London Design Museum chief curator and Radical Cities author Justin McGuirk discusses his intervention at the upcoming Valletta 2018 annual conference Sharing the Legacy.

Changes taking place in Malta’s urban landscape over the past years have not come without their fair share of controversy. Issues related to over-development, poor urban planning, rising property prices and a lack of affordable housing have all led to widespread social and environmental concerns. Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture (2014; Verso Books) by author and curator Justin McGuirk unearths instances where these issues were tackled in increasingly creative, political and even occasionally bizarre ways across a number of Latin American cities.

The book’s main intent is to discuss holistically how architecture can impact communities positively in the way that it’s managed. “Because it is precisely the extreme poverty and polarisation of those cities that forced a more experimental approach to architecture and urban politics. I think architecture has a crucial role to play because it defines the kind of communities we create. It’s not just about providing housing, it’s about creating well rounded, well connected communities.”

The concept of ‘socially conscious’ architecture, as Justin McGuirk articulates in his book, has been brought to light recently following the surge in public outcry against a number of large developments across the country. In reaction to such matters, when discussed with the author, he positions “activist architects” as “key connectors between communities themselves and the authorities who are in a position to help […]What [I] observed in Latin America is that architects can be the lynchpin between community energies and top-down support and strategic planning.”

What this implies is that architects need to be aware of the environmental and social impacts of their work and in doing so they need to consider it their duty to find a compromise between the authorities and their demands, and the well-being and needs of the communities and citizens at the heart of their work.

McGuirk believes that this shift in approach to architectural and urban design contributes directly not only to the quality of the urban spaces which people inhabit, but also to their behaviour and attitudes towards their community. He claims: “If you look at a city like Medellin (Colombia), you can see that architecture played a key role in shaping behaviour and attitudes.

Building new public spaces and a series of new schools and libraries was an integral part of the healing process in a city that was recovering from the drug wars of the 1990s. Putting a beautiful library in the poorest barrio transforms those citizens’ sense of self-worth and their ambitions for their children […] Architecture was a piece of a broader educational strategy”.

The issue of public space is particularly pertinent to Malta, especially in light of the changes that took place in Valletta

Although McGuirk is reluctant to draw parallels between cities in Latin America and those in Europe, especially small cities such as Valletta, he argues that “urban inequality and polarisation are on the rise in Europe”, and there are key lessons that can be learnt from the Latin American experience.

“One of those lessons is in creating connections between segregated communities. Public space can be an important way of breaking down perceived barriers (social or psychological) between, say, a poor community and a wealthy one. We need to create hinge spaces and gateways, conduits and bridges, spaces where these citizens can encounter each other in daily life.”

The issue of public space is particularly pertinent to Malta, especially in light of the changes that took place in Valletta since its nomination as European Capital of Culture.  Over the past years the city has seen an increase in publicly-accessible spaces and squares, although this has also been accompanied by a rise in commercial outlets occupying public space.

Nonetheless, these public spaces have the potential to serve as crucial meeting points for not only Valletta residents, but also the many people who visit the city on a daily basis.

“The main question for me these days is how one can arrive at other forms of city-making that are not entirely market led.” McGuirk argues that “market-driven urban policies will always push out the poor in favour of the wealthy”. While he strongly supports more government intervention and social housing policies, he feels that “governments are less reliable on that front these days”. He admits to being “very curious about urban initiatives that support the creation of a commons – whether it’s a public space, a park or a market. The commons seems to me – at least in theory – a way out of the dialectic between public or private. Instead it is co-created and co-managed […] I think cooperative and commons-based projects need a great deal more support and experimentation”.

The concept of urban commons is heavily dependent on the self-organisation of communities and their ability to come together in collaboratively managing an urban space. One of the most prominent examples presented in Radical Cities is the Torre David phenomenon.

“This was a situation where millions of people were living in slums on the periphery of Caracas (Venezuela) and there was this big empty skyscraper right in the centre of town.” The citizens took over the tower and organised their own community within its walls. McGuirk asks: “In such a case is squatting a viable strategy?” and answers promptly that in his opinion it is, “but the interesting thing would be in how the citizens engaged in the squatting self-organise, how they create a community, how they establish a system of rules and values. If it’s just every man for himself then it gets messy. The residents of Torre David despite their numerous problems, were quite well organised.”

Justin McGuirk is a keynote speaker at the fifth annual Valletta 2018 conference Sharing the Legacy where he will be revisiting Radical Cities and reflecting upon the legacy of the innovative architectural and urban interventions and whether they hailed a new approach to dealing with urban inequality or were merely a brief hiatus in the usual approach to urban planning.

Sharing the Legacy will be taking place at Fort St  Elmo between October 24 and 26. For the full programme and registration visit conference.valletta2018.org. Or for more information contact the organisers on conferences@valletta2018.org.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.