left, in damage of their own renovation: the city of knowledge cannot become a banalized city. (...) If Ripoll would be the cradle of the millenarian-Catalunya, than Poblenou has been the cradle and the creation of contemporary Catalunya.
Can Ricart is a key piece of the Barcelonian industrial patrimony of the eight hundred, along with Can Batlló in Urgell street and Can Batlló de la Bordeta. (...) The disappearance of the Can Ricart industry complex, the greatest and oldest that in Poblenou has left, will not only affect the contemporary patrimony of Catalunya, but also means the loss of a decisive opportunity to give positive imput to a semi-industrial district, his complexity and integration in the city, and less understood by the real estate interest. The only belonging is capital in the future evolution of the Barcelona model. Can Ricart-Parc Central, vestibule of the patrimonial axis of Pere IV, halfway between the Glorias and the Forum, is a unique place to try out a new area of centralisation of another urban style, productivity, culture and citizen; a pole of activity and urban life for the city and the his visitors.” From the public letter to the president of the Catalonian Government 'A metropolis without history, a country without identity' by Fňrum de la Ribera del Besňs. April 14, 2005
“Today, neighbors of Poblenou, we return to go out to show our rejection and indignation towards the set of aggressions that are taking against the social weave, the historical patrimony and the identity of our district. The necessary modernization of the city cannot be done against the citizens. The present city-planning policy is very questionable and there is not a true industrial policy neither of cultural patrimony. Financiers, constructors, real estate, with the support of the administrations, are planning our future having exclusively in account their own economic interests, while they ignore the opinion and the necessities of the district and the city.” Out of the Manifest 'Defensem Poblenou, salvem Can Ricart'. April 28, 2005
“Because this new area of concentration as proposed, must also be new in his definition, the incorporating, mixture, activities of different ranks of attraction (local, municipal, metropolitan) and of different types (productive, commercial and services, cultural). We could say that we are speaking about a new center in Poblenou, of the century XXI, a new style of concentration that is made in time, diferent uses and history. Something that is impossible to create, and pretent with artificial comercial centers such as Glorias and Diagonal Mar (neighbors of Can Ricart).
(...) a suspension of any teardown and any rubbish or intervention in the set of Can Ricart is asked for, and to allow the institutions (City council of Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya) a careful study that takes into account the possibility of conciliating different objectives, all maintaining this great set of the century XIX, urban, economic, social and the future cultural capital for Poblenou and as a fundamental element of the industrial patrimony of Barcelona, of Catalunya and Europe.” Out of “Nou Projecte CAN RICART – PARC CENTRAL”, an alternative plan for the site Can Ricart. Translated by Tom
related context
> shrinking cities. "a general pattern of our civilization." 2002 - 2005
> pervasive and locative arts network. january 28, 2005.
> the green into our urban open spaces. "ecological and social diversity of urban landscapes." december 10, 2004
> parc central park. "an emerging urban kitchen." may-september, 2004.
> creative cities: the rise of the creative class. "on the importance of place in the knowledge-driven economy." june 10, 2002.
> sub-cultural urban districts: cities and culture. "overlapping of the geographies of production and consumption." may 29, 2002.
imago
> time, complexity and history
for a new millenium urban space
sonic flow
> can ricart [stream]
can ricart [download]
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