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City Models: Itineraries in the globalized city

It is inevitable comparing two cards stuck on the fridge door. Photographs that show a moment in the life of a city, analogous sites, monuments or buildings that, in the twinkling of an eye, reveal differences and similarities.

This looking with tourist eyes, recreational and fast looks, we have established it as the starting point for our experiment. Beginning with cities that are important to us as Kuwait and Madrid, we hope to initiate a series of tours around the world to give us an updated vision of the globalized city.

21 May, 2015 Por AGi Architects Leave a Comment

Itinerary 1: Madrid

We begin in España Square, as many Chinese tourists do. A large fountain that pays tribute to Cervantes will be the starting point. Behind us on the esplanade of the square, temporary stalls that the Council rents preiodically, are spread.

We accede to Gran Vía, the most touristic street of the city in which are alternated empty buildings as the building Spain, purchased this by Wanda Group, with historic buildings that still harbor cinemas and theaters. We turn quickly to Mostenses Square, where a market, built in 1925 and that today serves restaurants and locals, is located on. This simple market organization and somewhat outdated, is the face of the different cultures and nationalities that live together in an emblematic neighborhood of most traditional Madrid.

Leaving the market, we wander about narrow sidewalks where small businesses follow one another until the secondary school Cardinal Cisneros, where another narrow street leads to San Bernardo.

San Bernardo is a main thoroughfare usually congested by traffic. The street is riddled with public transport, buses and metro. Approaching to the heart of Malasaña, we see very active rehabilitation works. We get into the square, and we see a pedestrian’s right of way street but with great presence of vehicles. Throughout all the journey the vegetation is an anecdote, isolated trees have been systematically placed.

During the day the place looks abandoned, night clubs are closed and everything has a careless appearance. A fenced monument occupies the center: “look but do not touch”. The sand play areas, alternate with granite flooring areas where at night young people gather.

Itinerary 2: Kuwait city

For the Kuwait part of walk, the journey starts at the plaza in front of the Banks Complex. The plaza has a central pond surrounded by strictly pruned vegetation cut into symmetrically distributed planters. A short walk along Ahmed Al Jaber Street then takes us to a busy pedestrian crossing. Leaving a McDonald’s fast food restaurant behind us, we have to fight our way between cars that seem ignorant of the concept of a pedestrian’s right of way.

But no matter, because as soon as the street is crossed, the Mubarakiya Souk area starts. This shaded and pedestrianized market is cluttered with eclectic stores of every kind. The complete messiness and disorder of the market gives it a whimsical and unique atmosphere unlike anywhere else in Kuwait. At the end of the Mubarakiya Souk, we leave the shade and emerge back under the sunlight. A short walk then leads us to a large open plaza that is mostly empty, except for the few outdoor cafés and spontaneously appearing street vendors. After a couple of turns, we enter again into another shaded market, much similar to the Mubarakiya Souk.

At the exit of this market, we first walk through a small restaurant’s outdoor seating area, and then a sidewalk with a few featureless building on the left and sea of parking on the right. The Municipality Park greets us at the end of the parking, almost as a reward for our perseverance. This park is quite bizarre. It has a lot of greenery patches and many water features but most of them are fenced off, communicating a clear ‘don’t touch’ policy. And so at the center of the Municipality Park, the Kuwait part of the walk comes to an end.