Collective residencies / URBAN PLANNING / Olot
GHADEER MANSOUR
From Saturday, 13 January 2018 to Sunday, 21 January 2018
Bio
Ghadeer Mansour is an Egyptian-American, familiar with concrete jungles and rural villages alike. Fascinated by the [mis]allocation of resources around the globe, she studied economics and political science and began her career as a financial advisor. To understand the economic, environmental, political, and social implications of development, Ghadeer studied city design and social sciences at the graduate level in London. Ghadeer will graduate this December and has recently joined the aviation industry to impact sustainable transportation between cities.
Project
Sustainable Financing is my proposed project, centered around the livelihood of towns and medium-sized cities. My project is to develop an alternative form of financing outside of traditional banks, that promotes sustainability. The spread of globalization has encouraged the largest banks and corporations to be in cities around the world, but this could be at the expense of small and medium sized enterprises, or entire towns that are left vulnerable. I aim to work on a project that would poole together the resources of a community to secure funding for local residents’ needs. Financial technology is an emerging powerful tool that has the potential to reduce achievement gaps across the globe, and I aim to research this in the Catalonian setting.
Tale of Olot
If a city could tell its story, would it be of its people and culture, its industries and economy, its natural landscape and local resources, its buildings and infrastructure, or its history and politics?
The urban planning Faber Residency gave a group of strangers from all across the world the chance to hear the story of Olot.
I didn’t feel the time pass, and this new place began to feel familiar. In Olot, I explored the rural, agro,and eco tourism offered in the mountains, valleys, and volcanoes; the food production by farmers; the craftsmanship of artists; the alternative financing of cooperatives; the education in schools; the diversity of shared public spaces; the preservation and revitalization of medieval structures; and the renewable energy harnessed by modern technologies.
In a short stay, I worked on projects that captured the essence of Olot. The public’s will shut down McDonald’s in favor of a local restaurant, and that is a refreshing in our age of low-quality (cost) multinational corporations. I walk away from this residency with a strong lesson about urban planning: a town rich in heritage and identity will build its own riches.
To the people of Olot and Faber, thank you for having me as your guest. This is not goodbye, but see you later.
