As I walked through the Museu d’Història de Barcelona Olivia Artés I could not help but notice the striking metal beams dividing each section of the exhibit. The museum was situated inside a hollowed-out factory building from the 1920s, a remnant of Barcelona’s industrial legacy. The focus of the museum was on the development of Barcelona as a city and its transformation from industrialization to the modern era.
There could not have been a better place to embody this focus than the factory building itself. The physical space demonstrates the transformations its exhibits describe, breathing life into a space abandoned in a post-industrial area, where jobs in the sector have been outsourced overseas.
This space reminded me of my home, Cleveland, Ohio, a once-prosperous industrial city that has been struggling to find its identity in the post-industrial era. Similarly, the transformation of physical spaces in Cleveland mirrors those of Barcelona. When my grandparents first immigrated to the United States my grandmother worked in a textile factory to help provide for our family. As textile production left the city, this factory lay abandoned for decades until one day it was purchased and transformed into a grade school, which I then happened to attend.
The legacy of physical spaces undoubtedly has an intergenerational impact. This leaves me to wonder, why have these two historically industrial cities met such drastically different fates? Barcelona has been able to maintain its growth and prosperity as a city due to its presence as an international hub for tourism. However, this was not always the case. Only following the 1992 Olympics did Barcelona rise to prominence as a premier destination for tourism.
In recent history, both cities have been rapidly developing their healthcare sector. The Cleveland Clinic is a world-renowned hospital. Barcelona is innovating through its expansive biomedical research network. This sector seems like a sustainable avenue for long-term growth in both of these cities.
However, when we seek to discuss new developments and economic prosperity in a city, it is important to acknowledge that historically, neither of these have been shared or experienced universally. For example, in Barcelona, the development of utility infrastructure for water and electricity was primarily privatized. As a result, there was drastic segregation of both access and quality of these essential utilities based on class divisions.
When looking forward to the groundbreaking developments of the healthcare technology sector, it will be crucial to learn from the mistakes of our industrial past. Technological advancement must not necessarily breed inequality and it will be up to our generation to make universal prosperity both an ideal and a tangible reality.
Revolutionary Cities 