La Ciudad de los Cuidados

After decades of industrialization, our cities, in their physical and governmental dimensions, are productivity-oriented places. In them, one can deliver merchandise, advertise a commercial product or drive to work. Nonetheless, cities are also a more hostile environment for non-productive activities: being able to choose where to sit and rest, use a public toilet, drink clean water without paying, breathe unpolluted air, have fun without consuming or walk without getting wet when it rains, which are great features in today's cities. The privilege that productive activities have enjoyed and those who exercise them has led to the denial of the various biological and subjective characteristics of its inhabitants and the multidimensional character of the city, becoming a cultural principle and a political practice. This finding casts a great responsibility on those who design and govern the city: their decisions and their management distribute opportunities unequally among its inhabitants. Yet it also opens up an extensive field of alternatives that can present a uniting vision of the economy, the environment and the health of a diverse community. This book invites us to think and rethink architectural and urban models, prioritizing not so much the technical, formal and abstract knowledge of its professionals, as the public and civic dimension of their activity