Miquel Fiol Munar: "Mallorca's public space is a concrete desert"

SineuAt a time when the inland towns of Mallorca face the challenge of climate emergency and the loss of urban identity, young voices like that of Miquel Fiol Munar (Costitx, 2000) offer a fresh, necessary, and well-studied perspective. An architect trained at the ETSAV (UPC) in Sant Cugat, Fiol combines his professional work at the Marès studio in Inca with his own personal project, amf.studio, from which he explores an architecture committed to the territory and heritage.

Recently awarded by the Càtedra d’Estudis Urbans of the UIB for his work on “buits urbans” (work that can be read here), Fiol proposes to stop seeing empty plots and squares as shortcomings and instead understand them as true resilience oases.Your Final Degree Project titled Urban Voids in Times of Climate Emergency: A Projectual Tool for the Design of Resilient Spaces in the Villas of Mallorca How did this field of study come about?

— The idea arises from a need. We are always very focused on renovating houses and everything related to the private sphere, and coming from Barcelona there is like a boom of public space. There is a lot of interest, or there was especially when I was studying and this vision has been arriving here. The studio, which I set up three years ago, was not talked about here. And I remember how a professor said the phrase: it's a shame because you won't be able to live from public space in Mallorca. And that was the trigger for this work. I said it can never be what she says, especially if it was something that was not exploited here in Mallorca. And from here the question arose: Why is there no interest here? The answer was that the towns already have an old structure and it is difficult to act, etc. That is why the title of "urban voids" arose. And what are they? The little corners, the mini-squares and how in the future they can become climate shelters.

Taking this phrase from “you won’t be able to live”, what do you think is the reason? The lack of interest from the city councils?

— I would say it's something that has been put on the back burner. When it really is just as much in the foreground as the private. It's really everyone's space. An architect already said it, in the end public space is nothing more than our living rooms at home. Many people spend their day-to-day lives outside the home, in these spaces. I remember that when discussing it with other people, the idea came up that 'the town halls, or the Government said that in the villages we already have the garrigue, the forest as green spaces'. But that's what I say, there are all these interior routes that don't go through this garrigue, my grandmother doesn't go through a garrigue to buy bread. And this must be taken into account. Furthermore, in some areas these routes are longer than usual and can affect certain vulnerable groups, the elderly, children… Therefore, my work comes from here, from seeing what spaces can be or can be transformed and empowered to be spaces for people.

In the past, our green areas were these garrigues we were talking about and the same corrals…

— I call these public spaces "urban corrals". In the line of making these new public spaces, I take a lot of reference from the Mediterranean garden, the theme of the Arabs and their footprint on the island and how domestic spaces from outside, from the street, water collection spaces, shady spots, fruit trees influenced them… how this domestic space could be extrapolated to the public and how these private corrals could be public corrals, hence the idea of these urban corrals.

Regarding regulations and urban space, what do you think is the key to finding balance? For example, one of the problems we have now in towns is vehicles. Should houses have their own gate for the car or is it better to leave it in the street?

— I believe that the most important thing is that, while trying to innovate on one hand, the issue of heritage is not touched on the other. In our work at the studio, at Marès, precisely, we dedicate ourselves quite a bit to public space. Right now we are drafting the heritage catalog of Capdepera; in fact, in Mallorca we have already done ten.

— Well, my position is clear: on the one hand, the heritage part should not be touched because the catalog does not allow it, and on the other hand, it should be considered whether the physical conditions of the dwelling allow it. For example, with these large doors, if you have enough space to make a large door and the car is within your private space instead of occupying the public road, I agree. In the end, a car is private property and it is better for it to be inside your house to free up public space. However, if the car has to occupy a large part of the plot and does not allow you to build a dwelling in conditions, then I would think that it is not the solution.

Have a study been carried out on the public space in the towns of the island. What has it consisted of exactly?

— The study has a theoretical part on the origin of the concept of “corral” (enclosure/pen) and how it could be applied currently, and a diagnostic part in which I analyzed about thirty villages in the interior of Mallorca. I excluded the coastal area because I was not interested in the tourist impact; I wanted to focus on the smaller villages to see what their public space is really like.

— When you analyze the urban planning of each municipality, you see some "green patches" that, in theory, should be rest areas or parks. But when you zoom in with aerial photography, you realize that often they are simply an unpaved wasteland, full of cars and with only three trees.

What is the ratio of green space per inhabitant in these municipalities?

— The recommended index in the Balearic Islands is around 5 square meters per person, a figure that I already find very low —in Barcelona, for example, parameters of 15 square meters are used, which are recommended by the UN—. The real problem is that many of our towns do not even meet these 5 square meters.

— Furthermore, if we take into account that more can still be built and that the population can grow, if new public space is not mandated, the ratio per inhabitant will be even lower. This is one of the key points of my research. The configuration of the public space in our towns directly influences the health of their inhabitants.

Is the car still the main protagonist of the street?

— Completely. One of the current problems is the space that vehicles occupy. Many green areas are turned into parking lots or the car is prioritized over the pedestrian. The idea should be that, when generating parking lots, they are made with climate refuge criteria: that there is permeability in the soil and generation of shade. In Barcelona, for example, they are already working to remove asphalt from streets and restore the water cycle.

— It's not about the car disappearing completely, because in Mallorca, with the lack of public transport, there are villages that would be isolated. But "parking lots" on the perimeter should be promoted and the car should not be allowed to be the protagonist of the center. We have to improve the current areas by making them more permeable and with more shade.

Is there a tendency to lose trees instead of planting them?

— That's right. In many towns, more trees have been removed than planted. A clear case is Caimari square: the interior is still asphalt and the play areas are rubber. Rubber is a material that reaches very high temperatures; not only does it not help cool the environment, but if a child falls, they can get burned. We have to look for strategies and materials that favor water filtration and do not increase the temperature.

— Regarding species, years ago cypresses became fashionable, which consume a lot of water and do not provide good shade. On the other hand, we have the example of the mulberry tree, which generates magnificent continuous shade. Each space needs the appropriate alternative.

Do you think the political class is sufficiently aware of this reality?

— I think they still need to be much more aware. My book, in addition to being a technical work, wants to be a revendicative tool. A tree is not just "four branches"; a well-placed tree provides a richness and environmental benefits that many politicians still do not value enough. Sometimes they do things just to go through the motions, like drawing a green patch on the perimeter of the town to reach the legal minimum, but without a real will to exploit that space for the citizens.

And citizenship? Are we aware that we must change the way we move around the town?

— There are interesting movements, such as “Sineu en Bici“, which give voice to this need. But at a general level, there is a lack of pedagogy. In cities like Inca, there are people who do not want to cross the municipality on foot, even if it's only ten minutes.

— In Sineu, beautification works are being carried out that, in theory, prioritize pedestrians, but City Councils often do not dare to restrict cars because people want to have the vehicle in front of their house. If you move it ten meters, chaos ensues. It is a task of social awareness: we must understand that public space is for people.

Do you think there should be more awareness of squares as spaces for socialization and not as simple empty esplanades?

— We must take into account that each town has its own festivity and its own way of celebrating. We are aware that there must be empty spaces so as not to interrupt celebrations at certain times of the year. But the perimeter and pavement could be greatly improved.

— We could use much more filtering pavements that allow aquifers to be hydrated. Also, on the perimeter of the squares, shade spaces could be generated and a type of urban furniture that invites people to be in them. It doesn't have to be an uncovered square where the sun beats down hard and it cannot be inhabited. This causes public space to be used only sporadically; with the increase in temperatures, if the space is not welcoming, it ends up becoming a desert-like place.

In the study, you make a very interesting visual comparison about this green that we see in the towns…

— Exactly. If you look at an aerial photo of a town like Costitx, you see that there is greenery and we have this image of a “green town”. But the reality is that much of this green is the corrals or private gardens of each house. When you visually remove this private green, you realize that the public space is, in reality, a cement desert.

— Explain that the small squares we have left with a few trees are like small oases within this great asphalt desert. If you look at the photo of the Costitx square where we are now, you see that if we didn't have this shade here behind, (referring to the shade of a building) we would be practically in the sun. Real public space is asphalt, paved areas and very few scattered trees. The rest of the green we see in the photos are private spaces.

Once this study is published, has anyone been interested in applying these ideas or collaborating?

— Beyond my usual work, what has emerged are proposals for giving lectures and contacts with organizations like Palma 21. I believe the publication has served as a link for me to connect with people who think along the same lines and who have a stronger voice than mine. It helps me grow and position these ideas in a broader forum.

The plots, “urban voids” that remain within towns, are they an opportunity that we still have?

— Exactly, I start the book by explaining that, as a child, I already lived within this urban void. They were those vacant lots where no one was; we would enter, explore, and build huts. To go to school, you crossed a lot that had four trees. Those vacant lots acted as oases within the urban fabric. Nowadays, however, we spend more time inside private spaces than in public space, which is where we should be. I think we should move towards recovering this idea of shared and natural space.

— For me, urban voids are spaces with a latent "shine" that is often hidden by real estate pressure or by outdated regulations. I have relied heavily on the ideas of Gilles Clément and Ignasi de Solà-Morales to understand that these spaces —empty plots, corners with no defined use— are truly the potential of our towns. Instead of seeing them as deficiencies, we should see them as places where we can reintroduce new social and environmental dynamics to confront the climate emergency.

One of the main contributions of your study is a “project guide”. What does it consist of and how can it help the towns of Mallorca?

— The idea was to create a practical tool that guides the design of resilient spaces. Mallorca has very specific characteristics, and we cannot apply generic solutions. The guide proposes that the design of the future must, by necessity, involve a reading of the past: we must recover traditional techniques, sensitivity towards local elements, and the customs of our people. It is a mix of ingredients (techniques, materials, and sensitivity) to build spaces that are truly integrated into the island environment and can better withstand heatwaves or the lack of free space.

Given the vulnerability of the inland villages, what do you think is the biggest obstacle to transforming these empty spaces?

— There are two major obstacles: the pressure of the real estate market, which only sees the land as an immediate economic benefit, and regulatory rigidity. My goal with this work is to assess the real needs of residents. Often, what a town needs is not more concrete, but spaces that function as connectors. We must question what these spaces can become and, above all, how we transform them to serve the population in the new climatic scenario that is already upon us.