Design in Barcelona: Its History and its Future in the Globalized Scene

Abstract

While preparing this paper – in particular the second part, since recently my research has centred on the past – I came across the paper that Guy Julier wrote for the Second Conference of the European Academy of Design in Stockholm in1997. His paper discussed design in transitional countries such as Spain and Hungary - and he has recently published a very interesting new book in the UK in which he considers the Barcelona paradigm as an example of the behaviour of cities intent on finding a place of their own in the global map of the new economy (Julier, 1996, 1997, 2000). Both texts (1997, 2000) speak of Barcelona and Spain, and propose them as models of what design can do to regenerate a culture in a country which is going through a period of political transition. So my paper will be mostly a dialogue with Julier's thesis and, in some respects, an extension of what he said in 1997. Mine is an insider's story of the development of design in Barcelona, since I actually experienced many of these events at firsthand.

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Notes on contributors

Anna Calvera

BIOGRAPHY

Anna Calvera has a PhD in Philosophy (Aesthetics) and is a graphic designer and senior lecturer on Theory and History of Design at the University of Barcelona, Department of Design and Image. She is a tutor and research supervisor of a PhD Programme devoted to graphic design. Anna teaches on design and design history as a visiting professor in many schools of design in Barcelona (Elisava, Eina, Massana Llotja), in Europe through the Socrates exchanges (Augsburg, Weimar, Paris, Lyon, Bologna), and in Latin America (Managua, La Havana, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Montevideo and Quito). She is promoter and head of the Scientific Committee of the first and second Design History Conferences held in Barcelona in April 1999 and La Havana, June 2000. She is a regular contributor to magazines such as Temes de disseny (Barcelona, Spain) and Experimenta (Madrid, Spain) and is author of a book about philosophical process and Design Theory of William Morris (Barcelona, 1992).