LA RECUPERACIÓN DEL ESPACIO PÚBLICO Y EL OLVIDO DE LO URBANO

Con argumentos de recuperar o rehabilitar los espacios públicos, se han realizado numerosas intervenciones en las plazas de los centros históricos de Latinoamérica. En el caso del Centro Histórico de Cuenca, en Ecuador, entre 2006 y 2016, se efectuaron varios proyectos en plazas y plazoletas del casco antiguo. En este contexto, este artículo es producto de una investigación que tuvo por objeto analizar las prácticas y discursos que han predominado en la gestión del patrimonio cultural en dichos espacios de la ciudad. Para el efecto, se realizó una investigación cualitativa, sustentada en revisión documental, entrevistas a profundidad y análisis del discurso. Como resultado, se desprende que ha predominado un enfoque material del patrimonio, una escasa atención a los usos sociales, politización de los proyectos, ausencia de procesos de participación y una mirada fragmentada de la ciudad. El discurso patrimonial oficial ha olvidado las apropiaciones y las re significaciones en el presente, no ha problematizado la noción de espacio público y, en más de una ocasión, ha estigmatizado los usos sociales. Se concluye que la gestión de los centros históricos requiere incluir miradas inter y transdisciplinarias, repensar el patrimonio como constructo, y direccionarse, más que a la conservación de las plazas per se, al cuidado de lo urbano. Palabras clave: Centro histórico, conservación, espacio público, patrimonio cultural, plazas. AbstractArguments of recovering or rehabilitating public spaces have guided interventions on squares (plazas) throughout the Latin American historic centres. In the case of the Historic Centre of Cuenca, Ecuador, from 2006 to 2016, several projects were carried out in the traditional plazas. In this context, this research aimed to analyze the practices and discourses that have predominated in cultural heritage management and the so-called public spaces of the city. For this purpose, a qualitative research, supported by documentary review, in-depth interviews, and discourse analysis was carried out. As a result, it is clear that a material approach to heritage is predominant, as well as little attention to social uses, the politicization of projects, an absence of participatory processes, and a fragmented approach to the city. The heritage discourse has forgotten the appropriations and resignifications in the present, it has not problematized the notion of public space and, in most cases, it has stigmatized social uses. Conclusions showed that historic places management requires including inter and transdisciplinary studies, rethinking heritage as a construct, and addressing, rather than the conservation of plazas, the care for urban life. Keywords Conservation, Historic centre, cultural heritage, public space, squares.

El refugio cultural festival, graffiti and urban art in the historic centre of puebla in Mexico

The city of Puebla was put on the UNESCO list of Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1987; its history dates back to the sixteenth century allowing for the preservation of various important buildings, such as churches with baroque and neoclassical facades, buildings from the period known as Novo Hispanics, when some of its historic neighbourhoods were founded, including the Barrio el Refugio, hereinafter referred to as BR, where indigenous people employed in the lime manufacture used to live. Since those times, however, the neighbourhood has become a place with bad reputation, “a den of thieves” (Leicht). The traditional, religious commemoration, the “Fiesta Patronal de la Virgen del Refugio,” is the most important celebration in the neighbourhood. In the Church of La Virgen del Refugio, built in the seventeenth century after an inhabitant painted a mural with the image of the virgin, the “mañanitas” are sung with the Mariachi. During the patronal feast, the “El Refugio Cultural Festival” is held with more than a hundred artists taking part and creating about a thousand murals according to the organiser’s estimation. This happens in the city where a project “Puebla Ciudad Mural” was started, as an initiative of the “Colectivo Tomate,” which sought to regenerate the neighbourhood through art, in alliance with the government and private companies. However, these policies are more tourist oriented rather than benefit the neighbourhood. For this reason, the graffiti movement “Festival Cultural el Refugio” is becoming a meeting point for urban artists from Mexico and Puebla, accustomed to taking up public or private space, as they demand space where they can live and express themselves. For ten years the festival has realised more than one thousand pieces of urban art, including Wild Style graffiti, bombs, stickers, stencil, and murals. All this is done under the patronage of the artists themselves, as three hundred of them come from all over the country to take part in every edition of the festival that does not receive any government support or other form of sponsorship.

Analysis of Tram Traffic-Induced Vibration Influence on Earthquake Damaged Buildings

The Zagreb 2020 earthquake severely damaged the historic centre of the city. Most of the damage occurred on historic masonry residential buildings, many of which are situated very close to the tram track. Although traffic-induced vibrations generally do not affect surrounding buildings, they can be harmful to buildings damaged by a previous earthquake. Vibrations could contribute to the further propagation of existing cracks. The effect of vibrations depends on many factors, one of the most important being the distance between the track and the building. The vibrations are highest at the source, and the energy loss occurs due to transfer through the soil to the recipients. The impact of tram-induced vibrations on earthquake-damaged buildings in the city of Zagreb is investigated in this paper. The analysis is conducted on a tramway network scale to identify critical locations by performing continuous monitoring on the tramway network and risk analysis based on the distance of buildings from the track, vibration amplitude at source, and building damage. Further investigation is based on the level of buildings to evaluate the influence of vibrations on actual buildings damaged in the Zagreb earthquake. Based on detailed signal analysis, the vibration characterization is performed, and the influence on damaged masonry buildings is evaluated.

Conan Doyle: Man of Letters, Man About Town

This essay attempts to deduce Conan Doyle’s map of London from the writings of his long career and particularly his autobiography Memories and Adventures (1924). Here we can find a portrait of the layers of late-Victorian London: the historic centre of government, business, and the great institutions of national culture, the old working-class areas that surround it, and the new suburbs sprawling in every direction. In magazine and publishing offices, in West End theatres, in gentlemen’s clubs including the Authors’ Club, and in public and private dining rooms, Conan Doyle participated in the largely masculine business of literature as a highly clubbable man of letters who was also an energetic man about town. He journeyed into and across the city, coming in from the suburbs or up from the country. These journeys were repeated on a global scale as he travelled to foreign health resorts, battlefields in Africa and Europe, or on overseas lecture tours, always returning to the imperial and cultural capital, the centre of gravity of his life and work.

Triggering Active Communities for Cultural Creative Cities: The “Hack the City” Play ReCH Mission in the Salerno Historic Centre (Italy)

According to the current European scenario, cultural, creative, and community-led policies play an increasingly important role in influencing local resources, systems, and infrastructures management and demand a novel approach in governing, financing, and monitoring urban regeneration processes. Therefore, cities become contexts where cultural and creative practices can be implemented, integrating social cohesion principles based on communities, shared values, and collaborative decision-making approaches, with particular attention to enhancing cultural heritage, mainly unused or underutilised. The purpose of this research is to explore how the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor (CCCM) methodological framework, developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, can be integrated at the local scale to assess the impacts of urban regeneration processes in an interactive and dynamic way, through the data emerging from the monitoring of urban regeneration experiences activated with the communities. The paper describes the “Play ReCH (Re-use Cultural Heritage)” approach, that promotes a process of collaboration, gamification, and innovation in cultural heritage reuse, as an opportunity to test how cultural, creative, and community-led urban strategies can support the enhancement of heritage generating enabling environments and culturally vibrant contexts. The Play ReCH approach and the “Hack the City Salerno” mission, activated in the Salerno historic centre (Italy), open the reflection on some relevant issues related to how citizens become makers of cultural and creative cities’ policies, and contribute to evaluating and monitoring their implementation at diverse urban scales. The Play ReCH mission underlines how new evidence suggests declining the CCCM conceptual framework and related urban policies assessment, co-defining suitable community-based indicators.

The abundance of yellow-legged gulls Larus michahellis breeding in the historic centre of Venice, Italy and the initial effects of the new waste collection policy on the population

The yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis has undergone widespread colonization of the urban environment in the recent past. The first urban breeding gulls were recorded in the historical centre of Venice, Italy, in 2000, and by 2005 there were already 24 roof-nesting pairs, with this number increasing significantly over the last decade. In 2016, a new door-to-door garbage collection system was introduced in Venice to prevent the accumulation of rubbish in the streets and limit the trophic resources available for the species. This study provides an up-to-date estimate of the Venice yellow-legged gull urban population using distance sampling method. We also studied the effect of the new waste collection system on the species by comparing the population estimate before (2017) and after (2018) the full implementation of this change and by analysing the trend of individuals collected in the old town by the wildlife recovery service during 2010–2018. Results estimated ca. 430 breeding pairs in June 2018 showing a 36% decrease with respect to 2017. We also found a decrease in the number of 1-year-old birds and pulli collected by the wildlife recovery service starting from 2016, when the policy implementation began. Our data did not show a significant decrease in the overall number of individuals, suggesting that the new policy has a stronger effect on the breeding success of the species than on adult survival. This study emphasizes the importance of preventing rubbish accumulation in the streets as factor for reducing the abundance of urban yellow-legged gulls.

Temporal Variability of Theft Types in the Historic Centre of Porto

Criminology theories imply that time is a relevant variable, especially for the prevention and intervention of criminal occurrences. Thus, the study of criminal temporal patterns has been described as being of great relevance. The present study focuses on describing and exploring the influence of temporal and seasonal variables on the occurrence of different types of theft in the Historic Centre of Porto through the analysis of official records of the Public Security Police. Significant differences were found regarding the time of day and season of occurrence, even though it is not observed for all the types of theft analysed. Overall, theft was more prevalent at night and less frequent during winter, which is congruent with previous literature and the routine activity theory. Being the first case study in Porto city, Portugal, this research may be of extreme importance for both designing prevention and intervention policies in the area, and for inspiring future research on a criminal time analysis.

The Medieval Town of Óbidos (Portugal): Restoration, Reutilisation and Tourism Challenges from 1934 to the Present Day

Heritage conservation and cultural tourism are central features of academic debates, as this relationship has not been always peaceful. This paper seeks to evaluate the correlation between the extensive conservation and restoration of the wall and castle of the medieval town of Óbidos (1930–1950) and the tourism-oriented projects developed since this period. Due to the criticism of several previous studies, one of the primary aims of this research was to assess whether this Portuguese town constitutes a good example of medieval reconstitution, or if it is a fanciful twentieth-century intervention. Another main goal was to establish our position regarding the challenges inherent to the management of this historic centre, especially those concerning current tourism challenges and the preservation of and regard for historical buildings and monuments. By means of a long-term study based on the common history of art methodology (cross-analysis of bibliography, archival research, in situ observation of the heritage and attendance of festivals and events), we were able to make the following contributions to advance the debate: although the earlier interventions in Óbidos abided by strict criteria which merited international praise, the management model of the town as a tourist destination over the last two decades calls for a revaluation, placing greater importance on history, historic and artistic heritage and the identity of the location.