Rossitza Kotelova_Research Book

OBSERVE | CHANGEthe countryside & declining monoculture societies

Rossitza D. Kotelova

Harvard Graduate School of Design • QUery On Inc.

CONTENTS

Table of Content AcknowledgementsIntroduction Tobacco Bulgaria EAFRD

Inspiration Rem Koolhaas on the Countryside Urban-Think Tank Innovator’s Practice Winchcombe, England The Quilts of Gee’s Bend Potteries Thinkbelt Laufen Manifesto

Site Analysis Gotse Delchev Region, Blagoevgrad The Rhodope Mountain-Dwellers

Literature Review The New Rural Paradigm The Gutenberg Galaxy Switzerland: An Urban Portrait Implosions/Explosions Industrial Policy and Development

Concluding RemarksPhoto CollectionThesis StatementBibliography

Table of Content Acknowledgements Introduction Tobacco Bulgaria EAFRD

Inspiration Rem Koolhaas on the Countryside Urban-Think Tank Innovator’s Practice Winchcombe, England The Quilts of Gee’s Bend Potteries Thinkbelt Laufen Manifesto

Site Analysis Gotse Delchev Region, Blagoevgrad The Rhodope Mountain-Dwellers

Literature Review The New Rural Paradigm The Gutenberg Galaxy Switzerland: An Urban Portrait Implosions/Explosions Industrial Policy and Development

Concluding RemarksPhoto CollectionThesis StatementBibliography

CONTENTS

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I would like to thank a number of people for their advice and support. First and foremost, Mark S. Thompson and Nicolas Jofre from QUery On Inc. (QUOI) for their continuous support and sponsorship of this research from its very initial conception. Their belief in what I was doing encouraged an in-depth process of discovery that I doubt I could have achieved on my own. In particular, I thank Carles Muro from the Harvard GSD for agreeing to be my thesis advisor and providing amazing inspiration, unfiltered criticism, and constant and continuous support in the transition from research to design. I thank Mack Scogin and Neil Brenner from the Harvard GSD for their incredible willingness to meet with me and provide additional perspectives to bounce ideas off of.

I also warmly thank Richard Wakeford from Winchcombe, England for providing tremendously valuable advice on rural strategy and numerous other resources. I particularly would like to thank Richard for his willingness to meet with me and for taking me on the insightful tour of the beautiful Winchcombe. I also thank Stephan Petermann from OMA and Alfredo Brillembourg from Urban-Think Tank for their indispensable feedback on my research in its early stages.

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I would also like to thank a number of people from Bulgaria who have guide my research and provided invaluable resources. Zyulkera Arifova for her continuous encouragement and enthusias. Yulian Shishmanov for sharing an incredible amount of information with me that I probably would not have been able to source without him. Arben Mimenov, Emin Kumbarov, Ilhan Karagyozov, and Rumen Orachev for their willingness to meet with me and tell me about all the work they are doing from a political standpoint to improve conditions in the Gotse Delchev region. Martin Kostenarov for the tour of a number of his projects. Ibish Ibishev, Ayrola Amzov, and Hyusein Ibishev for their kind willingness to be my guides in my field explorations.

I would specially like to thank my dad, Dimitre Kotelov, for being my personal encyclopedia on all things Bulgaria. I also thank my mom, Irina Kotelova, my sisters, Mel Kotelova and Gergana Kotelova, and Patrick Smith for their tireless and amazing support throughout this adventure.

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Monocultures have been destroying the Earth by creating unfavorable environments for diverse ecosystems. The Earth’s soil is depleting at more than 13 percent the rate it can be replaced. We have lost about 75 percent of the world’s crop varieties over the last century. Insects essential to our food security are dying, particularly the bee colonies and butterflies. Bees pollinate about 130 different crops in the U.S. alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts. In addition to the environmental damages, market demand for monocultures drastically affect economic conditions of numerous communities around the world that partake primarily in monoculture production. The term has also evolved to include economic monocultures: manufacturing of a single product in large quantities to achieve economies of scale. Such products could include coal mining and refining, oil mining and refining, apparel production, automobile production, and so on. This paper, however, focuses on tobacco production as a monoculture which has had dramatic effects on entire regions that have been involved in its production. Virginia in the United States, as an example, grew and processed tobacco for over three centuries but today, you can find only traces of the leaf empire that once was. Several regions in Bulgaria, however, are still trying to hold on to the leaf that has supported their cultures for the past six decades.

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Photo by Rocco Rorandelli

The leaf guided the mountain seasons. As the villages bloomed in the spring, the garden of each house was lined with stretched lanes of clear plastic. The plastic was taut on semicircular-shaped metal rods, buried in the thawing soil for tension. Each seedbed had its personal greenhouse and underneath the plastic grew the crisp, humid smell of a new season. In the summer, the seedlings were transferred to neat rows of staked, equally spaced holes, tracing the curves of the hills outside the villages. Each small plot of land was measured in decares and tended by individual families. The summer harvesting, though, was no individual process. The village clusters woke together before sunrise and headed to the fields in waves of motorcycles followed by mules. Summer days had two distinct parts: picking leafs before the heat and stringing leafs post-heat. While picking the harvest was generally a young adult task, the entire family did their share in the stringing -- mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and children alike. Harvesting proceeded late into the fall with timing largely dependent on the amount of leaf a family had planted. The winter months were bundled in the dried leaf. It brought the snow and ignited the wood-burning stoves. It made its way into

TOBACCO

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1. Goodman, Jordan. Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005.

every home, where the leaf was stacked into neat hands that were then combined into bundles. When the leaf left, dust lingered between floorboards and underneath fingernails for weeks. Unforgettable yet, the wintry cedar-cigar aroma resides in my memory to this day.

The history of tobacco is fascinating. While my memories of tobacco begin in Bulgaria sometime in the early 1990s, tobacco was first cultivated in the Americas dating back to 1400–1000 B.C.1 Tobacco was introduced to Europe and subsequently to the rest of the world following the arrival of the Europeans to the Americas in the early 16th century AD. Historians credit the plant with being a primary reason for colonization in the Americas and an instigator leading to African slave labor. Jamestown, Virginia was the first settlement to successfully raise tobacco and export it to England. In 1616, Jamestown was producing 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) of tobacco. Once the first black slaves were imported in 1619, the tobacco production in Jamestown shot to 119,000 pounds (54,000 kg) by 1620. Unsurprisingly, the plant was commonly referred to as “brown gold.” In his book My Lady Nicotine” A Study in Smoke, J.M. Barrie wrote that, “with the introduction of tobacco England woke up from a long sleep. Suddenly a new zest had been given to life. The glory of existence became a thing to speak

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2. Wikepedia article on Tobacco Production, source Taxbook.

3. Edward Eigen, Log, No. 9 (Winter/Spring 2007),”[F]rom so simple a beginning... “

of. Men who had hitherto only concerned themselves with the narrow things of home put a pipe into their mouths and became philosophers.”2 The United States continued to benefit from tobacco production late into the 20th century. Data collected from Internal Revenue Service between 1879-1880 show tobacco tax receipts amounting to $38.9 million in comparison to a total of $116.8 million.2

On September 4, 1880, the Cigarette Machine was patented by James A. Bonsack. The Cigarette Machine “not only delivered a perfectly rolled smoke, but also did so at a rate to replace the work of 48 hand rollers.”3 The industrialization of the cigarette production became the American Tobacco Company which led to a the revolutionization of the cigarette business. “The cigarette was something of a symbol of a new age wherein the culminating industrial revolution merged with the advancing mechanical civilization. Only the cigarette provided the need for a transient, pleasurable nervene in an age of great activity and among people who had grown impatient with the past.”3 Thereafter, the cigarette enjoyed VIP access to every cafe, every lounge, every club, and even every home for over a century.

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Anti-smoking ad, 1905.Photo derived from Photohound (talk) Smoking Dangers - 1905

In the mid 1990’s, the tobacco industry in the United States began to suffer greatly due to several successful lawsuits issued by U.S. states. The lawsuits claimed that cigarette companies knew that tobacco causes cancer and purposefully understated the dangers of their products which led to illness and death to many of the their citizens. On May 11, 2004, the U.S. signed the World Health Organization’s Global Treaty on Tobacco Control, placing broad restrictions on the sale, advertising, shipment, and taxation of tobacco products. The Global Treaty on Tobacco Control had the greatest impact on transforming public spaces in the U.S. in regards to smoking. That dim, cloudy aura that had lived comfortably in restaurants, bars, cafes and offices for over a century was all of a sudden banished. The decline of tobacco was thereafter inevitable. The smoke that was once associated with class, philosophy, western modernity, coolness and even sexappeal has become an outcast, a contagious disease that everyone looks down upon, that doesn’t belong anywhere except for the backstreet allies where the rats roam.

Anti-smoking campaigns have also played a major role in the decline of cigarette smoking in the United States and around the world. The first anti-smoking ad was actually ran in 1905, with an image of a skull smoking and stating “Wisconsin, Nebraska and Indiana will make it a misdemeanor to sell cigarettes or to have them in one’s possession. Let every other state do likewise.” In the late 1990’s and 2000’s in particular, anti-smoking campaigns

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Anti-smoking campaign ad by the truth.com

have become much more elaborate and visually powerful, portraying the effects of smoking through real people examples. The FDA states that, “Every day in the United States, more than 3,200 youth under age 18 smoke their first cigarette —and more than 700 youth under age 18 become daily smokers—highlighting a critical need for stronger, targeted youth tobacco prevention efforts.”4 The FDA launched their first youth targeted anti-smoking campaign in 2014, following the lead of the American Legacy Foundation with TheTruth.com, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Foundation for a Smokefree America, to name a few. The combination of the Global Treaty on

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4. FDA website.

Tobacco Control and the Anti-Smoking campaigns have transformed U.S. public spaces into smoke free zones and continue to encourage people to “kick the habit.” As a non-smoker living in the United States, it appears as though cigarettes and tobacco are actually disappearing. Across the Atlantic, however, is a completely different story. Most of Europe is still a heavy smoker and Bulgaria is leading in the frontline.

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5. Mary Neuburger, Bal-kan Smoke, 1-10.

BULGARIA

Bulgarian tobacco story is in fact tightly interconnected with the history of Bulgarian modernization, as well as the “Muslim question” of late 20th century Bulgaria. In her book Balkan Smoke: Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria, Mary Neuburger depicts a detailed account of tobacco’s role in politics, economics, culture and ultimately the modernization of Bulgaria.5 Neuburger describes the cafes during Ottoman times filled with smoke, elite Turks, and Bulgarian writers. The cafe culture was brought from Turkey. Even though coffee shops are now considered part of western culture, they were adapted from the east. The cafes taught Bulgarians to drink coffee, smoke and ponder about life. The smoke filled spaces became the places to see and be seen within the elite class. The cafes and cigarette culture nurtured some of Bulgaria’s most influential writers, housed the uprising that eventually brought down the Ottoman Empire and provided the space for communism to unravel in Bulgaria.

Tobacco has been grown on Bulgaria’s soils since the seventeenth century, when it was first brought to the Old World from the Americas. The plant underwent a variety

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6. Mary Neuburger, Balkan Smoke, 5.

Photo from the Regional State Archive in Plovdiv. Camels with tobacco bales on their backs, circa 1914.

of transformations on the Balkans, the core province of the Ottoman Empire at the time, leading to a subgenus of “Oriental tobacco.” The American varieties tended to be higher in nicotine but significantly less flavorful than the Oriental, giving both types a place in the nineteenth and twentieth century global marketplace. “Capitalism in Bulgaria smells like tobacco,”6 claimed the Soviet author Ilya Ehrenburg. The tobacco industry had a presence in Bulgaria during the Ottoman days but demand for the product increased after World War I and especially during World War II. Troops had acquired a taste for “Bulgarian gold” as cigarette rations were distributed during the war period while emancipated women began to smoke

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Photo from the Regional State Archive in Plovdiv. A kafene and biraria (beer hall) with all male clientele.

as a symbol of equality. The tightly interwoven tobacco trade with Germany even drew Bulgaria into World War II on the side of the Axis despite Bulgarian public protests against the Nazi regime. In the fall of 1944, as the Red Army settled in Bulgaria after the war and the Communist Party took power, tobacco-filled “trains that had once headed northwest were redirected eastward as the Soviet Bloc became an all-but-captive market for Bulgaria’s most valuable export.”7 In the late 1960s and 1970s, Slavic Christians migrated from the rural areas of the Rhodope Mountains to the urban centers, leaving the Bulgarian Muslims to fulfill the continually increasing quotas for tobacco export to the Soviet Bloc. While

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8. Mary Neuburger, Balkan Smoke.

Map - The Distribution of Turks and Pomaks in Postwar Bulgaria.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Slavic Christians migrated from the rural areas of the Rhodope

Mountains to the urban centers, leaving the Bulgarian Muslims to fulfi l l the continually increasing quotas for tobacco export to the

Soviet Bloc.8

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the Communist Party was attempting to integrate this population into a “homogeneous and loyal labor force,”9 the Muslim minority chose to stay in the mountainous regions in an effort to protect themselves from that very integration. The tobacco industry and more importantly the economy of the Bulgarian nation became increasingly dependent on the Muslim growers in meeting their tobacco production quotas, resulting in numerous compromises made by the socialist state in the integration process. In the 1950’s, the socialist state attempted to collectivize agriculture production but was unable to do so in the Muslim mountain districts where most tobacco was grown. Village-based cooperative farms were created, termed under a family accord rubric that allowed the Muslims to keep ownership of small scale family farms and draw resources from a village cooperative center. This agreement protected and isolated the Bulgarian Muslims from the socialist movement and allowed them to preserve their culture.

Tobacco thrives in the Blagoevgrad Province due to the region’s sandy, alkaline soils.9 The Gotse Delchev region occupies the southeast area of the Blagoevgrad Province, landlocked and isolated from the rest of Bulgaria between the southwestern range of the Rhodope Mountains on the east, the Pirin Mountains to the west, Rila Mountains

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10. Wikipedia on Bulgar-ian Muslims

11. Mary Neuburger, Balkan Smoke, 200-201.

to the North and the Greek border to the South. The region is mainly populated with Bulgaria’s Muslim minority, referred to as the Pomaks. The Bulgarian Muslim population accounts for 127,350 people of Bulgaria’s total population of 7,265,115. About 50% of the Bulgarian Muslims, or 62,431 people, live in the Blagoevgrad Province.10 In many ways this region is “behind” the urbanized areas of greater Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Muslims have managed to resist western modernization and have preserved their culture, clothing and even Islamic name system. As a result, however, the region has been neglected by the Bulgarian Parliament and the Muslim people have been left behind to live peasant-like lifestyles to this day. The main source of income for this population is family-run tobacco farming.

Between 1966 and 1988, Bulgaria was the largest exporter of cigarettes in the world, exporting roughly 80 percent of production. The Soviet Bloc was Bulgaria’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 90 percent of the tobacco industry’s cigarette exports.11 The Iron Curtain played a major role in protecting Bulgaria’s tobacco markets from the West thus placing Bulgaria in a position of global leadership. At the same time, the industry was able to reach out to the West for technologies, resources and business models. This combination was particularly

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Photo by Erolish

In Bulgaria tobacco is king. Between 1966 and 1988 during

the Soviet era, Bulgaria was the largest exporter of cigarettes or

“Bulgarian gold” in the world11

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AGRICULTURE

Bulgaria

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12. Bulgarian AgricultureRealities and Opportunities by Mrs. Slavova. Brussels, October 2012

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In 2010, tobacco production contributed 20% to the value

of agricultural goods and involved about 10% of the active

population in i ts cult ivation12

AGRICULTURE

Gotse Delchev Region

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important to Bulgaria’s success in the tobacco industry.13

The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 marked the first year that Bulgaria was not able to fulfill its quota and did not make the top of the tobacco export list, resulting in a trickling effect leading to Bulgaria’s economic crash between 1996 and 1997 and the continuous decline of Bulgaria’s tobacco industry since.14 The Muslim population living in the Rhodope Mountains continue to grow tobacco as their main source of income to this day. The resources, subsidies and other incentives, however, have decreased exponentially since the 1980s and the price of tobacco is continuously dropping. In the past year, demonstrations such as burning tobacco in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia have brought together Bulgarian tobacco growers from all over the country in an effort to protest the absurdly low tobacco prices. The EU has even gone as far as voting on discontinuing subsidies for tobacco farming because funding the tobacco industry is counterintuitive to the increasing resources being poured into anti-smoking campaigns. In other words, there is more effort being placed into eliminating the tobacco industry in Europe as opposed to supporting it.

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Photo depicts a Greek tobacco trading company which travels to villages to buy out tobacco from farmers.

The cigarette industry is dying. Tobacco harvest collected from the 2014 season in Bulgaria is currently being traded for 3 leva (BGN) per kilogram, equivalent to $1.82 USD. That’s equivalent to a 5,000 BGNyearly income, compared to the Bulgarian salary average at 10,000 BGN. The question to consider is what is happening to rural regions that have supported themselves solely on the tobacco industry for decades? How does a society transition from one type of economy to another without destroying the cultural dynamics that the industry has preserved, enhanced and even created having been part of that community for decades?

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Photo depicts dry tobacco bailes and farmers waiting to sell their crop to the buyer company.

Tobacco harvest collectedfrom the 2014 season in Bulgaria

is currently being traded for 3 leva (BGN) per ki logram, equivalent to $1.82 (USD).

That ’s equivalent to a 5,0 0 0 BGNyearly income, compared to the

Bulgarian salary average at10,0 0 0 BGN

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Photo depicts Martin Kostenarov’s Guest House project in Leshten

In the summer of 2013, I visited my family in Tuhovishta, Bulgaria. During my visit I met with Martin, the son of a family friend who is practicing architecture in Gotse Delchev, the nearest city to my hometown. He drove up to the village center to pick up Zyulkera and me for a tour of his built projects. Zyulkera is my childhood friend. She graduated with a degree in Public Administration from the Sofia University and returned to the village to work for the Mayor’s office in hopes of improving the living conditions in our hometown. Zyulkera insisted that I needed to meet Martin because at the age of 24 he had built a successful practice using funding from European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). EAFRD is a fund housed under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Commision that finances the EU’s contribution to rural development programs. At the time, she was working with Martin on one of her own projects and applying for EAFRD funding.

Martin drove 45 kilometers on a narrow, winding mountain road to our first destination in Leshten, awarded the title of Eco Village Leshten in an initiative

EAFRD

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Photo depicts Martin Kostenarov’s Hotel Complex project in Leshten

to attract Eco Tourism to the historic village. Martin had three projects in Leshten for three different clients. Given that Leshten’s recorded population is 11 people, the three projects are relatively significant. Two were recently completed, both small scale guest houses emulating the historic Bulgarian house aesthetic. The third was under construction, a medium scale hotel complex with three separate structures and a pool. All three projects are on hillside sites with gorgeous mountain views and were all funded through EAFRD. Though the village is actively trying to attract tourism, at this time the amount of activity is not significant enough for full occupancy of all three projects.

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Photo depicts Martin Kostenarov’s private guest house in Hotel Complex near Ognyanovo.

Our next stop was just outside Ognyanovo, a village with an abundance of natural hot water springs that were transformed into a bath and spa complex. The baths are one of the main attractions in the region: populations from all surrounding villages and the nearest city, Gotse Delchev, visit the baths at least once a year. Martin had another set of projects in the area, again programmed as hotels and funded by EAFRD. The first one was located at the entry to the bath complex, designed in a modern style but using local materials to relate to the regional vernacular architecture. The second was just outside the village, a two structure complex designed to emulate the historic Bulgarian house. Landscaping was a big part of these projects, as fountains and picnic tables were planned for the guests and local community. Both projects were nearing completion, leaving mainly interior finishes to be applied.

Seeing the projects in their context gave rise to the thought that maybe EAFRD funding was not used to its fullest potential. That particular area around Ognyanovo does attract more tourism than any of the other villages in the Southern Rhodope region, but most of the visitors come from the surrounding region for a spa day and return home in the evening. The demand did not exist as of yet for the number of constructed and planned hotel

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Photo depicts a rammed earth construction Eco Villa in Leshten.

structures in the area. Ognyanovo certainly did not need any more hotels. This observation surfaced the thought that EAFRD funding could potentially be directed towards economic reform on a regional scale, reform which the Gotse Delchev region so desperately needs.

In an effort to alleviate the dire situation in agricultural villages, a large number of the population from the Rhodope Mountains, predominantly men, have become seasonal immigrants to Greece, Spain, England, Finland, and Germany, to name a few. They leave their families behind for months at a time to work in various farms around Europe, living in unbearable conditions in order to save the money they make and send it back to their families in Bulgaria. While these situations may appear as an opportunity to settle in a more economically stable place, they are unsustainable for a number of reasons. Some of the most important cultural aspects for these societies are family and community which are damaged by seasonal immigration, families are separated leaving mainly the elderly and children behind to tend after the villages. While the immigrants live in miserable conditions abroad, the host countries object to the invasion of immigrants from Eastern Europe who are draining their resources and taking capital out of their countries instead of circulating it within.

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Infographic by EIP-AGRI Service Point, Innovation Support Services, March 2014.

More productive solutions to questions of industry transitions can be addressed using funding from organizations such as the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD). The effects of economic instability within a single Member States can be felt throughout the European Union as a whole, providing incentive for such organizations to take action on initiating improvements that will benefit people on an international scale. Currently, over half of the population of the EU’s 25 Member States live in rural areas, accounting for 90 percent of the territory. Rural Development (RD) has become a priority in overall EU policies since “The European Conference on Rural

Infographici

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15. The Cork Declaration - A living countryside

16. EU Rural Development Policy 2007-2013, 4.

Development” in Cork, Ireland in November 1996. “The Cork Declaration - A Living Countryside” was agreed upon at the conference, setting the stance of the European Union on RD for years to come.15 In 2003 during the Salzburg Conference, three core objectives set under EAFRD that drive RD policy today are “increasing the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, supporting land management and enhancing the environment, and enhancing the quality of life in rural areas and promoting diversification of economic activities.”16 In addition, the 2003 Salzburg Conference narrowed down a list of areas that needed particular consideration in RD policy. In addition to agriculture

Infographici

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17. EU Rural Develop-ment Policy 2007-2013, 6-7.

and forestry, and food quality and safety, a number of areas should be given more specific attention. Wider rural world addresses the concern that agriculture can no longer be the sole economic sector in rural regions. Diversification is crucial in creating viable and sustainable communities. Poor access to public services reduces development potential, inhibits employment opportunities, and needs to be addressed in order to create desirable living communities.17 Stakeholder participation is also particularly important as participants with an active interest are more likely to ensure economic and environmental sustainability of devised policies. More importantly, bottom-up local participation is crucial since no one understands the existing conditions and potential needs of a particular region better than the local community.

Regulations under the European Network for Rural Development take on a strategic approach that provides a menu of measures from which Member States can choose and for which they can receive Community financial support within the context of integrated rural development. A thematic axis corresponds to each core objective commonly agreed upon and formalized at the 2003 Salzburg Conference: Axis 1 - Competitiveness, Axis 2 - Environment and Land Management, and

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Axis 3 - Economic Diversity and Quality of life. The three thematic Axes are also complemented by the LEADER Axis, a methodological axis dedicated to the LEADER approach. Axis 1 addresses the core objective of improving competitiveness of the agriculture and forestry sector. Economic performance is a key measure within this axis, focusing on reducing production costs, increasing the economic size of holdings, and promoting innovation and market orientation. Axis 2 focuses on improving the environment and the countryside. Environmental sustainability is the driving measure in this axis, promoting delivery of environmental services by agri-environment measures in rural areas and preserving land management. The main actors of rural regions, farmers and foresters, are targeted and encouraged to preserve the natural landscapes and enhance natural space. Axis 3 measures address quality of life in rural areas and diversification of rural economy. Creating a “living countryside” is the main objective of this axis, attempting to strengthen the social and economic fabric of remote areas facing depopulation. The Leader Axis is designed for supporting long-term development initiatives by rural actors in a community. It aims to encourage high-quality, original and innovative strategies for long-term sustainable rural development initiated by broad-based local partnerships called Local Action Groups (LAGs). In

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18. EU Rural Develop-ment Policy 2007-2013, 10-16.

order to qualify for Leader Axis funding, at least two of the thematic Axes measures need to be met.18

The numerous reports written by the European Network for Rural Development, describing the admirational intentions of the organization to improve economic, social, and living conditions of rural regions are extremely respectable. Unfortunately, areas facing economic despair and depopulation such as the Bulgarian Muslim populated villages in the Rhodope Mountains currently don’t have the support of LAGs or even the local government to use the funding provided by EAFRD to it’s fullest potential. A highly effective strategy focusing on diversification and competitiveness along with being implemented on a regional scale would be necessary in order to spur economic development. In order to enforce implementation of project initiatives, a proper monitoring and evaluation system is needed. Furthermore, such regions can no longer be sustained under the traditional rural settlement as technology has infiltrated these communities and they are no longer satisfied living in these remote isolated areas. At the same time, family and community are very important to these societies, on the social and cultural level, making the urban conditions unsuitable as well. It is worth exploring a new type of

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Photo derived from The Washington Post article The steep decline of Bulgaria’s population in its post-Soviet era by Nicole Crowder. Photo of Georgi Petrov, 59, holds his face in his hands in Sinagovtsi, a village of declining population in Bulgaria. Petrov, who used to work at a local mill but is now unemployed, hasn’t been able to afford plaster for his home for several decades.

built environment for social and economic interaction derived from the community qualities of the rural lifestyle and intended to enhance economic stability.

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Village, rural region, farmland, agriculture, vast landscapes, countryside: a place of nothingness where there’s nothing to see and nothing to do, “empty land that can be laid out according to the needs of the urban consumer.”19 The stereotypical urbanite view of the countryside within the broad architectural profession, including urban design and landscape architecture, disregards the presence of rural settlements. The preoccupation with the urban condition has led to an architecture for which the countryside does not exist. Simultaneously, in the countryside, architecture does not exist. Built environments, enclosed spaces, and structures are present but they are generally not planned, designed or executed by architects but rather built in a vernacular manner out of necessity. Can architecture take on a new form in the countryside that would encourage growth and development while simultaneously transform living conditions for half of the world’s population which still resides in rural regions by incorporating the rural into the architectural profession?IN

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Diagram of size of Swiss village 20 years ago, com-pared to today. <http://www.iconeye.com/architecture/features/item/11031-rem-kool-haas-in-the-country>

19. Willemijn Lofvers and Marcel Musch, OASE: The Countryside, 2.

20. Rem Koolhaas, Countryside and Hinterland.

REM KOOLHAAS ON THE COUNTRYSIDE

The word “countryside” became markedly more prevalent in architectural publications since 2012 when Rem Koolhaas announced that he was writing a book on the countryside. After obsessively exploring the urban throughout his career in the form of books, exhibitions and real and theoretical architectural projects, at the age of 67 Koolhaas has provocatively turned to studying the countryside. Koolhaas asks the question, “What did those billions who left for the city leave behind?” He argues that “the countryside is now the frontline of transformation. A world formerly dictated by the seasons and the organization of agriculture is now a toxic mix of genetic experiment, science, industrial nostalgia, seasonal immigration, territorial buying sprees, massive subsidies, incidental inhabitation, tax incentives, investment, political turmoil, spill overdevelopment, terminal class warfare, in other words more volatile than the most accelerated city.”20 A village in the Swiss Engadin valley inspired the countryside research for Rem Koolhaas. The village grew two to three times in size as he visited the village over a period of 20 years. The interesting part is that it has become completely depopulated. To define this condition, he uses a theory on the process of “thinning”

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Diagram: Intermedi-stan, a land of the in-between. <http://www.iconeye.com/architecture/fea-tures/item/11031-rem-koolhaas-in-the-country>

which means that the area of coverage increases alongside a diminishing intensity in its use. His interpretation takes our typical understanding of the rural condition as peaceful, quiet and maybe even boring and transforms them into settlements with vibrant centers of production and activity in areas with sparse population.

The statistics we are presented with on urbanization are constantly shifting depending on the conditions under which the data was taken. Yes, urbanization is happening at a significant rate, however, about half of the world’s population is still living in rural area. “The countryside is an amalgamation of tendencies that

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Photo top: Prokudin-Gorsky’s three women in the Russian countryside from 1909.

Photo bottom: Three women from south Asia in a Swiss village square today who are imported to look after the pets, the kids, and the houses.

21. Rem Koolhaas, Countryside and Hinterland.

are outside our overview and outside our awareness. Our current obsession with only the city is highly irresponsible because you cannot understand the city without understanding the countryside.”21 Architecture has been primarily focused on the city but a significantly larger portion of the world falls under neglect. Cities cover about 3% of the Earth’s land area while humans directly influence about 83% of the Earth.22 As people are migrating to urban areas, Koolhaas suggests that the question we should be asking is what did those who leave the country, leave behind? The countryside functions under the same economic principles as the city. More people urbanizing requires the country to reinvent itself

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Ad: The countryside as a place where people are disappearing from. In this void new processes are taking place and new experiments and developments are being made.

22. Vishaan Chakrabarti, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America

and new processes, experiments, and developments are taking place. Koolhaas uses Clark’s Economic Model from 1987 to represent the state of agricultural societies in the world today. The decline of Agriculture is directly connected to the economy as the Service industry increases. However as this model was developed in in 1987, that condition may change in the future and another may very well occur.

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DESIGN STUDIOWITH INTEGRATED DISCIPLINECHAIR OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGNPROF. BRILLEMBOURG | PROF. KLUMPNERLINDSEY SHERMAN | MICHAEL CONTENTO | LEA RUEFENACHT

SPRING 2013 | START 19.02.2013 | ONA

** This design studio is also planned in conjunction with the Seminar Week trip to Port of Spain through the Brillembourg & Klumpner Chair of Architecture and Urban Design. Enrollment in the Port of Spain seminar week is NOT required but is highly recommended as it forms an essential part of the studio and leads to maximizing the design output.

COLLABORATORS: *Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)*ETH Department of Environmental Systems Science*Port of Spain City Corporation *East Port of Spain Development Company*San Juan Laventille Regional Corporation*Ministry of Planning *Sustainable Development*Ministry of Finance and Economy

For more information, please visit the chair website:http://u-tt.arch.ethz.ch

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Photo depicts informal settlements in East Port of Spain. By Urban-Think Tank

23. Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner, Informal City, 16-23.

Urban-Think Tank was founded by Alfredo Brillembourg in Caracas, Venezuela with Hubert Klumpner joining as co-director. Their work focuses on urban conditions at the threshold of where formal and informal settlements meet. Urban-Think Tank seeks theoretical and practical architectural solutions that address the issue of “placelessness” among millions of people who reside in informal settlements within and on the outskirts of major metropolitan centers.23 In their book Towards an Informal City, Urban-Think Tank defends that their, “intention is to broaden the limited view of squatter settlements around the world. The use of the term ‘informal city’ is our way of summarizing a lifestyle that has become a global phenomenon in recent years and explaining why architects should understand this particular urban practice. ‘What you call a barrio, I call my home,’ said Francisco Perez, Community Leader from Las Casitas Barrio, La Vega. Informality is not a school of thought; there is a whole spectrum of views, based upon a dialogue about the city between architects and non-architects, between the ‘First’ and ‘Third’ Worlds, and between barrio and city. Our premise is that the informal city will serve as a base and a frame of reference for evaluating the fundamental problems of cities today.”

URBAN-THINK TANK

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Photo at Final Review for Emerging and Sustainable Cities: Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago studio at ETH-Zurich.

I spent the Spring of 2013 at ETH in Zurich as part of an exchange program between the Harvard GSD and ETH Architecture schools. I took at studio led by Hubert Klumpner and Alfredo Brillembourg which explored the condition of the East Dry River Canal separating Port of Spain and East Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. The studio was split into two semesters, the first took place in Fall 2012 and the students worked to develop conceptual urban design proposals. I took part in the second semester in Spring 2013 and we used the strategic frameworks set by the first studio to develop new architectural prototypes within them. Our designs needed to serve as an urban toolbox of operational

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Rendering of Learning Park project by Miriam Maurer

instruments with transformative qualities, occupying the critical territory between the formal and informal. Port of Spain is an urban conglomeration of constantly changing demographic and economic conditions, reflecting in its fragmented urban fabric. As a leading oil and gas producer, the modernization process and rapid urbanization of the city have created marginalized zones. East Port of Spain contains many of these marginalized and isolated communities. The former quarries in the area are occupied today by informal housing settlements and inadequate infrastructure, environmental degradation, and deficiencies in the provision of social facilities.

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Plan of Growing Bridges project by Rossitza Kotelova

During the course of the studio, each of us took on a specific topic as part of a collaborative project: Education, Sports, Performance, Microbusiness, Sanitation, and Agriculture. Education in the form of a Learning Park supplemented the current educational system in Port of Spain by providing programs such as after-school activities and kindergarden spaces. The Learning Park became a transformable space in different times of day, providing vocational training spaces and night classes to the general public. Sports are used for their social qualities to create a more attractive environment along the river-side park. Performance spaces are used to celebrate and maintain the rich artistic and multi-

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Urban Plan of development proposal for Dry Rive Canal between East Port of Spain and Port of Spain.

cultural heritage of Port of Spain. A main cultural hub works as a school, where all generations from both sides of the river can learn and work together in the form of performing arts. Infrastructure for micro-businesses transforms the flood-prone Sea Lots at the end of the East Dry River into an attractive public space complete with sea-side restaurants. Dry toilets became the central focus of the Sanitation topic, encouraging sustainability and conservation practices on the isolated twin-island country. Lastly, my own topic on Agriculture became the joints of the project through the design of the Growing Bridges. The Growing Bridges created an accessible and interactive connection over the East Dry River Canal between Port of Spain and East Port of Spain. Evoking a commentary on the country’s current import consumer culture, the Growing Bridges became urban farms for the community to participate in nurturing together and learn to produce their own food. Throughout this process, social and economic development were the underlying factors that guided each individual project and the collective as a whole. The East Dry River project in Port of Spain sparked the idea that thoughtful architectural interventions can spark social and economic development in rural areas as well.

Leaders agree that innovation is essential

to economic competitiveness

© 2014-2015 Altringer

Wednesday, December 10, 14

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Leaders agree that innovation is essential

to economic competitiveness



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Image by Dr. Beth Altringer from Innovator’s Practice class lecture

During the Fall 2014 Semester, I took Dr. Beth Altringer’s Innovator’s Practice class at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard. The intention of the course was to use a modified version of the human-centered design process to explore problems worth solving and develop solutions that have the potential to improve the lives of their users. We worked in groups with diverse backgrounds from across the Harvard student body and naturally, the combination of different knowledge and personalities created an environment that required constant negotiation. Dr. Beth Altringer taught us how to apply behavioral research and human-centered design to stimulate innovation regardless of our backgrounds. Using the fieldwork research methods through interviews and studying human behavior, we were able to identify a pain-point in our chosen topic of research.

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a process intended to help innovators hear the needs of their constituents in new ways, create innovative solutions to meet those needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind. IDEO developed the Human-Centered Design

THE INNOVATOR’S PRACTICE


adds problem and context understanding

mitigates risk of failing for preventable reasons

lessens opportunity costs of bad design (for creators & users)

encourages work on problems that matter to people

explicit multi-disciplinary method is inclusive; helps align multi-disciplinary teams

why use human centered design?


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Image by Dr. Beth Altringer from Innovator’s Practice class lecture

Toolkit to offer techniques, methods, tips and worksheets to guide innovators through a process that gives the local people an opportunity to take control of their futures and allows their desires to guide the creation and implementation of solutions. HCD uses three lenses as techniques for discovering innovative solutions: Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability. Desirability stands for, “What do people desire?” People are at the core of the “human-centered” design process and evaluating the needs, dreams and behaviors of the people we’re trying to affect comes first. It is necessary to engage people in their own context to truly understand what they need most. This form of qualitative research is used to

The solutions that emerge at the

end of the Human-Centered Design

should hit the overlap of these

three lenses; they need to be

Desirable, Feasible, and Viable.

DesirABilit y

FeAsiBilit y ViABilit y

Start Here

6 H DC

IntroductionThe Three Lenses of Human Centered Design

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Diagram from IDEO’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit.

develop empathy towards the people you’re designing for, to inspire imagination, and question assumptions. By mapping relational dynamics between social, political, economic, and cultural influences, we can uncover intrinsic influences that may be central to the core problems. By translating the research acquired into high-level insights about the larger population, we can create a set of strategic directions and tangible solution that have the potential of meeting concrete needs of individuals. Furthermore, the Feasibility and Viability lenses provide capabilities and financial models for the delivered solution to ensure that it is implemented well, can be sustained for a long time, and contains a plan for ongoing learning and

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Photo depicting Tribewanted Monestevole in Italy. Filippo Bozotti on the left. Tribewanted <http://www.monestevole.it/>

iteration. Implementing new ideas is risky and requires numerous iterations and testing. The HCD process is intended to encourage innovation through controlled methods of discovery, creation and implementation. Dr. Altringer invited Filippo Bozotti to give a talk on Tribewanted Monestevole in Italy. Tribewanted is an authentic type of holiday destination, empowering an off-the-grid travel experience that allows the visitors to connect with the place and its people in an authentic way. Filippo Bozotti is one of the founding members of Tribewanted and currently heads the Monestevole operation. Tribewanted Monestevole is located in the

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Image from Tribewanted <http://www.monestevole.it/>

Perugia Province in Umbria, Italy. A small community resides in a 15th Century hamlet overlooking 38 hectares of olive-groves, farm and woodlands. His talk was quite inspiring because he described living a simple, sustainable lifestyle, being truly happy and sharing that happiness with people who visit from all over the world. Tribewanted creates a sustainable community that could create positive impact on the local people. Through its membership program, participants become part of the community. They can visit the locations at any time, stay with the locals, take part in the farm-work and support sustainable growth and development in remote villages. About 30% of the membership fees go towards overhead

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Photo retrieved from Fogo Island Inn <http://www.fogoislandinn.ca/>

costs, the remaining 70% of the revenue is invested into the local community. The local community takes ownership of this system from day one by designing a sustainable strategy that adapts to the local culture. By creating an economy that is supported by Tribewanted’s 11,000 members and inviting them to participate in the everyday life of a rural society, the system makes it possible and desirable to live a highly sustainable lifestyle.

One of Dr. Altringer’s favorite examples was The Fogo Island Inn located in Newfoundland, Canada. As part of her own research, Dr. Altringer is interested in the question, how might we make it possible for people

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Photo retrieved from Fogo Island Inn <http://www.fogoislandinn.ca/>

24. Dezeen Magazine, <http://www.dezeen.com/2013/10/29/fogo-island-inn-by-saunders-architecture/>, Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture

to work at the top of their field from anywhere in the world. Fogo Island Inn is an example of how design can be used to attract attention to a remote location and stimulate economic growth in a traditional society. As part of the National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World curated collection, Fogo Island Inn provides an authentic, meaningful, and engaging travel experience. It is committed to sustaining tradition by finding new ways to to apply traditional, local knowledge. The Inn is owned by the Shorefast Foundation, a Canadian charitable organisation established by Zita Cobb and her brothers. Fogo Island Inn takes on design as a method for cultural resilience and economic revival in a traditional fishing community. The stunning white avant-garde architecture was design by the Norwegian based office Saunders Architecture. The design takes on a modern look but the details are a subtle exploration of traditional crafts and techniques. Sustainability was another one of the driving forces behind the design of the Inn. The saltbox houses on site that were once used by fisherman have been transformed into artists’ residences. The site also includes new restaurants, an art gallery and a cinema, all intended to support local ecology and industry.24

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Photo depicting Winchcombe with St. Peter’s Church on the right.

Richard Wakeford resides in the village Winchcombe, England located in the Cotswolds Area, Tewkesbury District. He specializes in Rural Strategy, considering the inherent qualities of rural regions and creating methods for development and growth. During several email exchanges, Richard was very willing to give me feedback and his thoughts on this thesis endeavor that I had blindly taken on. He was interested in the fact that an Architecture student was researching rural development and I was incredibly excited to be able to talk to an expert in the field.

In October 2014, I took a trip to England and visited Richard in Winchcombe. It was quite apparent through the tour that Richard gave and through the way he spoke about the village that he loves living in Winchcombe. He lives in an incredible mansion built during the Restoration period using the beautiful Cotswold stone. House was part of a tobacco plantation in 1600’s. Tobacco was planted by the local people as a cash crop even though the practice had been outlawed since the Commonwealth. The house now sat on a hill with a beautiful forest growing on its grounds. The barn in the

WINCHCOMBE, ENGLAND

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NOTES:

Photo depicting Winchcombe and Sudeley Hill from late 19th Century. Retrieved from Around Bishop’s Cleeve and Winchcombe in Old Photographs by David H. Aldred.

back had been restored and was now a rather expensive guest house.

We left Richards home on foot to explore the village by starting with Winchcombe’s new Riverside Path along River Isbourne. The Path, offered incredible views of Winchcombe given the River’s low point and the village being situated up on the hills. The original Cotswold town as well as new development was visible on the right side of the path and on the left were the ancient pastureland. Fluffy white sheep grazed on the grasses and the Cotswolds hills stacked up in the distance. The pastureland was marked by its agricultural past with

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Photo from October 2014 of Sudeley Hill ancient pastureland hills and valleys.

long, straight hills and valleys that stretched vertically as far as the eye can distinguish up the hill. Richard talked about the paper mill down the river that supported the town for centuries and was still in use today, just not to its historic extent. He pointed at the hill past the grazing sheep and said that one of the few agricultural activities that were performed today for economic gain was raising race horses.

England as a whole is completely urbanized that while the countryside retains its natural beauty, the rural settlements are entirely connected with their urban counterparts making it possible for people to work in

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Photo top: Hailes Streed from late 19th Century. Retrieved from Around Bishop’s Cleeve and Winchcombe in Old Photographs by David H. Aldred.

Photo bottom: Hailes Street in Winchcombe from October 2014.

the cities and live in villages. One of the most interesting things that Richard said that day was that rural regions in England actually experienced population gain as opposed to the common depopulation of rural areas all over the world. This phenomenon was also true for Winchcombe and the reason was that England’s aging population preferred to retire in the countryside. And why not? Winchcombe is truly beautiful. It’s well connected to the rest of England with a rail line and well-kept smooth roads for a two hour drive to London and a one hour drive to Birmingham. Winchcombe has a wonderful shopping district on Hailes Street with boutique stores hidden behind Cotswold facades. Winchcombe even has a Michelin Star restaurant.

Sudeley Castle with its beautiful gardens in another great attraction. Queen Katherine Parr is entombed there; the only private castle in England to have a queen buried within its grounds. We didn’t get a chance to see inside the Castle and its gardens on our tour with Richard but surrounding grounds were also quite astonishing. A peaceful place up on the hill with views out to Winchcombe’s old town and the Cotswold hills. Richard noted that several of the cottages on the Castle’s grounds were transformed into guesthouses for visitors to experience the royal life during their stay in Winchcombe.

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Photos depict Cotswold stone building from October 2014.

We continued onto our tour through the old town of traditional medieval architecture where Richard noted the facade of a Cotswold stone building which had seven windows on its front facade, three on its side facade and only one very small window on its back facade. He explained that the siting of the building could have very well dictated the expression of the building’s facades. The front was facing a plaza and the side was along the edge of the street, insinuating the building’s relationship to the public space. Up the street stood St. Peters church which was built in 1465. St. Peters church is guarded by forty beautifully sculpted grotesque gargoyles. The main space inside the church was lined with a clearstory for

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Photos depict St. Peters Church from October 2014.

ample light and a double height ceiling. The pews were arranged in a pattern I hadn’t seen in a church before. A table stood in the middle and the pews formed an octogonal shape in plan with four alternating sides of pews projecting outward and four alternating sides of aisle space for walking. The attendant from parish team who came to greet us explained that the church was trying out a new type of congregation, in an attempt to foster a more intimate service experience through the spatial configuration of the church’s pews.

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Photo by Arthur Rothstein of Quiltmaker Annie Bendolph in 1937.

25. William Arnett, Gee’s bend : The architecture of the quilt, 17.

Gee’s bend is located along the fifteen-mile-long bend of the Alabama River in Wilcox County, Alabama. It is a census-designated community of primarily African American residents. The Bend was named after Joseph Gee who settled there in 1816 and brought 18 African American slaves with him to start a cotton plantation. After slavery was abolished and the plantation was no longer profitable, the lands were left but the African Americans remained in the isolated hamlet of Gee’s Bend. In the mid-1920’s life in Gee’s Bend took a downturn as cotton market lost nearly 90 percent of its value. For the Gee’s Bend tenants who depended on the cotton crop for their livelihood, the cotton price drop was disastrous. In the mid-1930s, the times of the Great Depression, it is estimated that the net worth of the people of Gee’s Bend was about four dollars per person. Reverend Renwick Kennedy wrote a series of articles in the Christian Century dedicated to the people of Gee’s Bend, describing them as, “strong, healthy, sturdy, intelligent, and resourceful.”25

Roy Stryker from the Resettlement Administration took on Gee’s Bend as a social experiment under the New

THE QUILTS OF GEE’S BEND

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NOTES:


Photo by Roland Freeman of Annie Mae Young with quilts and her great-granddaughter Shaquetta, Rehoboth in 1993.

Deal, purchasing farmland and adjacent property from plantation owners and selling homesteads to the Gee’s Bend residents. Ninety-five “Roosevelt” homes were also built and sold to residents with low-interest mortgages and were paid off in full by most. The “Roosevelt” houses made the most significant impact on Gee’s Bend. Even though most of the programs initiated during the New Deal fell through, the “Roosevelt” houses allowed for the residents of Gee’s Bend to become homeowners instead of tenants, ensuring that the people would remain in the region long after its agricultural economy ceased to support small farmers.26 “Because of the New Deal, Gee’s Bend surely became unique, and its quilt tradition was

8585

The “Roosevelt” houses al lowed for the residents of Gee’s Bend to become homeowners instead

of tenants, ensuring that the people would remain in the

region long after i ts agricultural economy ceased to support

small farmers.26

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NOTES:

Map - Gee’s Bend in Wilcox County, Alabama.

Photo: Work-clothes quilt with center medallion of strips by Annie Mae Young.


able to remain substantially intact.”27 Today, about seven hundred people reside in this area, primarily African American. The activities in Gee’s Bend are almost entirely influenced by the region’s geographic isolation. The river service was cancelled in 1960, the one direct connection of Gee’s Bend to the rest of the world, further ensuring the area’s isolation. Dinah Miller founded the first significant quiltmaking family tree. “The compositions of these quilts contrast dramatically with the ordered regularity associated with many styles of Euro-American quiltmaking. There’s a brilliant, improvisational range of approaches to composition that

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28. Wikepedia article on The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.

Photo: “Lazy Gal” (“Bars”) from 1965 by Loretta Pettaway. Denim and cotton.

is more often associated with the inventiveness and power of the leading 20th-century abstract painters than it is with textile-making,”28 writes Alvia Wardlaw, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts. Subsequently, the civil rights movement ushered the founding of the Freedom Quilting Bee in Rehoboth as a part of cooperative for women to support their families. In 1965, Father Francis X. Walter discovered the quilts produced in Gee’s Bend and began to help the women sell their quilts. He gathered them and sent them to New York to take part in informal auctions and raised money for the needy women. The Freedom Quilting Bee got publicity through the New York Times and fashion magazines and eventually began to produce bedcovers for department stores such as Bonwit Teller, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales.

Only about a thousand of the tens of thousands of quilts made in Gee’s Bend during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries still survive. Documentation of the quilts was initiated in the late 1990s and the Quilts of Gee’s Bend were first exhibited in 2002 in Houston, Texas at the Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition captured the totality of the community’s tradition through the quilts, considering the social roles quiltmaking played in women’s lives through the generations. The Quilts

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29. William Arnett, Gee’s bend : The architecture of the quilt, 37. Photo: “Broken Star” variation from 1925 by Magdalene Wilson. Cotton, wool, and silk.

of Gee’s Bend are assemblages of perfectly bounded arrangements of elements. Gee’s Bend quiltmakers favor the magnification of small elements and characteristics of high abstraction. Their inspiration comes from a mix of “other quilts” and “the world.” For the black women of Gee’s Bend, oppressed by race and gender inequalities, the quilts served as a tool for self-expression within their built environment. “We was taught there’s so many different ways to build a quilt. You can start with a bedroom over there, or a den over here, and just add on until you get what you want. Ought not two quilts ever be the same. You might use the same material, but you would do it different. A lot of people make quilts just for your bed for to keep you warm. But a quilt is more. It represents safekeeping, it represents beauty, and you could say it represents family history.”29

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30. Supercrit #1: Cedric Price: Potteries thinkbelt, 17.

Potteries Thinkbelt project illustration.

“When the next round of university building starts, perhaps we should treat education less as a polite cathedraltown amenity. We print here an architectural project for a 20,000 student campus in North Staffordshire which is built around a road and rail network, emphasises temporary housing, and ties in the students to the community.”30 Cedric Price’s Potteries Thinkbelt is an incredible undertaking of using a derelict and abandoned industry and transforming it into a new program. The project also makes a commentary on the state of education in the 1960s and is still relevant today. Higher education is mainly available for the few nurtured ones while the world population at large is still undereducated. The needs of a university are conceived as separate from that of the community. The Potteries Thinkbelt breaks down the separation between the institution and the surrounding community. The Thinkbelt is a vast triangle, enclosing the area around Stoke and Newcastle and is intimately tied to the local community through housing. It attempts to initiate a way of thinking about progress by distributing the educational institution on a regional scale. It incorporated modern technologies, methods of communication,

POTTERIES THINKBELT Cedric Price

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31. Supercrit #1: Cedric Price: Potteries thinkbelt, 17

Potteries Thinkbelt project illustration of Stoke and Newcastle-under-Lyme area map.

and existing infrastructure to make use of mobile and variable physical enclosures like a railway car as a lecture room. The Thinkbelt takes advantage of existing rail lines that were in excess of the British Rail’s passenger carrying requirements. Short distances between existing stations create a perfect scenario for frequent movement between institutions for students. The Potteries Thinkbelt generates “cities caused by learning.”31

The site chosen for the project is based on the underdeveloped condition of the area. About half a million people live in that part of North Staffordshire but the area has been “unchanged and uncared for since

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NOTES:

Potteries Thinkbelt project illustration of Madeley transfer area.



its industrial expansion throughout the 19th century.”32 The area is well connected with existing national routes and movement patterns, however, these are significantly underutilized. The Thinkbelt is spread over 100 square miles and takes advantage of mobility. It allows students to move easily between the different institutions. The Thinkbelt focuses on technology, engineering and the applied sciences but fundamentally changes the university culture. Rigid requirements set in place for classifying who is allowed to attend university are completely disregarded and part time and refresher courses are completely integrated into the curriculum. Furthermore, university housing is integrated into the local community so that students become part of the community they’re spending 4-5 years of their lives in.

“The Thinkbelt housing will not just be something external that is unsuccessfully grafted on to the Potteries. It will be a catalyst, encouraged in its action by the educational side of the Thinkbelt. People will begin to demand an even bigger improvement in their socio-civic environment; and the entrepreneurial instinct will be awakened by the demand. Over time, the whole of the Potteries will be revolutionized. Not only will derelict land be used again, and the old eyesores go: there will also be a major national industry to replace what they will inevitably lose.”33

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NOTES:

Photo from Laufen Manifesto writing session <http://laufenmanifesto.org/>

Initiatives such as the Laufen Manifesto have created an effort to promote a humane design culture. Initiated by Anna Heringer, Honorary Professor of the UNESCO Chair for Earthen Architecture in Germany, the Laufen Manifesto does not draw a distinction between the rural and urban condition instead, the group reaches out to all professionals to encourage taking responsibility for production and inspire a collective culture of working towards improving living conditions for all people.

“Too many people worldwide subsist in undeserving living conditions, and their ranks are growing by the day. As representatives of the professions collectively shaping the built environment, it is our responsibility to resist this intolerable situation. We are speaking out to define an alternative position. We must produce spaces that counter exploitation, control alienation, whether in urban or rural landscapes. With all our expertise, creativity and power, we need to contribute more dynamically and consequentially to the global quest for equality.

Across a range of pilot projects, we have begun to initi-ate a more humane design culture, working with a robust

LAUFEN MANIFESTO

100

network of communities, craftsmen, planners, builders and organizations. These alternative practices demand not only further development, but also substantial scaling-up. Guided by a deeper understanding of individual needs and aspirations as our fundamental concern, we must ur-gently multiply our efforts to improve the ecological, so-cial, and aesthetic quality of the built environment, while developing more effective design strategies to anticipate predicted future growth on a global scale.

01 COLLABORATING EYE TO EYEWe must commit ourselves to respectful communication and cooperation with residents and communities as key partners in achieving positive, measurable change. The impact of a participatory process extends beyond actual design outcomes – it should empower individuals and cultivate a constructive atmosphere with lasting effects. The process should allow sufficient time to facilitate a dialogue striving for respect, curiosity, flexibility and care.

02 DESIGNING WORKProjects must be conceived in a way that creates mean-ingful work. A thoughtful approach to designing build-ings, places, landscapes and products can nurture small-scale enterprises like construction, farming and crafts. By opting for labor-based techniques and non-standardized

101101

materials, we can foster a decentralized form of construc-tion and production. Creating an atmosphere of entre-preneurship and innovation is essential in forming value chains connecting local craftsmanship and global indus-tries. New models of self construction for low-income populations must be explored, combining education, training and long-term income generation. The creation of work is foundational for greater equality and peace.

03 UNFURLING BEAUTYWe believe that beauty is an essential human need, linked strongly to dignity. We must strive for an authentic har-mony that resonates with people, the genius loci and their territory. The longing for beauty can be stronger than fear and thus a crucial catalyst for humane development.

04 IDENTIFYING THE LOCALModernization has levelled cultural differences globally and hampered context specific design. Individual projects must be based on careful observation of geophysical conditions, local building traditions and space hierarchies. Global knowledge on building techniques must be adapted to the local climate, available materials, skill base and energy sources. Site and culturally sensitive design contributes to self-sufficiency and more sustainable local economies.

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34.Anna Heringer and others, In Search of a Process: Laufen Manifesto for a Humane Design Culture

05 UNDERSTANDING THE TERRITORYWhile designers and policy-makers devote significant attention to mega-cities and high density environments, larger agglomerations are deeply dependent on smaller living units and their landscapes. Truly humane design projects understand zones of impact and influence on many scales. They operate between the local, the regional, the continental, and the global, thereby revealing a rich network of dynamic social, economic, and ecological re-lations that must be respected, adjusted for, and improved as needed.

06 EDUCATING DESIGNERSDesigners are not trained sufficiently to achieve positive change for people living in undeserving conditions. Design education has to evolve radically to ensure young designers have the capacity to bridge the gap between design and construction, understand the nuances of diverse sites and territories, and communicate more profoundly with local communities and stakeholders. In short, instil a greater social empathy. Manual skills must be developed on the same footing as digital and intellectual skills. Designing the right process must be equally important as the outcome.

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Photo from Laufen Manifesto writing session <http://laufenmanifesto.org/>

07 SHAPING POLICYIntegrated infrastructure, new collaborations, and innovative approaches to project development and financing must be translated into a global policy strategy. A vast change is necessary in the way we conceive, distribute and construct human habitats. We must connect top-down and bottom-up processes, with a view to fostering more productive exchanges between residents, policy-makers, financial institutions, the design profession and executing bodies. This will require the mobilization of both human and financial resources. We need broader and better solutions, at a lower cost, for a larger number of people.”34

Blagoevgrad Province

Mountains in Blagoevgrad Province

RILA

PIRIN RHODOPE

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SIT

E A

NA

LYS

IS

blag

oevg

rad

prov

ince

106

ALTITUDE

Bulgaria

Sources: Esri, HERE, DeLorme, TomTom, Intermap, increment P Corp., GEBCO, USGS, FAO, NPS, NRCAN, GeoBase, IGN,

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TOPOGRAPHY


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AIRPORTS

Bulgaria

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AIRPORT


SATOVCHA

GOTSE DELCHEV

HADZHIDIMOVO

GARMEN

110

SETTLEMENTS

Bulgaria

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SETTLEMENTS


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ROADS

Bulgaria

113113

ROADS


114

RAILROADS

Bulgaria

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INDUSTRY


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RIVERS

Bulgaria

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RIVERS


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FORESTS

Bulgaria

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FORESTS


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AGRICULTURE

Bulgaria

121121

AGRICULTURE


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NOTES:

Photo of Patrick Smith with a herd of sheep and goats outside Godeshevo in December 2014. Godeshevo is located in the Dabrash Massif and the Pirin Mountains can be seen in the distance.

35. Gergana Toncheva, Expedition to the Municipality of Satovcha.

GOTSE DELCHEV REGION

The Gotse Delchev Region in the Blagoevgrad Province in Bulgaria will be the focus area of study. It is located in the Dabrash Massif of the western Rhodope Mountains along the Dospat River Valley to the east and the Mesta River Valley continuing into the Pirin Mountains to the west. The Gotse Delchev Region consists of four municipalities: Gotse Delchev, Garmen, Hadzhidimovo, and Satovcha. The Rhodope are a magical place of life, joy and beauty where mountain, human and music become one and the same. On her Expedition to the Municipality of Satovcha, Gergana Toncheva wrote, “The mountain gives birth to man, the man gives birth to a song, the song is the soul of the mountain. An endless circle, an individual and incomparable belonging.”35 The place has a very specific identity with a deep sense of culture and craft. It’s part of the Chech region, a historical and geographical area divided between Bulgaria and Greece. Historically the region was divided into Nevrokopi Chech and Drama Chech, Drama falling entirely on Greek property and Nevrokopi split between

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Photo of Dabrash Massif in the summer by Erolish.

the two countries. In Bulgaria, the Chech region is comprised of all the villages in the Satovcha Municipality and those in the eastern part of the Garmen Municipality along the Dospat River and the Bistritsa River.

The Gotse Delchev Region has a mountainous and hilly terrain. The average height above sea level is about 1000 m, with the highest point at Ungen peak at 1668 m. In 1936 the local Bulgarian population requested that the peak be named after the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Prof. Josten Ungen (1896 - 1974) for resolving a boundary conflict between Bulgaria and Greece that declared the southern range of the Rhodopes a property of Bulgaria. A bronze plaques mounted on granite rock sits at the top of the peak commemorating Prof. Josten Ungen.

The Region experiences a Continental Mediterranean climate with an average annual temperature of about 11.5C. Winters are moderately cold with an average temperature range in January of 0C to 7C. Summers are warm and sunny with an average temperature of 32C to 36C along the Mesta River valley and average of 23C to 28C in the mountains. The seasons in the Rhodopes are clearly distinguishable with hot summers, moderately cold winters and prevailing autumn-winter and spring-

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Photo of vernacular stone wall.

summer precipitation. The Mediterranean climate influences the region up to 1200 meters above sea level.

From a geological perspective, the municipality land is comprised mostly out of stone such as granite, gneiss, rhyolite, river stone, hewn stone and sandstone. Deposits of asbestos and mica in the Kochan and Pletena villages have been found as well as magnesium in Zhizhevo, and talc in Pletena but the quantities in those findings have no industrial significance. In Pletena, Dolen and Kribul, the gneiss extraction and production is active because the stone found there is particularly good for its decorative properties, its grindability and weather resistance. The

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Photo of wild boar.

Dabrash massif of the Rhodope mountain range also supports magnificent coniferous and mixed forests, some of which are preserved in the Konski Dol Reserve and the State Game-breeding Station Dikchan. The Law on Protected Territories of 1998 protects a number of endangered plants and animals: echium russicum, gladiolus palustris, soldanella rhodopaea, forty-one medical plants, sixty-three types of birds, and thirty-three types of mammals. The Game-breeding stations have two breeding facilities: Dikchan with an area of 800 hectares breeds red deer, and wild boar, while Osinski Kolibi breeds moufflon and deer.

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Photo of village Tuhovishta from December 2014.

The fourteen villages part of the municipality have a 600 hundred year old history with surviving buildings up to 200 years old. Rich and spacious houses from the time of the Bulgarian revival period are all equipped with a poton (attic), big chardak (veranda) and an amam (bathroom). The authentic hewn stone and river stone houses are difficult to maintain by an economically struggling society, so most have been abandoned, allowing history to crumble with them. The Pletena village has a large number of abandoned historic houses and Tuhovishta and Godeshevo, famous for their stonework masters, have several hamlets with houses needing repair and restoration. The village Dolen has been designated as the architectural reserve with historic houses that have withstood the test of time and stand tall with stories of events and destinies from the past.

The people of the Gotse Delchev Region have a special relationship with water, to a large extent due to their Muslim culture. An Assyrian fountain dating back 5000 years was found in the Komel River canyon in Mesopotamia. The fountain consisted of individual basins cut directly into the ground rock, descending like steps down to the stream. Just like the Romans and the Greeks, the Muslims also worship water with cult-like rituals for its life-giving, life-maintaining, and purifying

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Photo of Roman bronze rings datin back to the 10th century. Retrieved from Wikipedia article on Tuhovishta.

properties. A tradition of building drinking fountains began during the time of the Ottoman Empire. The fountains were built within the town properties and along roads between settlements so that all people would have access to fresh water. In the Satovcha Municipality, many of these fountains were built to commemorate a loved one who had passed away and it is the only region in Bulgaria where most of the fountains are accompanied by some type of pavilion or gazebo. The pavilions are equipped with a wood crafted table and benches and a stone fireplace made specifically for grilling on stone. The municipality is home to over 1,300 fountains. A collection of the fountains has been submitted for a Guinness World Record evaluation for largest number of fountains in one administrative region and is on display at Museum Satovcha. The Museum Satovcha is curated and ran by Kiril Karakolev, history teacher and a talented local historian.

The historical heritage of the municipality is incredibly rich. Archeological surveys and excavations in multiple areas around the region show that the municipality was inhabited as far back as 430 B.C. Necropolis remains have been found in village Kochan with traces of inhabitants from the Iron and Roman Epoch. In Satovcha a Necropolis dating back to 430 B.C. was found along

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36. Gergana Toncheva, Expedition to the Municipality of Satovcha.

with a bronze helmet, a spear, fibulae, bronze vessels and coins from the Alexander the Great era. Throughout southern Bulgaria, ten Thracian helmets have been found, six of which were in the Satovcha and Pletena villages. A Necropolis was also found in village Tuhovishta, dating back to the 10th and 11th century. Some of the findings include ritual vessels, tokens, gold earrings and necklaces, and a Roman bronze ring. Furthermore, Roman bridges are located near villages Slashten, Kribul and Satovcha.36

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37. IEC Project 2008, Plan for Municipality Satovcha.

THE RHODOPE MOUNTAIN-DWELLERS

The most valuable resources of the municipality are the people. The Rhodope people are natural, friendly, and hospitable mountain-dwellers. They are proud of their cultural traditions, the songs, dances and customs, and they work hard to protect and develop their native lands. The people live incredibly sustainable lifestyles, improvising for their necessities, and living from the land they nurture. Data from the 2011 census shows a population of 15,444 people residing in the Satovcha Municipality. Compared to the 2003 census of 17,500 people, the decreasing trend is due to low birth-rates and immigration.37 An estimate of 400 to 500 people native to the municipality are seasonal immigrants abroad in Spain, England, Greece, France, Germany, and Finland. Demographics of the municipality show interesting trend of employability in the population. About 19% are under the employable age, ranging from 0 to 16 years old. The at employable age population, makes about 63% between the ages of 16 and 63. About 13% of the population are above the employable age of 63. The percentage of the population rated at employable age is quite high in comparison to the average data in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, since tobacco farming is currently the

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Photo depicts hand making process of traditional pasta by Bulgarian Muslim women.

main occupation available for the people of the Satovcha Municipality, many of the educated young adults leave the region for either the cities or opportunities abroad.

The immigration trend of the Satovcha Municipality people was very apparent during my second visit to Bulgaria in December 2014. German engineered vehicles lined the narrow roads. I can guarantee that none of those were acquired on a tobacco farming salary. The cafes, bars and restaurants were filled with people celebrating the holidays. The village plazas gathered the mountain-dwellers almost every day for weddings, traditionally held in the winter season due to logistics of an agricultural

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Photo of Strawberry farms in Scottland tended by Bulgarian boys.

society, dancing in celebration of the newlyweds. But if you listen closely to the chatter, you soon begin to realize that about 1 in 5 people permanently lives abroad or has lived abroad for an extended period of time. To take my mother’s immediate family, for example, she has two brothers, Mohammed and Isen. Mohammed lived in Pamplona, Spain for 5 years and his wife Aishe spent two winters there with him. They worked in the fields, picking peppers and then preserving them. Mohammed and Aishe’s son Iro is currently living in Scotland working on the strawberry fields and has been there for a year. Iro also spent the two winters with Aishe working on the pepper fields in Spain. Their son-in-law Miro is also

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Photo depicts Nadzife Halimova and Adem Dzhindzhi, a Bulgarian couple with their Spanish-born daughter in Barcelona.

currently in Scotland on the strawberry fields with Iro, but he has lived in Spain, Germany, Finland and Denmark working various agricultural and construction jobs. The second brother, Isen and his wife Fatme live in Gazaros, Greece and have been there for the past 4 years. They work on the tobacco fields in the summer and pick olives in the winter. Both of their daughters, Gergana and Suzan, have joined them there for the summers in between school. Gergana’s husband Halim has also lived in Spain for an extended period of time and his entire immediate family lives there permanently.

This scenario is common for the majority of families from the Rhodope Mountain region. The mountain-dwellers that hid in the Rhodope Mountains for decades to preserve their homeland, their culture, and their traditions are no longer threatened and are now exploring and acquiring new knowledge and experiences. As tobacco prices in Bulgaria continued to decrease and Bulgaria’s EU membership opened up new opportunities, the people searched for alternatives. The jobs they work abroad are by no means glamorous and the living conditions are less favorable than their newly renovated houses in Bulgaria, but there are jobs and they do pay. Of course, the economic crisis in Spain and Greece had an effect on the seasonal immigrants as well. The Bulgarians

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Photo of Vladi Chaushev, Mario Vladimirov, Halim Halimov, Daniel Nikolov, Ivo Kenaliev, Kire Ineto, Dimitar Zaimov and friends in Spain with Bulgarian flag.

that had developed great relationships with their employers remained abroad but many were forced to return. Those that return bring back new technical skills, new techniques, new cuisines and more importantly new language skills. There is one thing, however, that hasn’t changed: when asked whether they would prefer to live abroad or return home, every person without exception has said they would prefer to live in the Rhodope Mountains if the same job opportunities were available.

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The literature review includes texts from several organizations, theorists and architects who have thought about and have written on the issues of the countryside’s critical state in the continuing phenomenon of rapid urbanization and population decline in rural areas. The New Rural Paradigm examines the current situation of rural areas in Europe and other OECD countries and propoces a new approach to rural development. In the Gutenberg Galaxy, Marshall McLuhan presents his understanding of globalization in the 1960’s as “a global village.” Christian Schmid and ETH Studio Basel take an in depth look at the urban situation in Switzerland which happens to blur the difference between rural and urban. In Implosions/Explosions, Neil Brenner presents an Urban Theory Without an Outside, inspired by Henri Lefebvre’s theory on urbanization. Roberto Mazzoleni and Richard R. Nelson create an argument for the necessity of social technologies in developing countries as a foundation for economic development and succesful integration of physical technologies. L

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Graphic from The New Rural Paradigm: Policies and Governance.

38. Nicola Crosta, An-drew Davies and Karen Maguire. The New Rural Paradigm: Policies and Governance

The New Rural Paradigm is part of the Rural Policy Reviews series published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), a unique forum where the governments of thirty democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalization. The Organization’s findings argue for a new approach to rural policy which focuses on places instead of sectors and investments instead of subsidies. The goal is to develop a multi-sectoral, place based approach to identify and exploit development potential of rural areas. Rural policy priorities should focus on transport and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, public services, valorisation of rural amenities (natural and cultural) and rural enterprise promotion. By acknowledging multiple objectives in rural policy, rural communities can develop a culture of cross-sectoral co-operation, foster public-private partnerships and mobilize new resources at the local level.38

Currently, predominantly rural regions in OECD countries contain about 75% of the land and 25% of the population. Rapid changes in international economy are

NEW RURAL PARADIGMPolicies and Governance

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Graphic from The New Rural Paradigm: Policies and Governance.

presenting rural regions with significant challenges but these challenges can also be moments of opportunity. Changes include globalization, improved communication, reduced transportation costs, changing trade patterns for commodities and emergence of non-farm activity in rural regions. GDP per capita in rural regions has been in decline, about 86% of that compared to the national average. Some of the factors that have driven this weaker economic performance are out-migration, aging, lower educational attainment, lower average labor productivity, and low level of public service.

Agriculture has historically had an important role in shaping rural landscapes but in recent years, agriculture’s weight in rural economies has been steadily declining. Currently, less than 10% of the rural workforce is employed in agriculture. Agriculture’s gross value added (GVA) is declining due to productivity increase in the agricultural industry. Furthermore, rural policies in the past have focused on agricultural subsidies which are not specifically intended to trigger rural development directly. Pressure to reform agricultural policy has focused on reform of farm subsidies. In an effort to provide alternative use of public resources, policies need to direct resources to investments instead of subsidies.

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Image from Arthur Kro-ker, Digital Humanism, The Processed World of Marshall McLuhan. < http://fac-ulty.dwc.edu/wellman/Global.JPG>

39. Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: the making of typographic man.

The Gutenberg Galaxy written by Marshall McLuhan in 1962 intended to trace the effects of mass media - the interplay of the contrasting cultures of print and oral expression - on European culture and modern human consciousness. The text is a philosophical exploration well-known for popularizing the term global village which refers to the idea that mass communication allows a village-like mindset to apply to the entire world. “We can now live, not just amphibiously in divided and distinguished worlds, but pluralistically in many worlds and cultures simultaneously. We are no more committed to one culture--to a single ratio among the human senses--any more than to one book or to one language or to one technology...the electromagnetic discoveries have recreated the simultaneous field in all human affairs so that the human family now exists under conditions of a global village. We live in a single constricted space resonant with tribal drums.”39

“The externalization of our senses creates what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin calls the ‘noosphere’ or a technological brain for the world. ‘The human elements infiltrated more and more into each other, their minds

THE GUTENBERG GALAXYThe Making of Typographic Man

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Image from McLuhan Galaxy < https://mcluhangalaxy.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/1f4fd-marshallmcluhancanada.jpg >

40. Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: the making of typographic man

(mysterious coincidence) were mutually stimulated by proximity. And as though dilated upon themselves, they each extended little by little the radius of their influence upon this earth which, by the same token, shrank steadily. Through the discovery yesterday of the railway, the motor car and the aeroplane, the physical influence of each man, formerly restricted to a few miles, now extends to hundreds of leagues or more. Better still: thanks to the prodigious biological events represented by discovery of electromagnetic waves, each individual finds himself henceforth (actively and passively) simultaneously present, over land and sea, in every corner of the earth.’”40

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Photo from ( n d ks ) <http://www.indechs.org/2013/06/sunday-reads-switzerland-ur-ban-portrait.html#.VNRWri4qIZw>

41. Roger Diener, Jacques Bernard Herzog, Marcel Meili, Pierre de de Meu-ron, Christian Schmid. Switzerland : an urban portrait, 17.

The book was produced by the ETH Studio Basel with an in depth look at the urban situation in Switzerland. Switzerland’s case is interesting in regards to this research because even though Switzerland is a developed country, it is very well known for its “proverbial slowness and resistance to change of all kinds...Switzerland’s specific urbanism proves to be a kind of culture of refusal and prevention of density, of height, of mass, of concentration, of chance, and of nearly all the other characteristics that are desirable in a city, and which the Swiss love with a passion -- just not in their own backyard.”41 The book is a project studying five typologies: the metropolitan regions, the networks of cities, the quiet zones, the alpine fallow lands, and the resorts. Chosen Switzerland as an area of study for an urban project when urbanism in Switzerland has historically been suppressed is interesting because then the project becomes about an exploration of different kinds of urbanism. As a result of technological advancements, increase in communication and ease of movement, what was once defined as urban areas can no longer be the same. The influence of globalization have changed the way people interact but also the way settlements interact and the distinction between urban and rural has become somewhat of a grey area.

SWITZERLANDAn Urban Portrait

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Map of Switzerland and Alpine fallow lands from Switzerland : an urban portrait, 217.

First, Switzerland is presented in terms of Networks, Borders, and Differences. Networks are systems of exchange that can be viewed either in a physical nature or in the immaterial one. The density or concentration of networks represent density of settlements: cities are located in areas where the networks are at a higher, more concentrated density. Borders are linkages of exchange that characterize urban areas. Autonomous entities that may have been separated in the past are now relying on their differences for productive exchange. How these borders are exploited defines the quality of progress in urbanization. Cities are built upon differences: different zones, cultures, and contexts; but the key characteristics

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Aerial photo of a Swiss village from Switzerland : an urban portrait, 19.


that make cities are the in-between zones of exchange that generate productive energy based on the differences.

Christian Schmid follows-up on Switzerland’s presentation in terms of Networks, Borders, and Differences with a theoretical account on the urban. Schmid draws upon the theories of French philosopher Henri Lefebvre and his thesis of the complete urbanization of society. Lefebvre states that for the most part, “the whole world is caught up in a comprehensive process of urbanization. Today’s reality can no longer be grasped using the categories of ‘city’ and ‘country’ but must be analyzed using the concept of urban society.”42

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Schmid acknowledges the pioneering thinking of Lefebvre’s thesis and urges urban theorists to reinvent the language with which urbanization is studied. Urbanization should no longer merely refer to the conception of the old city borders, but should analyze “city” and “space” within the context of social theory.

Lefebvre associated urbanization with industrialization. Urbanization is the migration from the country to the city as a consequence of industrialization and industrial production that is spreading across the globe. In this sense, urbanization has resulted in the break-up of agrarian societies and the disappearance of rural life in terms of trade, handicrafts, and small local centers. “An urban fabric is spreading across the country”42 and is absorbing rural hubs into its fibers. It is a phenomenon that is placing generating dominance of cities over villages, resulting in the decline and return to “nature” for entire rural regions. This phenomenon not only changes the countryside but it also transforms the cities. “The big city is exploding, scattering countless urban fragments throughout its surroundings.”43 Lefebvre’s theory redefines the historical conception of the city. Within the context of urbanization, the historical category of the city is broken down. The focus on interest is then directed towards the process of transformation and the potential in the creation of an urban society.

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The conceptual reorientation of Lefebvre’s urbanized world defines the city using three particular aspects: mediation, centrality, and difference. First, the city is a middle situated between the private level and global level, it serves as a “relay,” a type of communication between two extremes. Second, the city is a center for “exchange, rapprochement, convergence, collection, meeting, encounter, communication, and information.”35 Within the context of the research topic, the definition of difference is particularly significant. The city of difference emerges from a combination of elements in constant connection that retain their particular individualities and remain mutually isolated. “Space-time distances are replaced by contradictions, contrasts, superimpositions, and juxtapositions of different realities.” 35 Particular characteristics of the various elements come from local conditions, site, nature and natural resources, thus intrinsically connecting them to the rural condition. When contrasting elements confront one another, conflict naturally emerges. Conflict creates a condition for breaking up and reconstituting which overtime results in a mutual understanding through a reciprocal relationship. “Heterogeneity is a necessary condition of urban life but the crucial point is whether heterogeneous elements yield productive differences.”44

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Photo Implosions/Explosions book cover.

45. Neil Brenner, Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization, 14.

Introduction: Urban Theory Without an Outside by Neil Brenner

In 1925, the Chicago School founders Ernest Burgess and Robert Park published a mission statement titled The City. The title and the research that the Chicago School put out was “so obvious that it did not require explanation or justification.”45 This important piece of work started a trend across all types of urban studies from the mid- to late twentieth- century where urban researchers focused primarily on “city-like (nodal, relatively large, densely populated and self-enclosed) sociospatial units.”45 Throughout this period, researchers have generally remained in a consensus in that the city is clearly distinct from the non-city. The introduction written by Neil Brenner and the compilation of work comprising the Implosions/Explosions book attempt to reconceptualize urban theory by arguing that the non-city is just as significant in today’s urbanized world as is the city.

This stance on urban theory was initiated by the works of Henry Lefebvre in the 1960’s, particularly with

IMPLOSIONS/EXPLOSIONSTowards a Study of Planetary Urbanization

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46. Neil Brenner, Implo-sions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urban-ization, 16.

Le Revolution Urbaine in which he provocatively stated that “society has been completely urbanized.”46 Lefebvre’s idea of complete urbanization was meant in a conceptual sense, that globalization was creating a phenomenon where all people are interconnected. Lefebvre drew inspiration from the logistical, commercial and tourist infrastructures that connected France, Spain and Italy. He argued that the traditional European city has been destroyed along with the autonomous agrarian communities in formerly rural zones in pursuit of capitalist industrial growth. The result is “an urban fabric -- a ‘net of uneven mesh’ -- across the entire world, including terrestrial surfaces, the oceans, the atmosphere,

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and the subterranean.”47 To describe the unevenness that Lefebvre refers to more precisely, he uses the term “implosion-explosion’’, a phrase used to describe the interconnected relationship between settlement nodes and territories of various spatial scales and occupancies.

Building upon the theory that Lefebvre initiated, Neil Brenner emphasizes that distinctions between city and non-city have thus far been made based on settlement population relative to the national population. This definition was introduced by Kingsley Davis in the mid-twentieth century and is still used today by global organization such as the United Nations (UN). This method is simple and makes it easy to look at complex data through the lense of one category, but urbanization has many more layers that influence the distinction between city and non-city. Contemporary urban development around the world is impacted by a “wide-range of operations and urbanization processes beyond the large centers of agglomeration, including zones of resource extraction, agro-industrial enclosure, logistics and communications infrastructure, tourism and waste disposal, which often traverse peripheral, remote and apparently ‘rural’ or ‘natural’ locations.”48 Furthermore, processes of extraction, production and distribution of raw materials which occur in non-city regions alter and grow to support the center of agglomeration, creating a mutual dependence network and and interconnection.

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49. Mario Cimoli, Giovanni Dosi, and Joseph E. Stiglitz. Industrial policy and development: The po-litical economy of capabilities accumulation.

The Roles of Research at Universities and Public Labs in Economic Catch-Up by Roberto Mazzoleni and Richard R. Nelson

Indigenous systems of academic training and public research have proven effective in several developing countries as strategies for supporting a country’s economic and technological catch-up. While this particular work focuses mainly on industrial technology, the analysis recognizes that economic development involves a variety of sectors, ranging from “agriculture, medicine and public health, the ability to manage transportation systems, maintain safe water supply and many others as well as developing capabilities in industry.”49 From a historical perspective, catch-up refers to a learning about and learning to master processes used in societies of developed countries. However, the term catch-up doesn’t mean copying but rather refers to using the leading models as an example and modifying technologies and processes to suit the conditions of the particular nation. While for the most part we assume that in the process of catch-up developing countries attempt to acquire technology used by advanced countries,

INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND DEVELOPMENTThe Political Economy of Capabilities Accumulation

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the term technology does not necessarily include vital complex production processes. Nelson and Sampat (2001) have proposed the term “social” technologies as opposed to physical technologies to define advancements in “organizational forms, bodies of law, public policies, codes of good business and administrative practice, customs and norms. Social technologies create the essential basis for economic growth by developing a countries capabilities for assimilation of physical technologies. This argument presumes that it is much easier to import physical technologies and acquire the engineering skills to use it than it is “to set up effective firm organization and management structures to operate the physical technology efficiently.”50

Successful cases of catch-up have all involved a specific set of elements. First, a cross-border flow of people is fundamental. This flow includes a combination of citizens traveling to advanced countries for apprenticeship to learn about new technologies and processes and bring them back to their home country and a flow of advisors from the advanced country to the developing countries. An important part of the transnational flow of people has been the university study-abroad programs which allow knowledge-sharing in the early educational

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stages. The second important element in successful catch-up has been government support in the form of protection and direct and indirect subsidies. Infant industries in developing countries can be particularly fragile especially when competing with mature industries from developed countries. It is critical for government organizations to create trade policies which work in favor of indigenous infant industries, even if these industries are comparatively inefficient, in order to give the country’s economy to develop from within. Third, coping with issues of intellectual property rights, especially on an international level, is necessary since many technological advancements in manufacturing, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals increasingly involve patenting as an essential method of protection.

Technologies with strong scientific underpinnings require advanced training in the field, making it no longer feasible to gain knowledge through simple work experience. Education and training then become increasingly crucial in countries that are trying to catch-up and development of indigenous capabilities in research and advance training are more essential than ever. The concept of a National Innovation System becomes a useful tool for considering policies and institutions needed for effective catch-up. Innovation happening

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within countries which are trying to catch-up differ from that happening in countries at the frontier of technological advancements. In developing countries, innovation refers to “a break from the past familiar practice, considering uncertainty about how to make the new practice work effectively, a need for sophisticated learning by doing and using, and a high risk of failure, as well as a major potential payoff from success.”51 A range of institutions take part in the Innovation System concept, but indigenous universities and public laboratories are playing an increasingly important role in training the nation’s people in advanced technological processes.

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Monocultures have been destroying the Earth by creating unfavorable environments for diverse ecosystems. The Earth’s soil is depleting at more than 13 percent the rate it can be replaced.52 In addition to the environmental damages, market demand for monocultures drastically affect economic conditions of numerous communities around the world that partake primarily in monoculture production. Tobacco production is a monoculture which has had dramatic effects on entire regions that have been involved in its production. Using the Gotse Delchev region in southwestern Bulgaria as a case study, this research paper attempts to gain insight on alternative economies for communities which have fallen victims to dying monocultures.

In Bulgaria tobacco is king. Between 1966 and 1988 during the Soviet era, Bulgaria was the largest exporter of cigarettes or “Bulgarian gold” in the world. Today, tobacco production in Bulgaria contributes 20% to the value of agricultural goods and involves about 10% of the active population in its cultivation. Inevitably, the cigarette industry has been steadily declining, creating a necessity for the tobacco growing villages in the Gotse Delchev region in Bulgaria to reevaluate their contribution to the economy. The tobacco decline in Bulgaria is exemplary of the universal decline in agricultural communities around

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52. Dr. Marcola, Photographic Adventure Reveals the Frightening Deadness of Genetically Engineered Corn Field. < http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/01/bees-dying-from-chemical-agriculture.aspx>

the world. Government programs such as the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) -- a fund housed under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Commision -- are implementing policies to redefine the countryside by promoting investments instead of subsidies and development of places instead of sectors. Development policies naturally call for transformation and for transformation to become tangible on the local level, collaboration with the built environment is imperative. An architectural typology that enables economic transition of agricultural communities investigates three stages of transformation: repurpose, replace, and reinvent. The first stage, repurpose, critically evaluates potentials of the existing sector for alternative economic gains. The second stage, replace, introduces new sectors to partially replace and add onto the existing one. The third stage, reinvents the production process of goods with the countryside in focus. As part of the operational landscapes, rural communities stand at a unique position in control of raw materials. By defining an original architectural typology that is influenced by production facilities (spaces for processing and mass-production of predefined industrial goods) and the incubator apparatus (innovative cultivation of new products through knowledge sharing and technology appropriation), rural communities could begin to generate alternative forms of commerce using local resources and existing skills.

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A collection of photographs from the Gotse Delchev region in a rough chronological order. Many of the old photographs are from private collections and the photographers are unknown.

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Camels with tobacco bales on their backs, circa 1914. Photo: Regional State Archive in Plovdiv

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Scene from the First Balkan War (1912). The man who is bent over bares his head for baptism by an Orthodox Christian priest. PODA, 959k - photo collection.

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1. Ibish Ibishev2. Mystafa Kotelov, Alime Kotelova, Asine Kotelova

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Nadzife Halimova, Asibe Halimova, Gyulzara Bozadjieva in front of the school in 1963.

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Celebration of the fall of the Communist regime, February 4, 1990.

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Wheat fields

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Soldiers

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Tuhovishta in the first half of the 20th Century

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Tuhovishta in 2014

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Each family in the village owns a cow and they are taken out for grazing as a collective

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Looking west: village Slashten in the distance and Pirin Mountains beyond

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Herd of sheep and goats

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Sheperd

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Subsistance farming: garden and livestock are part of every home.

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Pasta made by hand

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Celebrating with traditional dress and Rhodope songs

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Wood-carved ceiling rosette

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Traditional garments and rugs - Satovcha Museum.

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Rug making with a loom - Satovcha Museum.

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Each village has a soccer team

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...and multiple cafes.

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Gazeebo built next to a fresh water spring in memory of a loved one.

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Gazeebos generally have a bbq pit built-in for grilling on stone and tables and benches.

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Tobacco field in the Rhodope Mountains.Photo: Rocco Rorandelli

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The tobacco leafs are transported to the villages in bales.Photo: Rocco Rorandelli

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Stringed tobacco leaves are hung to dry under plastic. Photo: fermer.bg

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Photo: Rocco Rorandelli

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The entire family takes part in the tobacco production. Photos: Rocco Rorandelli

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Shoe manufacturingPhotos: Rocco Rorandelli

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Clothing manufacturing

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Stonework mastery

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Stone mosaics

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Wood construction near village Ognyanovo

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Wood on stone barn construction in village Leshten

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Rammed earth Eco Villa in village Leshten

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Urbanity Incubator investigates the potential of Architecture to transform declining economic conditions of monoculture-producing communities in the countryside. Building upon Henri Lefebvre’s theory that society has been completely urbanized, the Gotse Delchev region in Bulgaria is a case study of sixty tobacco-producing settlements treated as a city of fragmented neighborhoods. Architectural interventions programmed for social technologies: research, knowledge sharing, and business development in combination with small-scale production, strategically puncture clusters of neighborhoods. The interventions are tied together as part of an urban system in order to act as a catalyst for economic transformation.

“All I need is a brief glimpse, an opening in the midst of an incongruous landscape, a glint of light in the fog, the dialogue of two passers-by meeting in a crowd, and I think that, setting out from there, I will put together, piece by piece, the perfect city, made of fragments mixed with the rest, of instants separated by intervals...discontinuous in time and space, now scattered, now more condensed.”

◁ Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972

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------. <http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rur/cork_en.htm> The Cork Declaration: A living countryside, The European Conference on Rural Development, Cork,

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