It is one thing, of course, to capitalise on existing (or once- existent) heritage, and quite another to build future or pre- destined heritage anew. In his writings on the preservation of architectural heritage, Rem Koolhaas remarks: ‘through preservation’s ever-increasing ambitions, the time lag between new construction and the imperative to preserve has collapsed from two thousand years to almost nothing. From retrospective, preservation will soon become prospective’. Touristic architecture is an important component of today’s experience economy, in which non-material experiences rather than material goods are marketed. In an age in which consumers have already acquired an excess of material possessions, experiences are a growing focus of economic growth in which travel features prominently. Indeed, even many material goods – especially automobiles – are today marketed as experiences more than products. Before the invention of package holidays and mass-tourism, travel was a much more elite affair limited to the upper classes. It was the labour struggles of the early twentieth century that led to the adoption of weekends and holidays for all to enjoy. Is touristic architecture then a similar democratisation of architecture? It certainly offers up a novel form of architectural consumption; one that is affordable to most: the Barcelona Pavilion can be experienced for merely 8 €, the cost of a regular admission ticket. While touristic architecture erodes some of the elitism and snobbery often associated with architecture, in Barcelona it has contributed to the problem of over-tourism, which puts added strain on infrastructure while transforming the city’s commercial landscape, not to mention causing rents to rise very steeply. Barcelona’s many municipal markets, for example, were once known for selling the freshest foodstuffs, but today many are focused on ready-to-eat foods, a reflection of how businesses have veered toward the more profitable tourism market. The same thing with housing: short-term accommodation is ever more abundant while long-term rentals are in ever shorter supply. The rise in the cost of living has forced working and middle classes to move out of the city, leaving a city centre increasingly devoid of the everyday urban life it once had. It’s not just the private sector that caters to tourists before citizens. Barcelona’s current supposedly socialist city council is hell-bent on expanding the airport and hosting ever-more international events to promote Barcelona as a destination. There is a growing perception that planning decisions respond to the needs of the tourism industry rather than those of the local population. The city’s planning department has even developed a tourism dispersal strategy whereby new touristic architecture projects sited in disadvantaged outlying areas would take pressure off the overcrowded neighbourhoods containing tourist sites. City Council even began to promote visiting peripheral working class neighbourhoods as more authentic urban experiences.
from the top: Forum Building , Herzog & de Meuron, 2004 Media TIC Building , Cloud 9, 2010 Las Arenas Shopping Mall , Richard Rogers & Alonso Balaguer, 2011
all images Rafael Gómez-Moriana
8 on site review 46 :: travel
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