------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gleaner-voucher thesis is the transformation of the Street Markets system in the province of Alicante (Spain) into a technological, energetic and social infrastructure for innovation. Grade: Architecture Degree Year of approval: 2012 Title: Gleaner-voucher University: University of Alicante Supervising Professor: Enrique Nieto, Pablo Martí, Ignacio Ridruejo. Author: Julia Cervantes Corazzina Click here to see more about this project We are currently going through an economic, social, energetic, and political crisis. This is not just a moment of uncertainty, but it is also the opportunity to build new more sustainable realities in a collective way. Img.1: Images that appeared in several newspapers during 2011 and 2012. The starting point of the project was a research process about types of existing urban scenes in which spaces of innovation could be developed. It was found that flea markets are one of the most interesting contemporary urban entities. In these flea markets, several existing networks collide from productive and economic networks to social and identity networks. Moreover, this is an urban entity of identities, affections, and built over self-management. Why don t we make use of these networks and transform them into spaces for innovation? In recent history we can see several cases in which innovation has been produced in spaces such as garages and living rooms; that is to say, domestic spaces that have not been traditionally classified as spaces for innovation. To take advantage of the street market and its networks, why not build a new type of urban entity in which innovation may occur? The project aims to transform the street market in Alicante (Spain) into a place where not only are there goods, but also where ideas are exchanged. Img.2: (a) Street markets in Alicante (Photography taken by the author of the Thesis in 2011). (b) Garage where the first computer HP was built. (c)assemblage of street markets and spaces for innovation (Image created by the author of the Thesis).
The project is developed following two parallel lines: a theoretical research project on the street market as an urban entity, and a practical project focused on transforming the street market system of Alicante. Img.3: Diagram of all the documents developed for the Thesis. The documents with blue background are part of the theoretical research (below). The documents with pink background are part of the practical project of transforming of the street markets in Alicante (above). The actual dimensions of this drawing were 5.94 x 1.7m (10m2). ******************************************************************************THEORETICAL PROJECT This line focuses on researching how the street markets occupy the cities and create relations among inhabitants and spaces. Amongst others, a classification of 33 different artefacts employed by street vendors across the world was carried out. This classification included, along with a graphical representation, the mobility level, storage and country of every artefact. Img.5: Classification and research on 33 different types of artefacts employed by street vendors across the world. Another document created for this study was a genealogy of the different types of street vending across the world. Thus, after collecting a great amount of photos, the most representative pictures were shortlisted and included on a map where the streets markets were linked in terms of different aspects: electric consumption, dependence on other urban infrastructures, types of products that are sold, and so on and so forth.
Img.6: Map-genealogy of the street vending systems across the world. Alomng with this, the theoretical line of the project also included other documents such as a diary, a diagram of the bibliography consulted as well as a series of texts that constituted a theoretical ground for the practical project of transforming of street markets in Alicante. In addition, a number of street vendors of the city of Alicante were interviewed in order to obtain a more realistic view about the procedures that this sort of urban activity entails. It is worth highlighting that all these documents have been further developed in an article recently published at the scientific magazine [I2] Research and Innovation in Architecture and Territory: http://i2.ua.es/architecture/article/view/88 Img.7: Other documents developed in the theoretical research project on street vending.
********************************************************************************PRACTICAL PROJECT The transformation of the street markets in Alicante needs an approach that deeply understands the complexity of this system. This is way the project has been developed in three scales: SMALL SIZE scale street scene and new artefacts of the street vendors-, the MEDIUM SIZE scale city and urban areas- and LARGE SIZE scale protocols and territory-. Below, a summary of the most important aspects of every scale of the intervention will be explained. The SMALL SIZE scale puts its attention in the development of a technological artefact in which both street vendors and researchers could carry out their activities in a cooperative way. In this line, the urban device is formed by an adaptable structure that allows the users to create different types of spaces for different types of uses. Since the same structure can be inhabited by both street vendors and researchers, it makes the synergies between both activities (selling of products as well as innovation) possible. Img.8: The street, the urban artefact, and its users (researchers and street vendors). The sustainable character of this technological urban device is another outstanding aspect. First of all, the energy supply is possible thanks to the solar fabric fans that are anchored to the main structure. Those solar fans thus supply the energy that the innovation activity needs (e.g. computer plug-ins).secondly, the adaptable structure is towed across the city by its electric trailer. Thus, the solar energy not only supplies the energy required by its users, but also the energy required in terms of transportation and mobility. In third place, the procedure that the users follow to make use of the urban artefact is similar to that of the Bike Rental currently working in many cities around the world. Thus, the street vendors will rent one of these urban artefacts when it is needed and, when they do not need it, they will park it again so that the rest of city s inhabitants can use it. The place for parking and supplying solar energy to these urban artefacts, the management centre, will be explained later on.
Img.9: Model developed to research on the mobility and adaptability of the urban artefact.
The MEDIUM SIZE scale approach consists of how the urban artefacts will be set up in the urban scene throughout the city of Alicante. Firstly, when the urban artefacts are being used by vendors and researchers, they are set up in the existing street markets of the city. The following image shows the plan of the Benalúa street market configuration with these urban artefacts. Img.10: Plan of the Street Market in Benalúa (Alicante).
As it has been said before, the management centre is the place where the urban artefacs are parked when they are not being used by vendors and researchers. This is also the place where the artefacts will unfold the solar fans and thus be charged with the necessary energy for its usage and transportation. In addition, this urban infrastructure is built over the damaged landscapes of the city in order to rehabilitate them. The following shows a plan of the management centre in the quarry close to the Postiguet beach (Alicante). Img.11: Plan of the management centre of the abandoned quarry close to Postiguet beach (Alicante). Img.12: Current state of abandoned quarry close to Postiguet beach (Alicante).
This management centre is also a new leisure landscape for the city. Thus, when the urban artefacts are parked there, they will not be a structure for vending and innovation, but they will be used by the rest of the inhabitants of the city. Let s say that a music band needs a place to perform a concert or a networking club needs a meeting place, they will be able to rent one of these artefacts to accommodate their events. Img.13: Leisure landscape of the management centre of the abandoned quarry close to Postiguet beach (Alicante). Img.14: Model of the landscape of the management centre of the abandoned quarry close to Postiguet beach (Alicante).
Img.15: Existing street markets in Alicante. The LARGE SIZE scale is focused on building strong connections among the street markets, the management centres, and territories where innovation is already being developed locally, the universities and industries; globally, airports and train stations. Therefore, at this scale the main transformation is the implementation of a tram line that connects all of these points in the territory. Thanks to the installation of different technological devices (e.g. computers, printers, screens, or meeting rooms), the wagon of this tram line will also be transformed into a place where the users can innovate and research during their trips. Img.16: Wagon of the new tram line for innovation and research in the city of Alicante.
Img.17: Hyper-connections among street markets for innovation, management centres, University, industrial clusters, airport and train station. The second aspect treated by the LARGE SIZE scale is the creation of urban protocols aimed at encouraging society, innovators, and street vendors to work together. This part of the project was developed after analysing the existing networks that are related to street markets in the Alicante province. Then, thanks to the diagram showed below, the procedures to boost these relations were developed. Img.18: Existing productive and touristic networks relating to the street markets in the province of Alicante.
Img.19: Urban protocols aimed at encouraging society, innovators and street vendors to work together. ************************************************A NEW INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE IN THE STREET MARKETS Once the main drawings and texts for defining the intervention were tackled, it was considered essential to come up with a series of documents that would provide a view of the experiences that could happen in this new type of street market. Among others, the author interviewed around 20 people to know their views regarding the potentialities of the project. They were also encouraged to come up with a shopping list that they expected to write if they were to go to this new street market. The results showed that the people interviewed not only incorporated products to buy, but they also showed interest in participating in the research projects as well as using the leisure facilities of the management centre. Thus, the enthusiasm that society show when they are offered the possibility of enjoying the city in a new, more creative way is evident.
Img.20: New shopping lists for the street markets proposed created by the people that the author interviewed. In order to explain how the users would experience and inhabit the new street markets, a short video was developed. Being the city a collective space that provides the person with multiple sensations (colours, sounds, smells, relations with other people, etc.), the short video shows a little girl walking around the different new urban spaces that the project proposes. This video also shows how the project focuses on intensifying the person s experience in the city by giving them the opportunity to be more proactive when participating in the urban dynamics. Click here to watch the short video Img.21: Clips of the short video about the different urban spaces that the project proposes. To summarize, the project is aimed at understanding the complexity of street vending and how this can be transformed in order to produce innovation in the streets. By first developing a theoretical project and then projecting a proposal for the street markets in Alicante, the project provides a vision about how important the street experience is when looking for new, more sustainable and innovative realities. The idea that lies behind every drawing and text in the project is that, in order to look for solutions for the crisis (not only economic, but also social, environmental, and political), a collective action between society, innovators, and economic actors is needed. The street can then be the platform for this social, economic, technological, and political innovation.