Interview with Iñaki Romero

 

The following is paraphrased summary of my interview with Iñaki Romero which was conducted in Spanish on July 12, 2017.

—Iñaki Romero, member of Paisaje Transversal, from Victoria in the Basque Country. He attended architecture school in Madrid to pursue his interests in urbanism. There he formed a school association with his now partners to write about and host events on urban issues. His education was quite technical and focused mostly on land use and zoning. Paisaje Transversal´s vision was to create a urban design practice that would be multidisciplinary and engage the public in decision-making.—

SM: How do you describe Paisaje Transversal?

IR: We use the term oficina or office. Paisaje Transversal is not foundation, we function as a business similar to the classical type of architecture or urban design office. We are like a collective as our practice is open and horizontal in its structure but we are a business.

SM: How did Paisaje Transversal transform from a blog to a practice?

IR: The blog was for us to write and think about urbanism, and share information that could be useful to others. The transition into a business was very gradual. We mostly wrote and conducted interviews. The turning point was when Pilar proposed that we do a real project, Virgen de Begoña, which has served as a laboratory for our participatory methodologies.

SM: Do you have specific roles within Paisaje Transversal?

IR: Yes, Jon is responsible for communications and outreach, Pilar is in charge of design, Jorge is responsible for innovation and implementing new technologies, and Guillermo has a more general vision and does marketing and research. I manage the business, the accounting and business vision. Well, we are each specialize but in reality, we all do some of everything.

SM: Is there a specific department or ministry of the City Council dedicated to urbanism?

IR: Yes, in Spain it is very important. It is called El Ministerio de Ladrillo (brick). All governments in Spain have a consulate for this in charge of constructing housing. The mayor and the consulate of urbanism have the most control over this.

SM: How is Paisaje Transversal funded?

IR: 95% of the time our projects are in collaboration with the City Council or governmental entities. We are a business that is hired with public money to work on projects that are initiated by the City Council. It is typically top-down however the project we look for follow a more bottom-up structure.

SM: Are your salaries determined by the City Council, or how are they decided?

IR: Since we function as a cooperative association, or as consultants, we pay taxes and can decide our salaries freely. The projects we work on do not earn much money. If we were a foundation, the government would have some control. We can make decent salaries but it not probable that we will be rich.

SM: How could your methodologies be applied on a more global scale?

IR: Our methodologies are replicable anywhere in the world but in our mission statement we say, “for adaptation to the local reality.” If we want to do a project in another part of Spain such as Galicia or Andalucia, we need to spend a lot of time listening and learning from people there. Consciousness of local culture and needs is very important.

SM: How can social businesses like Paisaje Transversal unite to support the “Right to the City?”

IR: Our economic system makes it complicated for businesses to be compatible with social services and foundations that are part of the third sector like NGOs. Businesses must make money or a profit or else they will close or be written off as activism.

— Iñaki expressed that Paisaje Transversal must focus on their projects, which are expressions of urban activism and support the Right to the City however they must stay afloat. This means there is little free time outside of our work to dedicate to this cause or others. However, they do consult other like-minded businesses, or experts on law, economics, or engineering on many projects. —

In reality, very little money is dedicated to this [right to the city, public activism]. Public funding and philanthropy is usually used to address more basic urban issues having to with the elderly or at-risk populations.

SM: What current or past projects are you most excited about?

IR: The project we did best, with most success and highest quality, was in Olot (OlotMesB or +B) working on regeneration in the Sant-Miquel neighborhood. We focused on regeneration in the historic center of Olot, and the vulnerable neighborhood of Sant-Miquel. Olot is a small city in Catalonia with forty thousand people, an hour and a half from Barcelona. Jon is there right now. Also, we have been working in Oviedo in Castilla-Leon. And, also on a plaza here in Madrid. There´s a plan for eleven plazas in Madrid and we are working on one of those. Many projects we have worked on are interesting and can be helpful to the communities where these initiatives happen however some do not reach completion. Each project has a parallel process in which we educate and involve the public.

SM: How does the scale of a project affect participation?

IR: It affects it a lot. Urbanists in Spain are trained to design at all scales, from a chair to a territory. So, we have the capacity to work at all scales but the sociological component of participation is complicated. In Virgen de Begoña in Oviedo, we considered the scale of the neighborhood with anywhere from one to fifteen thousand people. We can get a good sense of public perceptions. We are dealing with questions at street level such as improving pedestrian walkways or how many trees to plant. Whereas in our territorial plans for the Basque Country, we are looking at the connections between green areas or terrain – it is difficult to incorporate participation because it is much more technical. The process is supervised through indicators but it is all very technical. There are public workshops and initiatives involved but they are less successful. It is far more difficult to mobilize a population of two hundred thousand participants. There is not really a sense of a common, communal process.