THESE ARE WORMS, THIS IS A BAR, THERE IS A PARALLELISM UNDER CONSTRUCTION
There is a parallelism between building sites and the new post pandemic normality. The New Jersey is the solid and material element that connects them both.
They both:
break in the regular course of things;
drastically disrupt society and the environment;
are intermediaries between past and future;
seem to burst into urban space for longer than expected;
are directly influenced by architecture and politics;
participate in environmental construction;
lead to new material manifestations;
bring about chaos and its materiality;
bring about stigma;
provoke banal rejection in daily life;
provoke unseen economic and social controversy;
are wished to disappear, to be eliminated;
are viewed as if everything has stopped around them;
are perceived as temporary solutions;
are rejected;
are yearnings for a previous city that will not come back and a future one that may not happen.
Thus, places where the Jersey solution has been applied are perceived as uncompleted half-built areas that are waiting to be improved.
However, they both:
are habitable;
challenge standards and cold homogeneity;
present new scenarios that could lead to a paradigm shift.
THE NEW JERSEY IS DEMONIZED
Jersey Walls’ widespread use in road construction has led to converting them to a generic portable element used to reroute traffic, not only in highways but also in the middle of the city. One of its main uses is to delimit building sites in order to protect pedestrians and construction workers during a temporary or semi-permanent traffic reorientation in urban space. This function is in fact similar to the one that the New Jersey has adopted as a fast urban response: to isolate an area that needs to be consolidated. The Jersey wall occurs now as an element that delimits an area which was previously reserved for vehicles but that is now intended for pedestrians. This is based on the extension of the sidewalk in order to prevent crowding and the extension of an interior space on the outside to decongest indoor areas. This fact has led to reconfiguring urban fabric morphology as boundaries between the sidewalk and the road have blurred. The supposedly temporary “solution” to muddle through seems to stay for long.
The New Jersey recalls the building site. And the building site is rejected as bringing about negative connotations. Therefore, the Jersey Wall is rejected and stigmatized as well. This being said, there is no intention to criticize how Jersey Walls have been placed around the city, but to explore what there is behind this perceptive parallelism so that they have been so demonized.
THE BUILDING SITE AS A VOID
Building sites are not as arbitrary and spontaneous as it seems. They are in fact a reflection of a specific ideology.
A comparison between a series of cartoons produced in the United States and the Soviet Union, dated from the twenties to the eighties, significantly manifests the power of economic and technological production methods in order to mold both construction sites and therefore architecture. American characters get on with hanging steel Y-beams whereas Russian ones move among concrete panels.
Architect’s projection also has a direct influence on the building site. It entails a specific constructive method that is not incidental, it responds to an acquired constructive knowledge based on established practices and conventions, that again, have been stated from a minority in order to respond to political issues. So building sites and construction work are involved in a relationship where they cannot be treated independently from the power of politics controlling from above. Building sites link politics and architecture making possible the materialization of interests of both disciplines which are usually successfully solved (leaving apart whether the transformation has been beneficial or not). Although, when it comes down to its development it is almost left to chance as neither architects nor politicians want anything to do with the challenges that it brings about (organization of tasks and space, working conditions, physical work, etc.). Politics and architecture are very present but also very absent at the same time in a way that building sites occur as a void. That is the main point. The building site is a forgotten void that accomplishes the interests of both politics and architecture by contradicting the urban discourse that they traditionally defend. Building sites break insurmountable standardization. Building sites become a place where standards wobble.
THE BUILDING SITE IS A PARADOX
A building site is a paradox that participates in environmental construction. There is no doubt. Such a paradox could lead into a paradigm shift, but for this to happen it has to be considered beyond traditional banality. Its rejection is often justified because of the dirtiness and danger that it implies. But its materiality is the one that fights against standards and the obsession of executing a cold homogeneous strict plan based on spatial systematization. A building site appears in its maximum splendor when politicians, architects and designers are completely absent. This is the time when it could be an opportunity to challenge normative regulations. Steel beams could fall violently at random into a pool of fresh concrete challenging such banal terms.
CHAOS AESTETHICS IS STIGMA’S CRADLE
Building sites are presented as environmental benefits (theoretically) yet still their material manifestations are rejected. Maintenance, conservation and construction turn into a great chaotic expression which disobeys the same rules that they are trying to follow from which they are nourished: chaos fighting against chaos itself. That is not only paradoxical but even ironic. If this phenomenon is dissected, a chain of rejected elements can be seen as an aesthetic theory. The New Jersey is not understandable without the building site. The building site is not understandable without chaos in such a way that it is not clear which goes first, they sprout hand in hand. The pursuit of strict order could unleash the opposite effect. Such a contradiction should not be a synonym of rejection. Many disciplines manifest as transgressive against standards defending chaos, something not always accepted in terms of spatial organization. However, chaos can provide change and transformation. In fact, building sites could be the purest illustration of this phenomenon; a chaotic spatial manifestation which drives change. But there is a plot twist. When construction is about to be completed, urban planning again gets rid of any possible threat which has temporarily appeared. At this point, criticism around building sites is also contradictory: they are stigmatized because of chaos but once they welcome the refined and polished urban intervention, nostalgia develops and chaotic, spontaneous daily phenomena are missed.
THE BUILDING SITE IS PLAYFUL
Despite the significant difference between North American capitalism (steel beam) and Soviet communism (concrete panel), both series of cartoons present building sites as habitable spaces where imagination runs riot and characters develop their daily life. This relates to the scenario of many playground areas destined for children located in the Ciutat Vella district in the city of Barcelona. These ones are surrounded by construction sites for either short or prolonged periods of time in a way that they are normalized by its inhabitants. Furthermore, they present colors and shapes that recall building sites. This is another perceptive parallelism between building site and imagination.
THE BUILDING SITE IS PLAYFUL
THE NEW JERSEY IS PLAYFUL
THE NEW NORMALITY IS PLAYFUL
The pandemic could be an opportunity to provoke through the New Jersey. This is not a call to use building site elements purely, it would be a banal reasoning again, but to incorporate a normative urban element to fight against standardization.
THE BUILDING SITE IS INTEGRATED IN SPACE
THE NEW JERSEY IS INTEGRATED IN SPACE
THE NEW NORMALITY IS INTEGRATED IN SPACE
THE BUILDING SITE IS A BAR WHERE YOU CAN EAT, TALK AND LAUGH
THE NEW JERSEY AND NEW NORMALITY ARE A BAR WHERE YOU CAN EAT, TALK, LAUGH
THE BUILDING SITE CHALLENGES STANDARDS
THE NEW JERSEY AND NEW NORMALITY CHALLENGE STANDARDS
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Once this article was finished, the City Council of Barcelona approved New Jerseys’ removal throughout 2021. The proposal, presented by the municipal group of citizens, was unanimously approved during the Ecology, Urbanism, Infrastructure and Mobility commission, in response to a civil and social platform’s (Barcelona ets tu) complaint when a motorcyclist died after colliding with a concrete block. From here on, a new terrace model will be proposed in order to replace the «provisional» elements. Some political parties asked for new urban elements which should improve the quality of urban architecture so that drivers feel safe above all. But despite such terrible accident, it has been said that New Jerseys are as dangerous as any other rigid urban element such a traffic light or a rubbish bin. New Jerseys do not suppose an added risk in front of those urban elements pertaining to hostile architecture.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
– Alonso, Pedro; Palmarola, Hugo (2016). Choreographies. 4th Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Portugal.
– 3/24, Catalan Media Corporation (2021). L’Ajuntament traurà els blocs de formigó dels carrers de Barcelona durant el 2021. Consulted: https://www.ccma.cat/324/lajuntament-traura-els-blocs-de-formigo-dels-carrers-de-barcelona-durant-el-2021/noticia/3072454/
– Inhotim Institute. (2009). Beam Drop Inhotim, 2008 – Chris Burden. Video, 5min 37s. Consulted: https://youtu.be/yBeU-JmEvFE