Memento is an archeology of memories of Córdoba, small pieces that make up the imaginary of the city. All together they set up infinite personal visions of Córdoba, while isolated, they make us aware of what still remains to be discovered. Combating the proliferation of mass-produced souvenirs that very much damage the image of the city and crafts is the main objective of each Memento, designed with care and handmade by craftsmen.
Local
Spain
Historic Center of the city of Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Souvenirs have colonized historic cities and have become an important part of the urban landscape, altering and distorting its original perception. However, the design and industrialized production of most of these objects does not consider their impact on the physical and mental image of the city, nor does it contribute to the transmission of its main heritage values.
The city of Córdoba (Spain) has a remarkable patrimonial solidity and its Historic Centre has been declared Area of Artisan Interes (Zona de Interés Artesanal or ZIA in Spanish) due to the large number of artisanal workshops inside it that work on the three main Cordovan crafts: work of leather, silver and Caliphate ceramics. However, this contrasts the reduced quality of Cordovan souvenirs, which are mainly focussed on Spanish and Andalusian stereotypes.
The concept of Memento (which means ‘remember’ in Latin) aims to develop a souvenir that contributes positively to the image of the city of Córdoba and to its economic activity, taking advantage of the value of its crafts through sustainable production that respects the true heritage values of Córdoba. This way, the proposal is based on an unlimited collection of independent pieces that can be assembled to each other and that are made exclusively by hand in Cordoba workshops. Each one of these pieces will represent a relevant aspect of the city of Córdoba and can only be acquired in the space of the city where that aspect is manifested. This way tourists can only purchase the pieces from the places they have actually visited in order to configure their own Memento, a unique souvenir that is faithful to the travel experience.
The proposal intends to build the identity of the city from its fragments, accepting the impossibility of reducing all its heritage values in a single object and assuming that there will always be parts of it to discover. By doing so, Memento aims to contribute to a new way of sustainable tourism.
Souvenir industry
Support to local craftmanship
Heritage values
City image and identity
Sustainable tourism
Memento is a sustainable concept that establishes local Cordovan crafts as a key element for its development. The Historic Site of Córdoba is in danger under the threat of becoming a theme park for tourists after losing its characteristic functions, so this initiative would help to recover traditional economic activity thanks to its many artisan workshops.
These workshops would be a source of employment for Cordovans of all ages, from experienced seniors to young apprentices. In fact, Memento could become a great incentive to reduce the problem of generational change in Cordovan crafts.
On the other hand, considering the great economic impact that tourism has on the city, the sale of these souvenirs in Córdoba would become an important new source of income. The expenses invested in resources for artisanal production would be minimal, since raw materials obtained from the environment would be used; while distribution costs would practically disappear as the souvenir is sold in the city itself. This would make a big difference from the current trade in mass-produced souvenirs distributed from faraway countries, where pollution derived from transport becomes a real problem.
In conclusion, Memento promotes a different way of sustainable tourism that is respectful of the identity and culture of the city of Córdoba so that its impact on it and its inhabitants is positive and beneficial. This way, Memento tries to combat the generalized stereotypes about the city of Córdoba and Spain to transmit its true values to future generations, preserving its original traditions and making them last in time.
Memento is defined as a collection of individual pieces that, after being assembled, form a unique souvenir for each tourist and each trip. Obtaining these pieces is only possible in the places that each piece represents, so the final composition of your memento will only contain those places that you have actually visited during your stay in Córdoba. Thus, Memento becomes a completely faithful memory of your experience in the city that tells the story of your trip like no other osuvenir in the market does.
This way, the concept of this souvenir promotes acknowledging the main values of Córdoba in order to obtain its corresponding design piece. On the other hand, it also makes you aware of the pieces that you have not yet obtained and of the aspects of the city that you still have to discover. In this sense, this souvenir does not seek to condense the meaning of the city of Córdoba into a single object reduced to stereotypes, but rather understands the complexity of the city and respects its many values.
The representation of the main characteristics of Córdoba is carried out in a symbolic way, so that tourists can only understand it if they really have a brief knowledge of what is represented. This reinforces the feeling of recognition and self-esteem described by Abraham Maslow in his famous Hierarchy of Needs, since once displayed at home, the souvenir needs to be briefly explained by its owner. This way, tourists are able to show friends and family their acquired knowledge during the trip.
In terms of design of each piece of Memento, the elaboration is unique and handmade. For this reason, these souvenirs do not constitute a problem of visual contamination in the Historic Center of Córdoba, since they are the result of its artisan activity, unlike the rest of the other souvenirs that are generally industrialized.
Souvenirs have been linked to social class since their origin as they have been closely linked to the evolution of travel culture. The first travellers for intellectual interests were the enlightened aristocrats during their Grand Tour, so originally, souvenirs were local products that could only be recognized by those who had previously travelled to the same city. Currently, most souvenirs are inscribed with the name of the city to which they belong so that everyone can identify them, as a sign of globalization and the proliferation of mass tourism.
The souvenir model proposed in Memento aims to bring the local crafts and culture of the city of Córdoba to the entire population through small pieces at an affordable price to combat the idea that crafts are a luxury product but trying to avoid falling into the reductionism of those souvenirs called “markers” that only allude to the city by its name. The proposal of this souvenir as a fragmented object allows each tourist to acquire a number of pieces according to their purchasing power. It is also an interesting souvenir for children, who can understand collecting Mementos as a game closely related to heritage.
On the other hand, Memento values the millennial work of artisans, respects their knowledge and trusts their criteria to propose different designs for each piece depending on the type of craftsmanship used. For this reason, Memento respects the richness and diversity of artisan work in the city of Córdoba and shows itself as a job opportunity for both older and young people.
Lastly, authorities would understand this project as a solution to a real heritage problem, taking into account society needs as well as global challenges.
Memento affects different groups of citizens depending on their role in the project. The problem to which it responds mainly affects Cordovan citizens, who are influenced by stereotypes spread by the current mass-produced souvenirs. In addition, the city is modified to meet the demands of tourism to the point where people from Cordoba themselves assume as their own those made up attributes to satisfy visitors. This modifies the real identity of the city and contributes to its oblivion over the years. Therefore, Memento would combat this problem sinking its roots in the authentic craft activities of the city.
Artisans are another group greatly influenced by the development of Memento, since their participation in the proposal is essential. In return, its economic activity would be strongly boosted thanks to its new link to tourism, a booming sector in the city of Córdoba. In addition, residents from Cordoba would also see their local economy boosted and would have a new source of employment, while neighbours of the Historic Centre would recover its traditional craft activity to combat the new touristic uses that, in many cases, are incompatible with the residential use.
Lastly, cultural tourists will satisfy their needs for remembrance, recognition and knowledge thanks to these authentic objects from the city, subsequently disseminating an image that is respectful of the true heritage values of Córdoba all around the world.
The performance of the proposed concept would involve both public and private administrations. The first step is taken by the designer, who devises the system and develops Memento brand to bring coherence to the entire project.
Then it would be the turn of the public initiative, where the competent administration (in this case the Diputación de Córdoba as the authority on tourism) would finance the project. They would be in charge of proposing to different groups of artisans the participation in the design and elaboration process of the handmade pieces. To do this, artisans would be given a White Paper for the Craftsman in which the bases for the design of each piece would be established, indicating the specific dimensions and the formal requirements for its subsequent assembly, without restricting the creative freedom of each type of craft. The person in charge of preparing this White Paper would be the designer, as responsible for the general coherence of the project.
Once designs have been approved and manufactured, each artisan must clearly indicate what aspect of Córdoba their symbolic piece refers to, in order to establish the only authorized place of sale where it should be distributed. These points of sale can be the main monuments ticket offices, existing stores that sell Crafts Made in Andalusia or workshops themselves.
Once Mementos are already for sale, it is possible that different companies and tourist guides develop specific itineraries through the city to get each Memento. This way, crafts would reinforce their role as a tourist attraction in the city of Córdoba thanks to affordable craft souvenirs for the entire population.
The last stakeholder would be cultural tourists, in charge of buying this souvenir and even participating in the manufacture of their own Memento in a craft workshop. These tourists will also be in charge of spreading the identity and image of Córdoba in their countries of origin and the rest of the world.
The conceptual development of Memento would not have been possible without an exhaustive analysis of the history of the city of Córdoba, as well as the origin of its main stereotypes. Within this historical analysis, the origin and evolution of the main Cordovan crafts (leather work, silver work and Caliphate ceramics) have also been studied, as well as their different manufacturing processes to take them into account in the proposed souvenir.
In addition, the concept of Memento has a marked anthropological character, since it focuses on the human needs that souvenirs satisfy as objects of remembrance. Only this way can you stop understanding the souvenir as a banal object and consider it a necessary object inherent to contemporary culture. In this sense, the analysis of the phenomenon of mass tourism and the motivations of each type of tourist have also been decisive when it comes to defining a concept of souvenir that would respond in a real way to the needs of tourists.
Finally, the concept developed in Memento is the result of my Final Double Degree Project in Architecture and Design. Therefore, both disciplines have influenced the identification of the problem posed by the souvenir industry in historic cities and its resolution. In fact, this allowed me to identify three spaces of interaction between the object designed as a souvenir and the city itself: spaces for observation that inspire souvenir designs, spaces of production where souvenirs are made, and spaces of acquisition where souvenirs are displayed and sold.
The knowledge of the urban characteristics of historical centres and their main problems, mostly related to the tourist phenomenon, are thanks to my training as an architect.
My training as a designer has helped me to implement specific methodologies such as design thinking to shape the final concept. In this sense, different analyses have been developed, such as user persona analysis, customer journey or POEMS analysis.
My proposal is innovative in the field of design, since souvenirs are an object generally considered useless and to which very little attention has been paid in the discipline.
However, souvenirs are typical objects of contemporary culture, just like tourism. The speed with which the world evolves, and the rise of digitalization generate uncertainty in the future and the need to tangibly store certain memories of the past. This turns souvenirs into valuable objects worthy of study, since behind their apparent banality are hidden the main desires of today's society, in whose reflection they are transformed.
The association of souvenirs with banal or kitsh concepts has led to an underestimation of its impact on cities, which has been little studied from the point of view of architecture, design and heritage values. Proof of this is that most of the bibliography that analyses the phenomenon of souvenirs -which is already scarce in itself due to the contemporary nature of the object- only does so in specialized tourism magazines, but not from a spatial or patrimonial point of view.
As for the city of Córdoba, there is no analysis of the quality of its souvenir offer and no municipal regulations for the sale of these objects (as is the case in other Spanish cities such as Barcelona), despite the relevance of its Historic Site and its Special Protection Plan. For this reason, it is also considered innovative and important to understand the protection of the historic urban landscape from an objectual point of view and specifically from the souvenir, to ensure a correct transmission of the heritage values of the city to future generations.
It is not possible to condense all the heritage values of a city into a single object and reduce it to a single souvenir. The idea of conceiving a city as a set of interconnected parts can be applied to any city in the world. In the same way, any tourist should be aware that their knowledge of cities is limited by the few aspects that they have come to know about them, and that is why there will always be parts yet to be discovered.
This souvenir would work in the city of Córdoba since it is a cultural destination in which most tourists are interested in heritage. Its elaboration from the main Cordovan crafts makes it irreplicable in another context with the exact same characteristics.
However, the relationship model between public administrations and local artisan associations to develop Memento collections could be replicated in other historic cities, considering their own local crafts and their heritage values. The development plan considers an extension of the concept to the province of Córdoba, bringing all of its benefits to rural areas that coul be reactivated by tourism coming from the capital. In the future, Memento could become an exemplary practice to be replicated in other European cities as a consolidated way of sustainable tourism.
The main global problem to which my proposal responds is the loss of identity of cities and communities within the globalized world. This is linked to the context of constant change in which we live due to the unstoppable development of new technologies. Souvenirs become a physical prosthesis of our memory, in a world where everything is stored in the Cloud. Unlike photographs, souvenirs are much more subjective and have a greater capacity to transform into unique memories for each tourist, which is why they continue to be necessary as a physical reality of a past and intangible memory. Memento also adresses the problem of preserving historic urban landscapes, as they constitue a complex and difficult concept to manage. The same thig occurs to intangible heritage that Memento aims to preserve, such as Córdoba values and traditions involved in crafts.
Mass tourism is the other global problem that my proposal responds to since its impact on cities can be devastating if it is not controlled. For this reason, forms of sustainable tourism must be promoted, which include encouraging local identity and culture, contributing to local economy and respecting diversity, as Memento intends to achieve.
