Francisco Javier Monclús Fraga
Exposiciones internacionales y urbanismo, El proyecto Expo Zaragoza 2008
(2006, UPC - Universitat Politécnica de Cataluña)

Foreword by Vicente Gonzáles Loscertales

Modern cities embody many opposing forces: where there is growth there is consumption;where there is speed there is exhaustion; where there is diversity there is segregation; where there are intense activities there is degradation. These are some of the tensions that shape today’s urban experience and that contribute to drive the renewed interest in Expos of which this volume is a great testimony.

In this engaging book, El urbanismo de las Expositiones internationals y la Expo Zaragoza 2008, Javier Monclús masterfully synthesizes the strategic role of Expos in urban planning and the challenges of those that strive to create the better city of tomorrow. Because of its mandate to oversee Expos, the future of cities is a critical concern for the BIE. Cities will increasingly reflect and rely upon a culture of sustainable urban development, with Expos as an important instrument for sharing practices and fuelling global debates for solutions.

Today cities hold the keys to the implementation of best practices for designing, planning and building quality environments for urban life. When they choose to host an Expo they never do so in a vacuum. Each Expo is always integrated into the city’s strategic development plan and often its role is to boost the desired transformation. Monclús’ insightful analysis of the different experiences makes this volume an important milestone to further encourage the
understanding of the importance of Expos in shaping cityscapes and culture.

While Expos have been often connected to the adjective “ephemeral,” this volume reinforces their concrete and lasting character. Expos, in fact, have always had a place in city planning as strategic instruments for urban, economic and cultural renewal. Despite their 3 to 6 months life-span, Expos belong to the realm of long-term projects for the transformation of the city. Both the BIE and Monclús converge on the view that an Expo’s successful long-term impact depends on the ability to manage its integration in the city and to align it with broader goals.

The BIE gives an extremely high importance to the integration of the Expo site into the city and to the need of managing well the plan for its re-utilisation. These concerns are, in fact, encoded and regulated by a 1994 Resolution of the General Assembly stating the conditions of the insertion and re-utilisation of the site. The Resolution states that: “In order to ensure the contribution which exhibitions should make to the development and the improvement of the quality of life, the organisers should accord a primordial importance to:
　　• the environmental conditions of insertion of the site and the infrastructures of access; to the reduction of the risks of pollution, to the preservation and constitution of green spaces and to the quality of real estate development.
　　• the re-utilisation of the site and its infrastructures after the exhibition."

Under the BIE framework, the transformational power of Expos affects a broad time span. Well before the Expo takes place, it is very present in the daily life of the city through the planning, the organisational activities and the necessary mobilization of citizens. During the Expo the site becomes an extraordinary and unique urban stage for architecture, for diversity, for technology, for mobility and for culture. After the Expo the work continues with the architectural transformations necessary to readapt the site to the needs of the city and of the citizens.

Expos are a bridge between different eras of urban life. Expos can be thought as the rite of passage chosen by a city to enact a vision for its future layout, for the mobility within its walls and for the social, economic and cultural activities it will support. The actions that will accompany urban renewal fuelled by Expos will involve, amongst others, the regeneration of certain areas, the overall or partial branding or re-branding and the reconfiguration of the city’s operational systems (transports, telecommunication, networks, etc.).

This volume, explains very clearly the extent to which Expos are products of their time. Expos are, in fact, the physical expression of the cultural geography and of the innovative capacity of the world at a certain time. Their urban, cultural and technological legacies are true mirrors of the society that created them, thus explaining the shifting of emphasis on architecture, construction, contents and technology in the different periods.

Between 1851 and 1940, Expos were strongly influenced by material progress and technological inventions. The themes, which reflected a passion for constructing the future and the importance of national identity, were embedded in stylistically-rich expressions. Here, material progress was represented as a distance between “civilizations,” with machineries and inventions as central to the displays, for example: “Agriculture, Arts and Industry”, “A century of progress,” “Transports Colonisation,” “Arts and Techniques in modern life.”

The years between 1958 and 2000 are characterized by the need to put technological innovation at the service of the well being of humanity. The focus shifts from monolithic identity to relationships, stressing the connection of people to each other and to technology, exploration or nature. More recently, with the growing role of the information revolution as a fuel to relationships, architectural experimentation does not occupy a primary place in Expos. The shift in perspective is highlighted by themes of the Expos, for example: “Evaluation of the World for a more human world,” “Man and His World,” “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” “Age of discovery,” “Humankind, Nature, Technology.”

The new century is one of interdependence. Expos reflect the growing awareness that each action has long-term consequences on the environment and on our lives. Parallel to the renewed interest in Expos, there is also a new conviction that Expos can be, again, real instruments of progress in all of the areas that today present problems for the sustainability of the global life-style: the environment, energy, health, education, etc.

Whereas, throughout the decades, the focus of Expos has been different, one important concept remains: it is the concept of progress. Although many consider it an outdated mechanistic concept, for the BIE it expresses innovation and the continuity between Expos, where each one is a milestone towards the future and a catalyst for development.

In addition to providing a very complete presentation of the assumptions, the strategy and the implementation of Expo Zaragoza 2008, Monclús dedicates a section of his volume to the other candidates for 2008. In fact, even the Expos that did not happen leave a mark which enables to obtain even greater insights on the values of Expos today.

To quote Yutaka Hikosaka, the architect of the Japan Pavilion at Aichi 2005, Expos “have started fulfilling the historical task of acting as global mechanisms for the reconstruction of the global environment.” To this end, the BIE and the organisers of past, present and future Expos view them as opportunities to launch best practices for implementing sustainable urban solutions. Through a broad field of action that includes architecture, energy and resource usage, operations, communication, civil participation, the Expos of the 21st century will be real-life laboratories for innovation.

Aichi 2005, with its theme “Nature’s Wisdom” has paved the way for this century’s engagement of Expos in the international network that delivers real solutions for building sustainable cities and environments. The upcoming Expos Zaragoza 2008 “Water and Sustainable Development” and Shanghai 2010 “Better City, Better Life” also share this mission.

 

Vicente Gonzáles Loscertales
Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions
August 2006