Mediterranean Cities

Background
The Concept
The Program
The Participants
Calendar

Background

During the second half of the 20th century, most Mediterranean cities underwent major exchange phenomena such as immigration and tourism, and also emergency scenarios such as wars or natural catastrophes, those have led and will continue to lead to the destruction of the city’s urban form and hastened in new opportunity constructions. During this period, most cities grew away from the centre in the form of large-scale scattered extensions of housing areas, which misunderstood the modern-movement typologies and urbanism. New ghettos emerged due to a bad relationship with the historical city, lack of public space, low construction quality and non-flexibility in housing typologies.
Common aspects may be found in the specific geographical area, which is complex and diverse, of the Mediterranean sea-shore cities, from North to South and from West to East. These cities are located in a context very different from those in the vast central European or the American continents, for they find themselves on the verge of an intellectual and physical context that is struggling and thinking its urbanism and its way to settle on the territory. We may also point out a specific and common Mediterranean clime that undoubtedly affects most of the form and environment situations that led to the modern-movement principles and basic aspects: a common cultural and historical development. These cities settle in their territory by providing concrete answers to different conditions. These answers merit a specific analysis and deserve to be related to their specific future solutions.
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The Concept

The Mediterranean regions have constituted historically a strategic area of intense exchange, dialogue and conflict between different societies that spatially converge in this basin connecting three continents. This space continues to play a key geopolitical role at a global scale, as in its territories are often negotiated tensions with much larger implications. Today and in the immediate future, the Mediterranean continues to be a critical space.

Mediterranean societies are characterized by the urban civilizations they have built, and these same cities have become in time the anchoring nodes of territories that otherwise have often changed their identities. Mediterranean Cities are therefore one of the most eloquent elements to approach and study the complexities of this region.

From the perspective of architectural and urban research, the study of these cities may provide a useful understanding of the complex of built systems, structures, cultural practices, and institutions. They should also result in an examination of urban and territorial conditions that construct the interconnected system of the Mediterranean regions.

This research program is to work through a series of case studies --a limited number of specific cities and of particular interrogations within them, to be strategically selected. The focus is placed on present-day architectural and urban situations, yet keeping in sight the dense body of references, cultural and historical, embodied in these urban spaces.

The program is articulated in three main activities –a continuous research process developed by several academic institutions, together with a series of annual seminars and in-situ design workshops, organized and supported by a international consortium of architectural and cultural institutions.

The Mediterranean Cities Program was initiated in 2009 by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe with the collaboration of a group of institutions with a distinct interest in the diverse relationships between architecture and present-day culture. These institutions represent different yet complementary approaches to the research, knowledge and dissemination of contemporary productions and discourses in architecture and urban design in the cities and communities of the Mediterranean region.

The Program has initiated a series of annual Research, Seminar and Workshops projects that take place in a different Mediterranean city in each edition. The Seminars and Workshops focus on the theme of architecture and urban design in Mediterranean cities and are to be scheduled each year in a different Mediterranean city. They will debate some major issues regarding the state of architectural and urban design, with a special attention to its social and cultural framework. Each edition will focus primarily on the city hosting the event, yet may be open to larger issues relevant to the entire Mediterranean region.
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The program

The structure of the Program is articulated in 3 different levels with specific goals, provided by interaction platforms: Research, Seminars and Workshops. A later phase contemplates the publication of the results.

Research
It tests some of the topics and prepares some advanced students towards the Workshop and Seminar which will take place at the different university centres. Each Research project involves students and/or faculty from the participating schools. These develop research lines orientated to the comprehension of the Mediterranean city, mainly focused on the analysis of 4 aspects: topography, infrastructures, construction typologies and communication and service infrastructures.

Seminars
Urban and architectural programs that seek to explore the emerging and expanding urban conditions that are transforming the Mediterranean cities and regions. They aim at considering the history and culture of Mediterranean cities as a starting point, to subsequently study their present challenges and future opportunities. The Seminars propose to approach cities as a complex of built systems, structures, cultural practices, and institutions, and they should result in an examination of urban and territorial conditions that construct the interconnected system of the Mediterranean regions.   

Workshops
Conceived as an in situ intensive studio to address some of the themes at the level of the built city. They are organized by several architecture schools from the city hosting the workshop, as well as from the Mediterranean region.
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The Participants

Steering Committee. It is composed by a representative of each of the six participating institutions that lead the Mediterranean Cities Program: Aga Khan Award Foundation, Anna Lindh Foundation, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Fundació Mies van der Rohe and Institut Français de l’Architecture.

Universities Board. The group of universities participating in the program series composes the University Board, responsible for the organization and development of the workshops, under the direction of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation. These universities are: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-Escola d’Arquitectura, Istanbul Bilgi University, Università degli studi di Genova-Facoltà di Architettura, École National Supérieure d’Architecture de Marseille, American University of Beirut and Lebanese American University, and the Aga Khan Program at GSD Harvard University.

Hosting institutions. Each edition of the program requires that one or several institutions in a given city host the different events. One of them could be a university or school to facilitate the development of the architectural workshops.

Network of Research Centers. The Mediterranean Cities Program may engage other universities in this project, that may also contribute and participate in the program.

Advisory Board. It is formed by several individuals distinguished by their professional or academic capacities in relation to Mediterranean cities and their present-day needs. The Board members are Mohsen Mostafavi, Xavier Costa, Stefano Boeri and Eduard Bru.
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Calendar

2010 

Colloquium ‘Coup de Dés’
focusing on architectural works in five Eastern Mediterranean cities.