I would like to share with you today a project that has changed how I approach and practice architecture: the Fez River Rehabilitation Project.
Danas bih želela da podelim sa vama projekat koji je promenio način na koji prilazim arhitekturi i bavim se njom: Projekat rehabilitacije reke Fez.
My hometown of Fez, Morocco, boasts one of the largest walled medieval cities in the world, called the medina, nestled in a river valley. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since the 1950s, as the population of the medina grew, basic urban infrastructure such as green open spaces and sewage quickly changed and got highly stressed. One of the biggest casualties of the situation was the Fez River, which bisects the medina in its middle and has been considered for many centuries as the city's very soul. In fact, one can witness the presence of the river's extensive water network all throughout the city, in places such as private and public fountains.
Moji rodni grad Fez u Maroku može se pohvaliti time da je jedan od najvećih ograđenih srednjovekovnih gradova na svetu, koji se zovu medine, i postavljen je u dolini reke. Ceo grad je Uneskovo mesto svetske baštine. Od 50-tih godina, kako je rasla populacija medine, osnovne urbane infrastrukture poput otvorenih zelenih površina i kanalizacije brzo su se izmenile i veoma opteretile. Jedna od najvećih žrtava situacije bila je reka Fez, koja seče medinu po sredini i vekovima se smatrala samom dušom grada. Zapravo, možete videti prisustvo pozamašne vodene mreže reke kroz ceo grad, na mestima poput privatnih i javnih fontana.
Unfortunately, because of the pollution of the river, it has been covered little by little by concrete slabs since 1952. This process of erasure was coupled with the destruction of many houses along the river banks to be able to make machineries enter the narrow pedestrian network of the medina. Those urban voids quickly became illegal parking or trash yards. Actually, the state of the river before entering the medina is pretty healthy. Then pollution takes its toll, mainly due to untreated sewage and chemical dumping from crafts such as tanning. At some point, I couldn't bear the desecration of the river, such an important part of my city, and I decided to take action, especially after I heard that the city received a grant to divert sewage water and to treat it.
Nažalost, zbog zagađenja reke, malo-pomalo je pokrivana komadima betona od 1952. Ovaj proces brisanja je propratilo rušenje velikog broja kuća uz obalu reke kako bi mašinerija mogla da priđe uskoj pešačkoj mreži medine. Ove urbane praznine uskoro su postale ilegalni parkinzi ili smetlišta. Zapravo, stanje reke pre nego što uđe u grad je prilično dobro. Onda nastupa zagađenje, uglavnom zbog nerešene kanalizacije i bacanja hemijskog otpada kod zanata poput kožarstva. U nekom trenutku, nisam mogla da izdržim skrnavljenje reke, tako bitnog dela mog grada i odlučila sam da uradim nešto, naročito nakon što sam čula da je grad dobio sredstva da izmesti vodu iz kanalizacije i da je obradi.
With clean water, suddenly the uncovering of the river became possible, and with luck and actually a lot of pushing, my partner Takako Tajima and I were commissioned by the city to work with a team of engineers to uncover the river. However, we were sneaky, and we proposed more: to convert riverbanks into pedestrian pathways, and then to connect these pathways back to the city fabric, and finally to convert the urban voids along the riverbanks into public spaces that are lacking in the Medina of Fez. I will show you briefly now two of these public spaces.
Uz čistu vodu, odjednom je otkrivanje reke postalo moguće, a uz sreću i dosta guranja, moj partner Takako Tadžima i ja smo bili zaduženi od strane grada da radimo sa timom inženjera na otkrivanju reke. Ipak, bili smo podmukli i predložili smo više: da se obale reke pretvore u pešačke staze i da se one onda povežu u samo središte grada i da se konačno urbane praznine duž obale reke pretvore u javne prostore koji nedostaju u medini Feza. Ukratko ću vam prikazati dva ovakva javna prostora.
The first one is the Rcif Plaza, which sits actually right on top of the river, which you can see here in dotted lines. This plaza used to be a chaotic transportation hub that actually compromised the urban integrity of the medina, that has the largest pedestrian network in the world. And right beyond the historic bridge that you can see here, right next to the plaza, you can see that the river looked like a river of trash. Instead, what we proposed is to make the plaza entirely pedestrian, to cover it with recycled leather canopies, and to connect it to the banks of the river.
Prvi je trg Rcif, koji je zapravo povrh reke i koju ovde možete videti na isprekidanim crtama. Ovaj trg je bio haotično središte transporta koje je zapravo kompromitovalo urbani integritet medine, koja ima najveću pešačku mrežu na svetu. A odmah iza istorijski bitnog mosta koga možete videti ovde, odmah pored trga, možete videti da je reka izgledala kao reka smeća. Umesto toga, predložili smo da trg postane potpuno za pešake, da se prekrije recikliranim kožnim baldahinima i da se poveže sa obalama reke.
The second site of intervention is also an urban void along the river banks, and it used to be an illegal parking, and we proposed to transform it into the first playground in the medina. The playground is constructed using recycled tires and also is coupled with a constructed wetland that not only cleans the water of the river but also retains it when floods occur.
Drugo mesto intervencije je takođe urbana praznina uz obale reke i to je bio ilegalni parking, i predložili smo da se transformiše u prvo igralište u medini. Igralište je napravljeno od recikliranih guma i takođe je povezano sa konstruisanom močvarom koja ne samo da čisti rečnu vodu nego je i zadržava kada se dese poplave.
As the project progressed and received several design awards, new stakeholders intervened and changed the project goals and design. The only way for us to be able to bring the main goals of the project ahead was for us to do something very unusual that usually architects don't do. It was for us to take our design ego and our sense of authorship and put it in the backseat and to focus mainly on being activists and on trying to coalesce all of the agendas of stakeholders and focus on the main goals of the project: that is, to uncover the river, treat its water, and provide public spaces for all. We were actually very lucky, and many of those goals happened or are in the process of happening. Like, you can see here in the Rcif Plaza. This is how it looked like about six years ago. This is how it looks like today. It's still under construction, but actually it is heavily used by the local population. And finally, this is how the Rcif Plaza will look like when the project is completed. This is the river, covered, used as a trash yard. Then after many years of work, the river with clean water, uncovered. And finally, you can see here the river when the project will be completed.
Kako je projekat napredovao i dobio nekoliko nagrada za dizajn, umešali su se nove interesne grupe i promenile ciljeve i dizajn projekta. Jedini način za nas da proguramo glavne ciljeve projekta bio je da uradimo nešto veoma neobično što arhitekte obično ne rade. To je bilo da uzmemo naš dizajnerski ego i osećaj za vlasništvo nad nečim i samo to sklonimo na stranu i fokusiramo se uglavnom na aktivizam i pokušavanje da se sretnemo sa ciljevima interesenata i fokusiramo se na glavne ciljeve projekta: da se otkrije reka, tretira voda i pruže javni prostori za sve. Zapravo smo imali dosta sreće, i dosta tih ciljeva se ostvarilo ili se ostvaruje trenutno. Na primer, trg Rcif kojeg vidite ovde. Ovako je izgledao pre oko šest godina. Ovako izgleda danas. Još uvek se radi, ali ga lokalna populacija dosta koristi. Konačno, trg Rcif će ovako izgledati kada projekat bude gotov. Ovo je reka, pokrivena, i koristi se kao smetlište. Nakon mnogo godina rada, otkrivena reka sa čistom vodom. Konačno, ovde možete videti reku kada projekat bude gotov.
So for sure, the Fez River Rehabilitation will keep on changing and adapting to the sociopolitical landscape of the city, but we strongly believe that by reimagining the role and the agency of the architect, we have set up the core idea of the project into motion; that is, to transform the river from sewage to public space for all, thereby making sure that the city of Fez will remain a living city for its inhabitants rather than a mummified heritage.
Sasvim sigurno, rehabilitacija reke Fez će nastaviti da menja i da se adaptira sociopolitičkom pejzažu grada, ali čvrsto verujemo da ćemo ponovnim stvaranjem uloge i rada arhitekte pokrenuti ključnu ideju projekta: to jest, da se transformiše reka iz kanalizacije u javni prostor za sve, i pritom se postara da će grad Fez ostati grad za život svojih stanovnika umesto mumificiranog zaveštanja.
Thank you very much.
Mnogo vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)