TIMESCAPES OF URBAN CHANGE: El Raval – the process of

transformation

Monday 12th of December 2016 @ 6:30pm Ian Sinclair, venue: Auditori,

CCCB
life stream: http://www.cccb.org/en/multimedia/live

Tuesday 13th of December 2016 @ 9:30 am workshop, venue: Aula 1,

CCCB
Organised by Dr. Monica Degen, Brunel University
This event aims to put the question of temporality at the forefront of the research
agenda on urban change. While the making of urban space is in many ways a
materialisation of the passing of time, those using the city create and inhabit a
diversity of temporalities. Timescapes of Urban Change is part of an international
project exploring the implications of this dynamic from multiple angles. The event will
be launched on the evening of the 12th of December 2016 with a public talk by author
Ian Sinclair: The Last London: A City Abolished, whose writings on the city, and
London in particular, have long dealt with questions of time and temporality.
Thirty years have passed since Barcelona was appointed to host the 1992 Olympic
Games, an event which transformed the city’s urban reality. Building on our previous
workshop in London, where we compared the regeneration of Barcelona and London,
the workshop on the 13th of December will hone in on the el Raval neighbourhood
bringing together a variety of urban professionals and academics. Drawing on 20 years
of work on the urban transformation of el Raval, we will focus on the process of
regeneration in this neighbourhood, and in particular on how a diversity of everyday
temporal practices interact, contest and align themselves with institutional times in
urban regeneration projects. We are especially interested in thinking through how
different temporal attachments and uses of space developed by locals, new migrants
and tourists frame, support or disrupt urban renewal processes and communal living.
Do we need to conceptualise urban planning and urban citizenship in new ways? As
Sandercock (2003) asks: "how can 'we' (all of us), in all our differences, be 'at home' in
the multicultural and multiethnic cities of the 21st century?"
To encourage discussion, present and understand different temporal dimensions of
regeneration in cases we know or have been working on, all workshop participants are
asked to send an image (please add name and title of picture) representing
time/temporality and regeneration to Victoria vhabermehl@gmail.com by the 7th Of

1
December 2016. These images will be used as a slideshow throughout the debates,
and to structure the small group discussions.
As the workshop is part of an international project, the main language spoken will be
English during the discussion. However, presentations will be in English or Spanish.

PUBLIC EVENT 12th December 2016 – Auditori CCCB

18.30: Ian Sinclair The Last London: A City Abolished
19.30: Q & A
20.00: Close
WORKSHOP 13th December 2016 - Sala Mirador CCCB
9.30: Welcome and introduction to event by Monica Degen: “Timescapes of
Urban Change” and Miquel Fernandez (Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona)
“Memories of the Future:Imagined scenarios of the Raval”
10.00: Abdou Maliq Simone (Max Plank Institut, Göttingen) “Time after Time:
Experiments with Duration and Endurance in urban Southeast Asia”
10.40: Discussion
11.00: Coffee
11.15: Panel Debate on el Raval, time and urban regeneration
Moderator: Victoria Habermehl (Brunel) & Clare Melhuish (UCL)
11.20: Carmen Gual Via (Foment Ciutat Vella): “Raval? Which one?”
11.30: Euan Mills (Future Cities Catapult): "London: How should user needs
affect the design of the built environment?"
11.40: Eva Alfama (Consellera Raval) “El Raval: espacio público, diversidad
y derecho a la ciudad en la era de la globalización y la turistificación”
11.50: David Bravo (Director European Prize for Public space, CCCB)
“Barcelona: the rapid death of slow living”
12.00 Oscar Esteban (TOT Raval - Community Group) “La co-operacion entre los
actores del Raval”
12.10: Mari Paz Balibrea (Birbeck) “Los tiempos cambian: transformación
urbana y experiencia de la temporalidad en El Raval desde los años 80”
13.45: Lunch at CCCB
14.45: Discussion groups: time as a factor in urban life, moderator: Victoria
Habermehl (Brunel University)
15.45: Coffee
16.00: Presentation by groups and discussion

2
17.00: Close
Project information: www.sensescitiescultures.com