In Defence of Walking

La colección de ensayos del escritor británico Matthew Beaumont, The Walker: On Losing and Finding Yourself in the Modern City , recomendada por el Financial Times como uno de los mejores libros sobre arquitectura publicados este año explora la relación entre el caminar, pensar y escribir. Partiendo de las experiencias de escritores como Dickens, Wells o Woolf reflexiona sobre cómo la transformación de las ciudades y de los vínculos sociales ha cambiado el hecho de caminar sin un propósito. Beaumont reivindica esta práctica ante los imperativos modernos como tener prisa, producir, consumir o estar pendientes del móvil en los espacios públicos cada vez más colonizados por los intereses corporativos.

The Tactical Reconquest of Asphalt

Barcelona, which has been introducing measures to gain public space for pedestrians and bicycles for some years now, has intensified its tactical urbanism activity during the pandemic. These swift, economical projects, some one-off and others more systemic, are not exempt of controversy. El País discusses the background debate on the model of the city.

"Practising the politics of difference in a shared space enriches coexistence"

• Tim Ingold

Interview with Tim Ingold

En la càpsula d’Espais Compartits, Tim Ingold reivindica la presencia física en contactes personals ja que cada vegada ens comuniquem més de manera indirecta, a través dels mitjans digitals.

What is the future of cities faced with heat waves?

Forecasts for 2100 predict that, thanks to climate change, weather conditions will move approximately 6º to the south in relation with geographic zones. This means, according to the article publiched in AOC, that pre-alpine Geneva will have the present climate of Palermo, while Lyon will have the temperatures of Tangiers, with all the changes of flora and fauna entailed and the predictable mass migration of people seeking a better environment in the north. What are the possible answers to this colossal challenge?

The Pandemic, Southern Urbanisms and Collective Life

Gautam Bhan, Teresa Caldeira, Kelly Gillespie and AbdouMaliq Simone

For the majority in cities of the global south, where most urban people in the world live, ‘social distancing’ as prescribed by northern health protocols is just about impossible. In this article Gautam Bhan, Teresa Caldeira, Kelly Gillespie i AbdouMaliq Simone analyse collective life of the urban majority in the massifying cities of the global south where auto-construction, patchwork infrastructure and services, and tacit local economies define the condition of life for the majority. The design of lockdowns, that are impossible to comply in these circumstances, only exacerbate ongoing structural racisms and class and gender inequalities.

Rethinking La Rambla

Some years ago, La Rambla, a much-loved thoroughfare in the centre of Barcelona, ceased to be an everyday space for citizens to become an iconic street of the global metropolis devoted to tourist monoculture. Now, the crisis caused by COVID-19 and the absence of tourists has left it in critical state. How can it be brought back to life, and how can one of Barcelona’s historic and symbolic streets be returned to its citizens? Rethinking La Rambla is the theme of the monographic issue Nº 43 of the “El món demà” (The World Tomorrow) series.