Exhibitions

Throughout the year, the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture participates in and organises exhibitions in well-known venues throughout the city, promoting the social transfer of architecture to wider cultural environments and opening it up to society. Through projects developed in classrooms and then exhibited, the institution supports the central role played by schools of architecture in reflecting on cities and contemporary landscapes.

This also confirms the School’s commitment to exhiting its students’projects beyond the realm of academia.

With support from:

“22@_What? How to achieve balance in northern Poblenou, Barcelona” revisits the concept of the 22@ Plan twenty years after its creation

On Thursday 18 July 2019, the exhibition of Final Degree Projects by final-year students from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture was inaugurated in the former Ca l’Alier textile factory, currently the headquarters of the urban innovation centre BITHabitat. Under the title “22@_What? How to achieve balance in northern Poblenou, Barcelona”, the exhibit includes projects carried out by ten 5th year Architecture students, in which they put forward programmes and architectural proposals for the northern section of Barcelona’s Poblenou district.

Divided into three workshops directed by lecturers Iñaki Baquero, Marta García-Orte, Mamen Domingo and Ernest Ferré, the students took an in-depth look at the 22@ Plan, drawn up 20 years ago by the Barcelona City Council in an effort to put the district’s old industrial areas to new use and generate a compact city model in which companies, universities and technology transfer centres could rub shoulders with homes, public facilities and green areas. The students developed their proposals based on the analysis and urban project they carried out last year on 22@ Barcelona as part of the subject Urbanism III, coordinated by lecturers Álvaro Cuéllar and Pere Vall. The students defended their Final Degree Projects before a panel made up of architect Ferran Grau, Duna Bellmunt, a member of the Association of Architects of Catalonia, and several lecturers from different areas at the School. The public inauguration began with an opening address by David Martínez, director of projects for the BIT-Habitat Foundation and coordinator of the 22@ Committee.

This was followed by a round table discussion featuring experts associated with the development of the 22@ Plan and district representatives, who reflected on the district’s present and future situation. Participants in the round table, which was moderated by Óscar Guayabero, included Salvador Clarós, president of the Poblenou Residents’ Association; Yolanda Triviño, a representative from Valkiria Hub, a Poblenou-based digital platform focused on innovation in the workplace; and architect Ferran Grau. The three agreed on the need for new architectural and urbanistic proposals to replace the 22@ Plan’s outmoded patterns and spoke of the need for civil society, universities and political powers to work together to restore the areas in northern Poblenou that require greater flexibility and adaptability.

Once again, the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture has taken on the role that schools and faculties of architecture must play in reflecting on the contemporary city and landscape and has confirmed its commitment to displaying work by its students outside academic circles.

This publication includes the work carried out during the 20182019 academic year at the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture in the workshops for projects by final year students. It analyses the concept of “22@_What? How to achieve balance in northern Poblenou, Barcelona”. Lecturers: Iñaki Baquero, Marta García-Orte, Mamen Domingo and Ernest Ferré, Álvaro Cuéllar and Pere Vall.

Architecture students win the 2019 LlumBCN Awards with their project ‘Verd Botella’

The installation created by the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture for the Llum BCN Festival won First Ex Aequo Prize as part of a project entitled ‘Reflexió’ created in conjunction with BAU Centre Universitari de Disseny of Barcelona. The prize, awarded by the Barcelona Culture Institute, is conferred on the best light installations created by schools of art, design, lighting and architecture in Barcelona.

The ‘Verd botella’ installation was created by twelve of our students, under the supervision of lecturers Iñaki Baquero and Marta Garcia-Orte. It was located in the Jardí del Sol in Poblenou, and its aim was to fill the sections of the vertical garden that had not yet been filled with plants with the colour green, in a symbolic way. To do so, they used more than one thousand recycled plastic bottles, which were painted green and lit inside with low-energy Christmas lights. The students highlighted the fact that “Recycling is one of the main cornerstones of the project, since it was originally envisioned as an awareness campaign to attract attention to the amount of singleuse plastic we generate. It is a reflection on the importance of our actions in terms of the protecting of the environment”.

International jury members included Anna Díaz, a visual artist from Hamill Industries studio; Marisol López, cultural manager and director of the Digital Culture Area in the Catalan Institute for Cultural Companies (ICEC); Olga Subirós, architect and designer; Martin Posta, director of the Prague Signal Festival; and Valerie Bergeron, director of the Materials Centre of Barcelona (Martefad).

Architecture students take their proposals for the future of La Model prison to the Ús Barcelona Festival

The UIC Barcelona School of Architecture took part in the 2018 edition of the Ús Barcelona Festival. This edition aimed to find new uses for the former La Model prison, which has been subject to intense debate after it finally closed in June 2017. More specifically, the School took part in the ‘Jail Lab’ section of the festival with an exhibit made up of work by ten architecture students. These pieces gave careful thought to the future of the prison and showcased specific proposals for its future.

The exhibit was curated by the lecturers Josep Lluis i Ginovart, Juan Trías de Bes, María Barcina and Ana Cocho-Bermejo, and is the result of work carried out last year as part of the subject ‘Design Studio III & IV’. As a preliminary step, the students analysed the physical and emotional past of La Model prison under the supervision of lecturers Josep Lluis, Mónica López and Ricardo Gómez. As a result of this analysis, the students worked on proposals under the supervision of the lecturers curating the exhibit, which were put on display in the prison during the festival. “The future of the prison should not be played down because the building is intrinsically tied to a series of events which have left a traumatic stamp on the memory of Barcelona society”, explained Juan Trías de Bes.

The students’ projects put forward a number of uses for the building, from redeveloping it into social housing, creating a memorial museum or providing the city with a new cultural space. The students approached the project in a number of different ways. There were proposals envisaging a refurbishment of the whole constructed space and other ones that pushed for a radical redevelopment of the building while keeping some memorial elements from the past to stop the prison’s history from withering in the city’s collective memory”, added Ana Cocho-Bermejo.

Ús Barcelona is a festival organised by Rebobinart with the support of Barcelona City Council and the Government of Catalonia. It aims to salvage disused spaces by providing them with new uses through urban art and participation from the general public.