Northern design: A travel journal

Marcus SpillerFebruary 2016

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Table of contents

Introduction 3

Improbableandartificialcities 4

Industry into culture, and vice versa 5

Societybydesign 14

Stockholm - another view on the design led city 15

Over to Oslo 16

The world of baccalau 16

Class struggles in London, the Cotswold and the de-industrialised north of italy 16

If not industry...? 21

Palaces for the people 21

Oslo, Norway

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So we start, as many a Europe bound Australian might, with a night in that improbable city – Dubai.

IntroductionFor some several years now, I have been in the habit of keeping adetaileddiary–inwordsandpictures–ofanysignificanttravel I might undertake. These endeavour to give a faithful record of places visited and experiences experienced. They’re usually set out in chronological order – just as you might expect from a diary.

The following pages are a record, of sorts, of our travels through Holland, Scandinavia, the UK and Italy in September and October 2015. But it is not a diary in the sense of previous similarwritings.Rather,it’smoreanaccountoflessonslearnt.

And, on this front, I could hardly help myself in slipping back into my professional interests!

Fortherecord,ouritinerarysweptusthrough3broadcultures, and took in 16 stop-overs:

8/22/2015 Dubai

23-26/08/2015 Amsterdam

27-29/08/2015 Copenhagen

30/08-1/9/2015 Tallinn

2-4/09/2015 St. Petersburg

5-7/09/2015 Helsinki

8-10/09/2015 Stockholm

11-13/09/2015 Oslo

14-16/09/2015 Bergen

17-21/09/2015 Cotswolds

22-27/09/2015 London

28-30/09/2015 Venice

1-3/10/2015 Bergamo

4-6/10/2015 Intra

7-11/10/2015 Firenze

12-15/10/2015 Roma

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elevationtoEmperor,hewasthoroughlyconvincedofthebackwardness of his motherland. He was determined to consolidate its military might and radically modernize its society.Militarianismaside,thisisnotanaltogetherdifferentsetofmotivationstothoseofSheikAlMaktoumintheEmirates.

PetersawachancetoprogressbothambitionsonaswampySwedish outpost on the eastern extremity of the Gulf of FinlandintheBaltic.TheSwedishgarrisonwasquicklykickedoutastheRussiansestablishedtheirlongrunninghegemonyin Nordic waters, and Peter set about building an exemplar European imperial city. Everything was to be bigger, bolder anddefinitelymoregildedthananythingontheContinent.So, a great city of canals, grand boulevards and harmonious neo-classical palaces began to grow on the marshes.

St Petersburg was to be not only a pre-eminent naval base, but also the empire’s command and control centre. The imperial court, bureaucracy and nobility were ordered to move from Moscow. There was some resistance, but eventually, Peter’s successor(7timesremoved)–CatherinetheGreatrealizedhisdream.

The city has had centuries to mature, and it has been put throughsometrulyhorrifictrials,notleastthethree-yearlongsiege by the Nazis in the Second World War. One might say that it has earned its stripes. And yet, the homogeneity of the architectureandtheunrelentingconformityofthetownplanaffordstheplaceafaintbutlingeringsenseofartificiality,orincongruity, much as one senses in Dubai.

Thecity’sroleinthepoliticallifeofthenationinsomewaysunderscores this impression. The aristocracy, allegedly, never really accepted this pseudo European capital with its hard wiredliberalvalues.Thereisacontinuingtensionbetweentheintelligentsia of St Petersburg and the elites of Moscow who continuetoasserttheirclaimstothe‘true’Russianlegacy.

ImprobableandartificialcitiesDubai lurks in many a traveller’s mind as the world’s most improbablecity–soartificialandcontrived,risingupfromtheendlesssands.Asavisitorit’sdifficulttoescapethefeelingthat you are but a small animated toy in somebody else’s lego set. Surely this city can’t be real?

ButDubaiisnotwithoutalongsequenceofprecedent‘unrealcities’.Whyisn’tDubailikethegreatPyramids–agiantedificetoglorifyandperpetuatethereputationofitscreator?Andwasn’titbuiltbylatterdayslaves–ofasort?

Dubaichallengesourideaofinertiaandorganicgrowthincities.Weliketobelieve,oratleastIdo,thatsomehow,the city transcends the power of individuals. However, this particularcityimpressesastheoutworkingofthePharaoh,butwithoutthemystiqueandthewonder.

It’smorethanalittleoff-puttingthatordinarylives–thosethattravel the freeways, clean the hotel rooms, run the tourists to theairportandsoon–aremerelypawnsintheimaginationofthe powerful, and that the city is not bigger than all of those whowouldseektodirectitsdestiny.

Buthumanityhasbeenherebefore–manytimes.AcaseinpointisStPetersburg,anotherimprobableandartificialcitypar excellence!

St Petersburg maybe300yearsolderbutitseemstospringfrom the same mould as Dubai – it’s a city where there would benometropoliswereitnotfortheoutrageousdeterminationof one man.

PetertheGreatascendedtheRussianthronein1721,afteraseemingly happy youth touring and carousing in the leading Europeancities.Amsterdam,thenavalpowerhouseofthetimewasanotablefavouriteofhis.Bythetimeofhis

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We’re told that Stalin mounted a tardy and under-resourced defence of St Petersburg during the horrendous siege. Maybe hewasexpectingthatthisnon-Russianaberrationwouldbeexpungedfromthepoliticalslate,allowingafreerunforMoscow.

Thetusslecontinuestoday,buttheforcesnowareeconomicand, most likely, intractable. Moscow has become the driving forceinthenation’sserviceindustries,benefitingfromcentripetalforcesofagglomerationalltoofamiliartheworldover. The one big advantage that St Petersburg has is that the strongmanpresident–VladimirPutin–hailsfromtheplace.Heisunlikelytoneglectitentirely.

In yet another parallel with Dubai, St Petersburg tries toprosecuteits‘westerness’inanutterlyunforgivingenvironment–theEmiratescapitalinthedebilitatingheat,StPetersburgintheparalyzingcold.Theupshotisanoticeablydampened pedestrian environment, marked by a general absence of street cafés. One typically accesses the hospitality onofferthroughabarrageofdoorskeepingoutJack(Frost).

Industry into culture, and vice versaAmsterdam appears to have been an early mover in the nowalmostubiquitousphenomenonofartsandculturecolonizing de-industrialised precincts. Westerpark culture park is a mature Dutch example of this. It is a former gasworks, featuringornatebutstrikinglyfunctional19thcenturybuildings.

Westerpark now houses a range of technology and arts based organisationsheldtogetherbyaverdantribbonofpublicopenspace, which also accommodates a kindergarten and a school ofinnovation. NDSM Amsterdam

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Synergies between these various uses are not obvious, at least nottothecasualvisitor.However,thereisafringing‘youthelement’ to the Westerpark hospitality mix that adds a vitality to an otherwise drab and over-orchestrated environment.

ElsewhereinAmsterdam,atNDSM,thisculturecolonisationphenomenon is being taken to another level again with a massive former industrial district being sporadically repopulatedwithartiststudiosandvarious‘creativebusinesses’. The Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij(orNetherlandsdockandshipbuildingcompany)operated through the heyday of Dutch manufacturing, from 1947totheendofthe70s,whenmuchofEuropeanindustrywasconfrontedwithunrelentingcostbasedcompetitionfromthe Far East.

Asidefromitsstaggeringscale–coveringmorethan30hectares – NDSM is noteworthy for the blending of residual ‘oldindustry’,forexample,panelbeaters,withnew,hi-techandhi-touchenterprises.Thismayaidintheformationofsynergies, in some contrast to earlier models like Westerpark which are characterized by a dull homogeneity. It may also fosteragenuineandgrounded‘enterpriseculture’.

NDSM underlines the fact that some forms of manufacturing continuetohaveafutureinpost-industrialcities,solongasthereisastrongfocusonproductdifferentiation,designandlocalaffiliation.Thiscreativeprecinctalsoremindsusthatthechancesofsuccessareimprovedifthereisalive-inpopulation.Squattersfromthecreativecommunityaregraduallyreinvigoratinganotherwisebleaksite.

Perhaps even more crucial to the emerging success of NDSM isthefactthatithasthebenefitofafreeandfrequentferrytotheveryheartofAmsterdam.Sothemagiccombinationoflots of cheap land with very good accessibility to the central business hub is in play.

Another important factor running for NDSM is that the site is heavily programmed and curated. Without the dynamic events schedule, I would guess that the sheer expansiveness ofthesitewouldquellthecreativefevourofeventhemostdeterminedsquatters.

Industryintocultureisalsoinevidenceintheregeneratingcity of Tallinn, capital of Estonia. This picture perfect mediaevalwalledcitywhichhad(thankfully)beenneglectedfor decades during the post war Soviet encumbency is now a luminous pearl in a motley urban fabric of drab socialist modernism,randompostliberationofficesandtheobligatorydeindustrialized wastelands.

But the mother of pearl can enchant as well. So one of Tallinn’s former industrial hubs – Telliskivi has been stage managed into an outstanding example of hipster chic. Old factory buildings have been minimally adjusted to host a rangeofart,hospitality,boutiqueshopping,studioandmanufacturing spaces.

Of interest is that the land is all privately owned. The investorsinquestionneededtoparktheirassettillthepostGFCpropertytoporworeoff.Sotheyfacilitatedthehipstercolonizationofthesite.Thishascertainlybrandedtheareaand set it up for further value adding at least in a property sense.

ThepatternatTelliskiviisrepeatedinTallinn’sformer‘soviet’waterfrontzone.Thelocalcommunityhadeffectivelysquattedin this area and was gradually cleaning it up, removing the detritusofquasimilitarywharfstoreinstateasandybeachandseaside park. Meanwhile, the land had been purchased from theStatebyadeveloperwhowasalso‘caughtshort’bytheglobalfinancialcrisis.Thestand-offhasbeenresolvedbythedeveloperallowingthecommunitycontinuingoccupancywiththeir project, as well as agreeing to remove waste collected byvolunteers,whilethecommunityhasacquiescedinthe

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Telliskivi, Tallinn Telliskivi, Tallinn

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Telliskivi, Tallinn Telliskivi, Tallinn

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eventual development of the site for apartments, provided they respect the environmental values of the area.

Thisrepresentsakindofcommunity‘sweatequity’.Itprobably has limited applicability in most former industrial areas in Australia because of their already very high land values.RenewAustraliahaspackagedaformofcommunityledrevitalizationofstagnatingprecincts(suchastheoldNewcastleCBD),butthereisnocontinuingstakeforthecommunity agents. Maybe there should be. There may be scopeforthisapproachinplaceslikePtHenry(Geelong),Dandenong, Newcastle and Wollongong where long lead timestoredevelopmentandgenerallydepressedeconomicconditionscanprovideavalueescalatortocommunitypartners.

Whichunderscorestheroleforbonafidecommunitybrokersin this process – like Toronto’s Artscape. Indeed, without such structuresandbrokers,rip-offsareonthecards.I’dheardthatinStPetersburg,forexample,squatterswereallowedto renovate former industrial buildings and precincts only to be unceremoniously evicted when the fortunes of the precinctbegantoturn.Perhapsthereisarolefor‘communitydevelopmentagreements’whichrecognizethesweatequityofvolunteers and the value they create for commercial investors?

TakingthethemetoNorway,the‘UnitedSardineCompany(USC)’onBergen’s meandering, industrial waterfront, must haveoncebeenaproudandambitiousenterpriseinitsday.Itdominates a mini-peninsula 2 kilometres from the Bergen city centre, sprawling over several hectares in its scando art-deco splendour.

It would have employed hundreds, if not thousands, of workers,packing,treating,distributing,designing,financingand training.

Bergen, Norway

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Bergen, Norway Helsinki, Finland

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There’samoretranquilatmosphereonthesitenow,thoughfocussed human endeavour is no less evident. The factory hasbeenturnedintoahiveofstudios,offices,performancevenues, bars and restaurants – albeit in restrained Norwegian style.

It has in common with most other similar precincts across theregioneasywalkability(ortrainability)tothecity’shubofemployment.Thismayreflectthe‘magicofagglomeration’–thatco-locationfostersinnovation.Morelikely,Iguess,theflourishingUSCprecinctreflectstheneedforcreativestobalancetheirportfolioofcommitments–study,parttime(day)jobandtheircreativepractice.

A clear and consistent lesson learned from this site and thoseinAmsterdamandTallinn(nottomentionothersvisited in Copenhagen,HelsinkiandStockholm)isthattheyhavehigh‘agglomerationscores’.Somesitespointtoanewredevelopmentmodelforformerindustrialareas,quitedifferentfromtheoldgovernmentledlandconsolidationapproach. This new model guarantees granularity and diversity.Possibilitiesinmyhomecity,Melbourne,includeDandenong, Altona and West Melbourne, though their agglomerationindicesmightberelativelyweak.

This granular approach is less risky in many respects. It’s a slowburntowardscreationofrealestatevalue,ratherthanthejumpstarting‘placemaking’processsopopularinthenoughties.However,propertyvaluesinhighagglomerationlocationsneededtobelow,perhapslowerthanwhatonemightfindinmostAustraliancities.

Casualobservationwouldseemtosuggestthatinthefuturethere will be plenty of wealth for hours worked, and the issue will be to create value for the professionals and privileged investors. And to speculate further, it would seem to me that truevalueforthisclasswillcomethroughartisticandculturalHelsinki, Finland

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endeavour. Indeed, this may be one of the few areas where work will be created in the future.

In the past personal services burgeoned with structural change, but it seems to be running into limits with technology now destroying jobs at a faster rate than they can be created in alternativesectors.

So if future value is going to be lodged in the cultural and the creative,whatdoesthismeanfordevelopersandcitybuilders?One immediate conclusion is that investors in the urban environment will have to demonstrably create community value if they are to succeed. Old models where infrastructure anddesigngimmicksareappliedtocreatean‘address’maybeon their last legs, at least in premium markets.

Tappingintogenuineculturalvaluewillrequirebonafidecommunity licensing; that is, developers will need to form real partnerships with community agents. This sets up a brokerage opportunity for non-business, non government groups. This isparticularlytrueforbrownfieldsitesthatareacycleortwobehind the current prime development front. Telliskivi in Tallinn and BDM in Amsterdam are the stand out examples of this process.

Stockholm, Sweden

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Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm, Sweden

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Society by designDesign is synonymous with the Nordic countries, but in Helsinki–capitalofthenon-Scandinorth–itfindsaparticularlypureexpression.

Designseemstohaveinfiltratedthesociety’swayofthinkingfromtheearliestdaysofindustrialization.Thenationwasattheforefrontoftheartsandcraftsreactiontothecrassnessandmediocrityofmassproduction,andthen,asmodernismroseintheinter-waryears,Finlanddevelopedaparticularlystrippedback,almostclinical,butstillconnected,formoffunctionalism.

The city, and indeed, the society impresses as a conscious act of design. There is a humanity and touch of humour here and there, and maybe some colour. But overall, there is a binding, calming, measured and cohesive design to everything. Perhaps it’s best expressed in the design work of the iconic Finnish brands like Iitala and Arabica. These produced classic designsgenerationsago,andtheyarestillinproductionlooking as fresh as ever. This is a philosophy of design which rises above the vagaries of the day to day.

One senses the same philosophy in the city’s housing policy and certainly in the approach to public transport. Designs that work are honoured and replicated. The city, and maybe society as a whole, do not lurch from fad to fad. The downside may be a lack of dynamism and, dare I say it, almost a dullness to the place. In this sense, Helsinki may well be one of the world’smostun-American-likecities.

OnecanalsoseeHelsinkiasakindof‘universaljoint’intheNordicworld.Apparently,thepeoplearenot‘Scandinavian’perse,butratherderivefromquiteaseparateethnicandlanguagegroup.YetthecitywaseffectivelypartofSwedenfor

Oslo, Norway

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some hundreds of years when the Western Kingdom held sway acrosstheBaltic.

Morerecently,HelsinkiwaspartoftheRussianempire,findingits way to independence only at the end of the 19th century.

SothecityhasbecomethemeetingpointfortwowaysofthinkingwhileretainingadistinctiveFinnishculture.Thisshows, I think, in the assuredly understated architecture of the city,showingbothadevotiontomodernism,butalsomorethananodtotheartsandcraftsmovement.

Stockholm – another view on the design led cityItwouldhavebeeneasytotaketheconventionaldesignapproach to what is Stockholm’s most recent metro tunnel. That is, line the unforgiving intrusion into the earth with shiny aluminiumandover-sizedceramictiles,tocreatethestandardcanvasforultra-ignorableadvertising.

But,inthe‘BlueLine’wefindamagicsinewycavern–wherethetunneledrockhasbeenleftinitsstabilizedform,coatedinaconcreteslurryandsprayedinamysteriousandromanticblue.Emergingontotheplatformconcourse,thecavernbecomesafairytale-likeundergroundcelebrationhall,completewithenchantingtraditionalmotifs.

ThisstruckmeastheepitomeofScandinaviandesign–utterlyfunctionalandsimple,yetstronglyconnectedtonatureandplace.

Elsewhere, the city is a sweet beauty. It’s a calm and consistent array of pre-industrial and neo-classical buildings withNOSURPRISES.Everythinghasitsplace,andeverythingiswonderfullyintuitiveinitsconnectionsandlinks.Helsinki, Finland

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The world of baccalauYou can sit on a sunny terrace on Murano in the late Autumn gazingoutatthelanguidVenetianlagoonandenjoyalocaliconic dish Baccala e polenta.Doneproperlythisfishyfaretakes days to prepare. The dried cod must be de-salted and returned to something like its natural state. Then, depending ontherecipe,it’ssoakedinvariousconcoctions,themostfamous being milk and cheese!

Thestrangethingisthisfishisnotfromthelagoon,norisitfrom the Mediterranean beyond. It’s from the icy waters in the far north of Norway. For centuries, the cod have been harvested around the Lofoten Islands and exported all around theworld.Inthe16thcentury,this‘stockfish’constitutedaround 80% of Norway’s inward trade revenue and had a similareffectonthenationaleconomyastoday’soil.

Indeedamajorcommercialcentreflourishedfurthersouthat Bergenlargelyonthebackofthestockfishtrade.ThisresourcehadsuchstrategicsignificancethattheHanseaticLeague targeted it as one of its mainstays. Imagine, a Dubai basedonfish!

Class struggles in London, the Cotswolds and the de-industrialised north of ItalyIn contrast to the designed and controlled, maybe even smug, serenity of the Nordic capitals, Londoncarriesafrenetic,almostchaotic,pacewithintheframeofEnglishmanners.

Things feel slightly out of control.

The October 2015 muesli riot brought this into sharp relief for me. An angry mob descended on the newly gentrifying suburb

ThecityisludicrouslylikeoneofthoseubiquitousSwedisheasychairs.Understated,functionalbutaboveall,comfortable.

Over to OsloIfScandinaviaweretobeconstruedasafederationlikeourown in Australia, Oslo would surely be the Perth of the North.

Itisunmistakably‘nordic’inthefunctionalityofitsdesignandits civic mindedness. Not a single skateboarder disturbed the arcticwhiteslopesofthe‘new’Oslooperahouseduringouronandoffsurveillanceoverfourdays.

And yet, as the capital of a resource rich State, Oslo has a raffish-nessaboutit.

The blond hair and blue eyes hegemony is not so evident, as fortune(goodjob)huntershavebeendrawninfromaroundthe world. The city has a “freshly built” dynamism to it, symbolized by the opera house, but also demonstrated in the new downtown skyline of rather generic apartments and offices.

Peopleonthestreetarealittlemorerelaxedandalittlelessstylish. And like Perth, but surpassing it by an order, the price for a humble beer is astronomical!.

As an exercise in design, Oslo is very much a work in progress. Thecitytookoverthemantleofnationalcapital(fromBergen)more than 700 years ago, however, it only began to grow strongly in the mid 19th century. In some respects then it is a newworldcity,againresonatingwithPerth.

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of Shoreditch and focussed their ire on a recently established breakfastrestaurant“specializingin100differenttypesofmuesli”. The two hipster brothers who owned and operated the place watched in horror as the rioters smashed windows and daubed red paint on their cheery shopfront.

Brandishing medieval style torches in the clammy London gloom,themobwerereminiscentof1930’sfascistenforcers.Organisedunderthemoniker‘ClassWar’,theirsocialmediamessage was that “Soon this city will be an unrecognizable, bland, yuppie infested wasteland with no room for normal (andnotsonormal)peoplelikeus”.Onespokesmanforthemarauders,avisitingprofessoratanAmericanuniversity,later explained that “Opening a shop that sells children’s cerealsforfourpoundsabowlinaboroughinwhich49%ofthe kids are living in poverty is an insult to the thousands of Tower Hamlets residents who have to eat on less than four pounds per day”.

But who are these “Class War” people? They seem too articulatetobelowincomerefugees,orserviceworkerswho,in any case, have a pressing daily struggle to resolve. No, our mobsters are more likely to be aspirant middle class people, or students on this track – public servants, teachers, shop workers,artistsetc,allwithuniversitydegreesorpartsthereof,but with diminished prospects in the job devouring world of knowledge capital.

Theyaffiliatewithanidealofurbanlife,butarebeingpushedoutatahorrifyingrate.Myguessistherankandfileofthemenacing torch bearers are not the true marginals in London’s society.These,Iwouldguess,aretheaforementionedmigrants doing low paid cleaning, kitchen and other basic service work that no one else would do. These people have becomecaptured‘slaves’,happy(orforced)totaketheirchances.Rathertherankandfileofthetorchbearersisstocked with the forsaken middle class.Roma,Italy

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Cotswolds, England

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Boththe‘elites’amongsttheknowledgeworkersandthe‘slaves’haveastakeinsecurityandstabilityintheglobalcity.But not so the swelling ranks of the forsaken middle class. This mobisnowuncontrollablyvolatileinitspoliticsand,indeed,mostlyrejectsthepoliticalclass.

Areweseeingthisinourowncities?Alargeproportionofanotherwisewelleducatedpopulationnowharborsdeepseatedanddestructivecynicismaboutformalpoliticsandthe interests it serves. The division in household prospects between those with a foothold in inner city housing markets –whichareultimatelygearedtothesameforceswhichhavedelivered the appalling housing polarity in London – and those forcedinto‘outer’housingmarketsthreatenstobecomeintractable. What will be our muesli war episode?

The Cotswoldsareprettyasapicture,butcamouflageaneverdeepening problem. Work is scarce and low paid – driven mainly by residual farming and tourism. Meanwhile, the housingmarketiswithinthegravitationalpullofLondonandthe polarized riches it generates. The outcome is a housing affordabilitysqueezeandacrisisofhopeforthelocals.

Intra, on the shores of Lago Maggiore resonates with this scenario,butissubtlyandsignificantlydifferent.Importantly,itisalittlelessintegratedwithItaly’sequivalenttoLondon–Milano.UnliketheCotswolds,whichneverhousedsignificantindustry, the silk plants, chocolate factories and the woollen mills have long since shut down in the lakes area, leaving a residueof‘boom’apartmentstobesmirchthecountryside.Buthere,inIntra,housingpricesareratheraffordable.Andtherearelotsofvacanciesinshopsandofficesoffthecoretourism strip.

It seems that Intra and and its ilk are like mature trees, fed adietofslowreleasefertilizer.Growthisnotquick,springleavesarenotasluxuriant,butthetreeholdsonandcontinuestosproutyearafteryear.Theslowreleasefertilizerisnotthe

Firenze, Italy

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Palaces for the peopleIn those districts beyond the core tourist zone of Florence, you canseefineexamplesofinter-warapartmentbuilding.OneisleftwonderingwhythismodelwassoreadilyusurpedbythesoullessblocksofflatsthathavemultipliedontheoutskirtsofsomanyItaliancities;flatswhichpatheticallyalludetomodernist principles, but fail miserably in delivering any of their humanist promise.

Meanwhile, the superseded palazzo model seems very simple andhighlyrelevanttotoday’sneeds.Itconsistsofa3to5storeyrectangular‘box’withagenerousinternalcourtyard–themainpurposeofwhichistoofferlight,greenspaceand,perhaps, parking access for on-site apartments. The palazzi arefreestandingandcanaccommodateamixofflatsfromvery large to micro size. They can be very simply detailed with rowsofelegantlyproportionedwindowsandacentralportico,whichgivesawonderfulsenseofarrival.Alternatively,theycanbeadornedinthemotifsofarangeofdecorativestyles– as is splendidly on show in Rome’s Garbatella and Pairoli districts, both developed in the inter war years.

The palazzo – even in its simple form – provides a pleasing cohesiontothestreet,aswellasmorethanadequateprivacyfor residents.

I guess the biggest constraint on their use elsewhere is that theyrequireagenerousfrontageandsubstantialsquareorrectangularallotments.TheywouldmakeaninterestingmodelformajorbrownfielddevelopmentsinAustralia.

tourism trade, but rather the expenditure of accumulated wealthfromtheItalianboomwhichexpiredmorethan4decades ago. This, together with tourism, nourishes the retail, hospitalityandahostofotherpersonalserviceoccupations–includinglookingaftertheever-growingmassofgeriatricpeople.Thisisenoughtokeeptheeconomy‘tickingover’whilehouseprices–reflectingthelimitedjobprospectsoftheregion–edgetoanaffordableequilibrium.

If not industry…?IfIntraisonaslowreleasefertilizer,Florence is in a tourism drivenhothouse.Alwaysafocalpointforartisans,Florencenever really developed as a major hub for industry, at least not by Northern European standards. Its prosperity lay in its politicalinfluence,itsmercantileprowessand,ofcourse,itscultural exports.

Thoseexportshavegrowntoreachalmostgrotesqueproportions.Touristsoutnumber‘locals’onthestreetstothetune of 2 to 1. We’re told that, in fact, there are negligible numbersofveriFiorentiniinthecentreofthecity;they’vebeendisplacedbythetribulationsassociatedwiththedailytideofeagerculturevultures.

Thecityisinaninvidiousposition.Ontheonehanditneedsto grow its tourism exports as the lifeblood of the local community. On the other hand, this locks the metropolis into a low value added, low wage future. And this is all too manifestinthepoorqualityofbasicinfrastructure.Footpaths,street furniture, parks etc are in poor shape, even in the most prestigiousculturalprecincts.

Unlike Venice which has learned, over many centuries, to deal with visitors, Florence seems overwhelmed by the role which fatehasthrustuponit–neitherembracingitnoractivelydevelopinganalternativedestiny,orsoitseems.