Miguel PAZOS OTÓN , University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Mª Ángeles PIÑEIRO ANTELO, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
The arrival of globalisation in cities accelerated the appreciation of culture as a possible catalyst for urban development. In several cases, new cultural developments are located outside of the European compact city centres, breaking historic processes of continuity. In some cases, local communities contest these projects, especially in the first phases of development.
Here we will present the peculiar case of the City of Culture (CoC), an architectural complex designed by starchitect Peter Eisenman in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. The idea of the project was to create a contemporary replica as a mirror reflection of the historic centre of Santiago de Compostela on top of a peripheral mountain, Gaiás, located 3 kilometres from the city of Santiago de Compostela itself. Although Compostela has traditionally been a compact city, the idea of ??betting on a large-scale cultural facility far from the city broke that historical dynamic, for the sake of developing a new cultural and economic pole.
The complex, which was initially projected to have six buildings underwent several changes since its inception, both in the names of the buildings and in their functionality. Unlike what has happened in other Spanish cities the CoC has not constituted an element of urban transformation, nor has been a central element in local policies. As a result, throughout these decades, different efforts were made to achieve a repositioning in the citizens urban imagery, consequently the functional transformations of the CoC have opened new possibilities that will reveal different urban narratives.
The main objective of this research is to analyse the different urban narratives associated with the CoC with the aim to foresee its possible future functions. At a methodological level, two different qualitative techniques have been combined. Results point out a polyfunctional space that are making more complex its use and planning.
Mots clés : Urban Narratives and Imagery|Santiago de Compostela|City of Culture|Architecture|Functional transformations
A105427LL