The argentinian urban public space pattern based on Spanish
plazas without vegetation and the ensuing French park with
vegetation gave our cities a similar image to those we wanted
to imitate overseas. We had the privilege of a majority of
parks (both private and public ones) and plazas of great
heritage value, most of them with enough value to be
considered as historical gardens. We did not take correct care
of them and we did not respect them. We do not have them as
they were in the past any more.
The current argentinian crisis led an
increasing number of people to move to urban public space with
their few belongings. Homeless in such quantities is a new
phenomenon in argentinian cities. Authorities and neighbors
usually think that those poor people must be thrown out from
parks and plazas instead of attacking the deep reasons of our
economic fall. I think all of us must begin thinking on
alternative uses of our public parks and plazas to combine the
different population needs: recreation and surviving. If not,
things will led to a worst care of our landscape heritage.
Together with this enormous problem,
economic crisis and increasing corruption also led to
worsening the historical gardens maintenance. Fragile green
heritage and statues and monuments are the first objectives of
vandalism. The erroneous and extremely scarce maintenance
actions taken by local governments only emphasize the problem.
More and more commercial events are allowed, producing a
de-naturalization and a loss of design values of sites.
Today we face a harsh reality regarding
our general heritage and landscape in particular. The main
problems are:
1. Lack of a historical garden and
landscape inheritance culture.
2. Ignorance of our natural and cultural heritage real values.
3. Lack of knowledge and non compliance with the criteria
established in international documents that the country had
already adhered to.
4. Ineffective, non-professional, politicized, non-transparent
management of landscape and garden heritage by public
agencies.
5. Incorrect maintenance of Listed Monuments.
6. Insufficient and incorrect legislation on the matter.
7. Absence of trained professionals and technicians on the
matter in public agencies.
8. Insufficient number of landscape and historical gardens
listed as protected heritage.
The main problems to be solved are:
1. Alarming decrease of green surface:
Caused by illegal usurpation and legal but confusing
concessions of land in public spaces: almost all our public
parks have been invaded by private clubs and institutions
using enormous surfaces that must be returned to public. Those
usurpations facilitate the loss of land integrity and cuts in
the global spatiality of fragile properties deserving specific
and specialized care. Because of insufficient green surface,
all our parks suffer a constant overuse, to the extreme of a
spatial suffocation and an alarming flora and fauna
depredation.
2. Loss of original design: Caused by
usurpations, by wrong maintenance by public agencies, by lack
of surveillance of maintenance by private sponsors. Bastard
elements have been included altering original design and
equipment, such as: fences, wastebaskets, lights, non
aesthetic monuments, publicity, not following neither the
original style nor the original quality. Some years ago, a
City Major demolished Burle Marx' s unique public masterwork
in the country because he did not like it !
3. Incorrect maintenance: It must
include the WHOLE property with its different components
(design, vegetation, art masterworks, equipment, services,
uses, signification, toponomy). It must be done by
multidisciplinary professional groups which are not available
in the public agencies, and they must permanently consult with
NGO's. A fountain lighting or the unveiling of a new statue,
must be thought as parts of a general professional project and
neither as a result of political or diplomatic pressures nor
to government offices fancy. All historical gardens must have
a Master Plan professionally designed and with the
corresponding government agencies, specialized professionals
and non profit neighbors associations consensus.
4. Non suitable uses: The enormous
musical or sport gatherings in historical gardens that are not
correctly prepared cause unforgivable damage. Motor vehicle
transit in the historical gardens and parks should be
prohibited, minimized, or only allowed if at low speed.
Parkings' construction under historical gardens has turned
them into big flowerpots working against the vegetation by
limiting the root growth due to the concrete floor (parking
roof).
5. Incorrect organization of government
agencies responsible for public promenades: The ancient Public
Parks Agencies lost the concentrated power they had in the
past and today several and different agencies take part in
garden maintenance causing unconsulted and overlapped actions.
Public Parks Agencies should concentrate all maintenance
actions using surveillance and protection legislation.
Financial resources should be used with common sense.
6. Lack of a correct
legislation: Historical gardens constitute the majority of our
public parks and urban squares. Only the Parque 9 de Julio
(Tucumán city) is protected by a national law taking in
account its landscape values. Private examples simply do
not exist. Parks, gardens, squares, are not included in the
National Law of Protection.
The following actions must be taken
urgently:
1. Update an adequate protection
legislation at national, provincial and municipal levels.
2. Engage specialists with large experience in heritage
protection and conservation theory and practice.
3. Include experts in different heritage fields in the
National Commission of National Historical Monuments.
4. Build a scientific Historical Gardens Inventory and
Catalogue as a first step to their legal protection.
5. Fill up the functions in government agencies by means of
public, open and clear contests for executive, counseling and
technical positions in all Public Parks Agencies.
6. Organize local specialization courses and seminars and
offer scholarships to study overseas experiences as we have
very few experts in historical gardens and cultural
landscapes.
Some properties at risk:
A. Cultural Landscapes:
* Iberá Lagoon (Corrientes Province, savage exploitation of
natural resources and risk of construction of a bridge
altering ecosystems without an environmental impact study.
Also, the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the Paraná
river is causing the rise of the water level in the lagoon
system).
* Martín García Island (Buenos Aires Province,
jurisdictional incompatibilities produces damages in the site
natural-cultural equilibrium).
* Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve (Buenos Aires city, more
than 300 provoked fires, alteration of water salinity,
intentions of "cultural gardening" in a natural
site).
* Río de la Plata (Buenos Aires city, environmental
alterations, loss of the open river view).
B. Historical Gardens.
* Aprox. 300 historical plazas all over the country.
* Parks: 3 de Febrero (Buenos Aires), Independencia (Rosario),
San Martín (Mendoza), 9 de Julio (Tucumán, National Historic
Landmark): usurpations, spatial desegregation, insufficient
and wrong maintenance, non appropriate uses, overuse.
* Costaneras: Sur & Norte (Buenos Aires) and Corrientes
city (construction of an airport with coast refilling, loss of
cliffs and non appropriate uses).
* Great residences and palaces:
1 Palacio San José and its gardens (Entre Ríos Province,
National Historic Landmark, incorrect conservation works).
2 Villa Ocampo and its garden is an UNESCO property (San
Isidro, Buenos Aires Province, National Historic Landmark,
lack of maintenance, fights between government and NGO's
groups, incorrect recycling projects).
I do not list private properties, but
the current economic crisis hits them too.
I invite you to read my 2001 Report (see
International Scientific Committees Section in last year
report) to enlarge the vision of our problems.
DR.
SONIA BERJMAN
Member of ICOMOS Argentina.
Vice-president of ICOMOS Scientific Committee "Historical
Gardens-Cultural Landscapes"
sberjman@arnet.com.ar
