“From Parque España to Puerto Madero: urban projects and management between Argentine and Spain”

GUILLERMO JAJAMOVICH,

Sao Paulo

Conferencia; http://www.centrodametropole.org.br/ISA2009/assets/papers/11.3.pdf; 2009

Internacional Sociological Association.

The aim of this paper is to analyse various characteristics of the international circulation of urban politics and urban ideas from the point of view of their transcultural applications in the cities of between 1979 and 1999. Only some of the numerous ideas, politics and strategies of the international debate arrived at Buenos and Rosario, and they did so in an unarticulated manner. In this case I take into account some elements of the Spanish discourse around urban projects and urban management. The context of the reception of those ideas requires a review of the disciplinary debate around urban projects and urban managment as well as the political and economical conditions in which they arrive and the public and private actors involved. I look into the presence of the Catalan architect Oriol Bohigas and his project for the Parque España (1979), as he developed it in the midst of a military dictatorship, and was responsible for introducing topics such as criticisms to modern planning from an architectural perspective. Regarded nowadays as the beginning of the recovery of Rosario´s waterfront, this project was thought to be carried out in twelve hectares on the coast of Rosario close to the central area and deactivated of its port uses. Part of the project was finally inaugurated in 1993 after many problems with its funding and the land’s property. I analyze the urban management around the project in light of public and private actors such as the city council of Rosario, the Spanish government, foreign architects and urbanists, local architects and urban managers and federation of Spanish societies, among others. I examine the revitalized industrial area of Puerto Madero , a neglected port land in the heart of Buenos Aires. I focus on the role of the Historic Puerto Madero Corporation (Corporación Antiguo Puerto Madero) as a semi-public entity whose task was to develop a financial, regulatory, and physical plan that would secure the development of the port. Moreover I consider the Catalan project Plan Estrategico de Antiguo Puerto Madero” (Strategic Plan of Puerto Madero - 1989) meant for that area and the local reactions to it such as the opposition of the local Central Society of architects, among other actors. I consider the role of the city council of Buenos Aires and it´s urban planning office as instigators of urban investments in the materialization of Puerto Madero operation. The paper compares Puerto Madero operation with Rosario´s experience of Parque España focusing on some differences and similarities of the role of private and public actors, such as the local city council, the architects associations, the foreings architects and urban managers, the international urban debate, and the private capitals. The analysis is based on national and municipal files, resolutions, decrees, declarations, laws and projects of law, urban projects and plans, architecture and urbanism journals, environmental information, newspapers articles, and interviews to involved.