Barcelona Metropolis

Clearly, the emphasis is placed on issues specific to municipal museums, spaces and the histories of the city concerned, rather than the somewhat more predictable content found in art, science, nature or technology museums. This has especially nuanced the “everyday” aspects of urban living, delving into matters such as housing or employment, as well as social, ecological and implicitly political aspects – although more “cultural” factors, such as religion and the realm of ideas, have by no means been excluded. Perhaps the focus lies in a widespread anthropological idea of “culture”, with a broad scope, as advocated by the tradition of the Welsh writer Raymond Williams in the 1960s and 1970s. MUHBA’s approach tends to be depicted on a much bigger canvas than what most municipal museums across Europe, that I am familiar with, have used.

When it comes to method and process, in contrast to content, MUHBA’s distinctive trajectory is clearly discernible. The approach is inspired by a kind of democratic academy, accessible to all citizens interested in contemplating their history and its connections to the present and future – a fundamentally collaborative strategy, in other words. Participants gather together in dialogues, seminars and exhibition projects to collaboratively and rigorously create a core criterion. Indeed, I haven’t come across this model elsewhere, making it appear home-grown. It might be common sense that successful innovative approaches emerge from deep and fertile ground, perhaps even more so than from global or overly general rhetoric and arguments. However, the home-grown approaches of most European cities have not necessarily had this deep and fertile ground or achieved the same results.

MUHBA’s success

The major areas of progress in the past fifteen years combine substance with method. Collaboration is a key ingredient in the formula, both within MUHBA and in society at large. Nevertheless, resource constraints pose a challenge to maintaining this balancing act. It also appears that administrative and financial regulations further complicate the task of museum management.

In my view, MUHBA’s spatial and geographical transformation marks a pivotal moment, particularly with the creation of the Besòs axis of centres and activities, involving specific work with districts and associations in this area. This dimension is also reflected in the strategic direction that, since the 1980s, has aimed to regenerate and reshape the nature of this area. Over many years, the endeavours of various stakeholders have facilitated the geographical rebalancing of Barcelona and, to some extent, the entire metropolitan area. In essence, MUHBA prepares the ground for changes, leveraging its capacity to reshape perceptions of past and ongoing transformations, rather than directly exerting transformative impacts – although the influence of certain museumising initiatives on housing, industry and water in the northeastern sector of the city should not be underestimated.

As an urban planner, I am especially interested in the impact this phenomenon has on the “spatial imaginaries” that citizens have of their city. Of course, this includes politicians and architects, along with other influential figures in urban transformation. It would be interesting to compare how people viewed the city (and beyond) two decades ago with how they see it now, in terms of images, mental maps, and so on. Methodologically speaking, such a comparison poses quite a challenge, with identifying the impacts of MUHBA’s work presenting an even bigger one. Essentially, this constitutes a noteworthy challenge for urban geographers, sociologists or ecologists.

Building and sharing knowledge

In my view, the second noteworthy accomplishment revolves around building and sharing knowledge. This is tied to MUHBA’s academic and collaborative framework, which engages in a substantial volume of work related to research and presentation. The museum has actively collaborated with academic experts and local associations, over not just a year or two but rather one or two decades, contributing to the advancement of knowledge on subjects such as food supply, water provision and housing issues. Notably, there have been considerable publications on these subjects, in both extensive and concise formats, with some being highly accessible and available in several languages. This publication initiative is, in my opinion, unmatched by any other museum, at least in the realm of municipal museums. Of course there is plenty of scope for the future teams at MUHBA to expand this approach into new foundational fields and through innovative approaches.

The transformations at the museum’s main seat in Plaça del Rei are also a significant achievement, not only because they are the most visited and visible, but because they have laid the groundwork for future MUHBA teams to use these spaces as foundations for their projects without the need to modernise the basic infrastructure, a task that has already been completed.

A fourth achievement would be the quality of the online presence. I would say that MUHBA fares very well when compared to the websites of other European municipal museums I know, both in terms of adaptation to changes over the years and the depth of information it provides. A good example is the cartographic element, which continues to spread and flourish, enabling anyone worldwide to access and interact with the historical geography of Barcelona, a boon to scholars and the general public of all ages and backgrounds.

Obviously, talking about the future is much riskier than summing up the achievements to date. Presumably, the museum will strive not to rest on its laurels or halt its evolution and progress. However, it would be quite natural for the dominant theme in the coming years to focus on consolidating certain elements that have been achieved. When it comes to learning about the new centres on housing, labour, water and urban development, it will be important to experiment with how new understandings within each topic evolve and how connections are made between the museum’s different “rooms”: 55 rooms, distributed across a total of 18 centres.