L'Arca International N° 113

July / August 2013

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Europe, a unique museum

 

It is now obvious that the whole of the Europe, at least the European Union, is going through a crisis period that is not just economic. Major industries are increasingly struggling to sell their products, the building market is stagnant if not in recession, the commercial paradise of disposable consumer products has come to an end, and society is ageing and demanding more services and more appropriate consumer goods.

 

The younger generations are struggling to take over from their predecessors, and what is defined as progress is slowing down to allow greater room for conservation in the hope of coming up with solutions that have, perhaps, already been tried and tested in the past. The world of architecture and design is also suffering and those talented young people who should, as has always happened in the past, take over from the “masters” can no longer rely on the support of a growing economy and society that firmly believes that the future will be better.

 

Perhaps, at least in our countries that have ground to a halt demographically and are necessarily ageing in more than just physical terms, we need to acknowledge that the near future will be considerably different from what we expect today. Consumer patterns will change notably and with them the industrial system as a whole, particularly as regards individual transport that will have to be converted.

 

The university system cannot afford to carry on favouring the education of intellectuals to the detriment of science and technology, and builders and architectural designers will have to focus specifically on regenerating the suburbs of almost all our cities. These places were all built hastily, badly and without any kind of democratic guidelines in terms of their environmental and urban quality during the twenty-year period after the war, perhaps deliberately reserving these values for city centres. Downtown areas, which, due to their architectural and historical quality, were actually constructed during previous centuries as cities for everybody, both the rich and poor.

 

These thoughts should encourage us to take advantage of the current situation to immediately take concrete action in terms of growth and development that will really make itself felt in due time. We need to build vast urban areas based on the method of replacing existing constructions with highly industrialised buildings meeting the required standards of design, comfort and energy efficiency that can only be provided by industry. No more new monuments to be conserved for centuries (we certainly already have plenty of those), but rather appropriate structures that can be adjusted over time to the emerging needs of our society.

 

This will also allow us to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Another great market for traditional builders, craftsmen and architects will be provided by the regenerating and restoring of Italy’s and Europe’s immense historical architectural heritage. A heritage which, in terms of both quantity and quality, is unique in the world, which in future will also become an important museum to be discovered and visited by the inhabitants of every other country in the world, because it will be the only “living” museum relic paying testimony to the civilisation that gave birth to the modern global social system. These are, perhaps, just trivial ideas… but not that trivial.

 

Cesare Maria Casati