20001207Harvard professor praises Pamplona's periphery

"The expansion of cities into the periphery is one of the problems affecting most European cities, but Pamplona is, of the cities I know, where this phenomenon seems to be more controlled," said Gonzalo Byrne, a Portuguese architect who teaches at Harvard University (USA), during his visit to the University of Navarra where he gave a lecture lecture.

"Pamplona has managed to delimit its urban edges very well," he said. The capital of Navarre is already "integrated in a metropolitan area that constitutes a system of small concentration in its surroundings, but it is not the homogeneous dispersion that characterizes European cities".

Byrne pointed out that "architects have a lot to say on this issue, but they face great difficulties in tackling this problem because the dispersed city is seen as an anomalous status by not following the rules of the traditional city, based on neighborhood and proximity of people."

The Harvard University professor commented that "the peripheries have been filled in a dispersed and diffuse way at the same time that in some cities the centers were also emptied in a dispersed and diffuse way. agreement Today it is thought that the buildings in the center of the cities should be recycled, and I agree with this, but the periphery should also be recycled".

The architect works with subject that he does not own.

Regarding the orientation of the new architecture, Gonzalo Byrne pointed out that "nothing walks in just one direction; the modern movement thought that we had to walk in one direction in order to save the world, but this has changed: what does seem important to me is that the architect must go deeper into what he is proposing as project, but not to praise himself; the architect always works with subject which is not his property. The city belongs to the people who inhabit it and, in this sense, the ethical dimension in architecture seems fundamental to me".

The Portuguese architect stressed that "Spain is, in a very global way and compared to what happens in other European countries, where professional quality in the practice of architecture leaves a more visible mark. Moreover, Spanish architects are among the best in the world".