Between Cultures

The city is the shared space for various cultures and therefore the setting for constant shock between the various views of each of the people living there on what the city ought to be like. So, everything urban needs to include not just celebrations and festivals but also peace and quiet. Being able to incorporate every newcomer and each of their histories and tradition, we also need to preserve a sense of shared identity and memory.
The city’s transformation is cultural above all, where we review errors of the past and incorporate new convictions on what is truly essential and what will improve our lives. Transforming the culture of 20th-century cars and proposing a new kind of mobility that is equally efficient is not something that is going to happen immediately and with ease. Reviewing the relationship between what is urban and what is rural in the 21st century is maybe not so obvious; nor is what a diverse and multicultural public space means. Even so, architecture in a city such as Barcelona in the 21st century requires new proposals from us that can help us to understand this complexity and turn it into a space that goes beyond the sum of its parts.