- Carlos Alberto Urzúa: A vision of the heritage not only from its aesthetic value, but also from its cultural, historical and social representativeness. Many, including De Portzamparc himself, have said that architects should apologize for having left the legacy of the great postwar housing complexes. This is an aberrant discourse. These complexes were made to accommodate people living in terrible conditions. In the 50s and 60s France had a deficit of millions of homes, and in Paris less than half had heating, water, electricity and indoor bathrooms. By then, 650 thousand homes a year were built to respond to the needs of millions of people. So how can anybody say that architects should regret this! At the time French society could respond to an urgent housing problem, while today we have over one million people in France living in precarious housing and only about 200 thousand homes are built per year. And if we compare the quality of the space, surface areas and natural light, these homes were up to 30% larger than the average home being built today. Currently the costs of land and construction are extremely high, and people cannot buy property or pay rent. To adapt the real estate market to the current economic possibilities for purchase or rental, surface areas have had to be reduced. So the example of Lacaton & Vassal is interesting, because despite all, they have increased the housing surface area and they propose valuable typologies.
demolishing buildings of the postwar period, a sort of denial of those neighborhoods of slabs and towers by replacing them with four to six-story buildings for private housing. In this movement we believe we have to value the works from what they are, relying on the material with which we work, without the logic of a clean slate. The urban fabric of those large complexes has defects, but also great virtues and potential. The defects are less architectural than social, the result of being concentrated in areas with poor public services and amenities, with no jobs, no cultural options, no public transportation, and highly vulnerable populations. Certainly there are buildings with no value that can be demolished, but many of these urban fabrics can be recovered. - CAU: A significant part of the commissions for public architecture in France are resolved through competitions, in an organized and transparent system. The calls for tender are restricted and there appears to be a direct relationship between judged competition and built work. How does the competition system work? Indeed most of the public commissions are based on competitions by invitation, they are not open to all. The first step is to publish the call in an official newspaper, inviting interested parties to send a reference dossier with their projects demonstrating reliability, integrity and financial situation. Four to six teams are selected as candidates - including at least one young office - from all over France and the European Union depending on the commission. Those selected receive the final tender rules and everyone is paid to participate with a premium estimated to cover 80% of the cost that in the case of the winner is an advance on their fees.
Another vision of heritage
- YB: What is the position of the architects regarding public policies for urban development? It is quite varied. Architects like Lacaton & Vassal have gone against the policy of
111
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting