R_Urban Hubs. Questioning the Boundaries of 21st-Century Barcelona by ArchitectureUIC

“In response to those who say to stop dreaming and face reality, I say keep dreaming and make reality. —Kristan Kan

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FINAL PROJECTS 2015/2016

The Edges of the Delta Food Hub: Putting Integrated Education in Design (IED) into practice Pere Vall and Ă lvaro Cuellar

This book is a compilation of the exercises carried out by students on the Final Year Project (FYP) course at UIC Barcelona School of Architecture during the 2015-2016 academic year, alongside a retrospective reflection on the work conducted during the three previous courses (2013-2016).

During this period, the teaching assignment was formulated in conjunction with the Directorate General of Urban Planning of the Department of Territory and Sustainability of the Generalitat de Catalunya Catalan government, with the aim of contributing to the regeneration of strategic areas of Barcelonaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Metropolitan Region (2013-2014, Montcada gorge; 2014-2015, South Sector of the Caldes watercourse; 2015-2016, river Llobregat Delta). In this context, in addition to certifying professional capacity by means of a regulated course of work, the FYP activates joint research by

F OREWORD

students and teachers to interpret and judiciously intervene in the characteristic peri-urban fringes of the contemporary city. The expectant, hybrid nature of these spaces urges a radical approach to foremost areas of research, such as recycling preexisting mobility infrastructure, designing open spaces in terms of biodiversity and energy and food production, and incorporating new functional programmes. This work was based on an integrative view of the contemporary city that takes into account its complexity and, therefore, the impossibility of reducing it to simple, exclusive

concepts (rural or urban, public or private, etc.). Instead, it set out to reconcile various apparently unrelated but essentially complementary categories, scales and disciplines, bringing to bear a dynamic approach that addresses the mutable nature of the permanent transformation of the built environment. This body of research would not have been possible without the implementation, during the years of work prior to the FYP, of a teaching method (Integrated Project Teaching, IPT) (Figure 1) to give the young architect the necessary vision to be able to 5

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address complexity. To this end, IPT aims to train the student in: 1) multi-scale project practice, where building design is based on a solid interpretation of the city and the landscape, and incorporates a precise definition of their materiality and inner space; 2) multidisciplinary work, integrating the variables offered by the various areas of knowledge involved in developing the project; 3) the simultaneous acquisition of theoretical knowledge and practical skills during workshops with a variety of formats; and 4) collaborative work in which the individual project contributes

to an overall, strategic collective project. This teaching method finds its fullest expression in the FYP, making it a laboratory of useful ideas for designing a more efficient, attractive and just metropolitan city. Reprogramming the edges of the Delta Food Hub During the 2015-2016 academic year, IPT focussed on reprogramming the edges of the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park in the Delta plain, a territory of exceptional ecologic, economic and social value for Barcelonaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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metropolitan area, characterized by great diversity and complexity, with its 23 kilometres of coastline, over 2,000 hectares of farmland preserved from the pressure of development, abandoned sites, obsolete activities, protected natural spaces, a system of towns with 320,000 inhabitants (Castelldefels, GavĂ , Viladecans and Sant Boi communicated by the C-245 road, and El Prat), a dense road and rail network, and an important logistics centre that includes the port and the airport. The proposed programme set out to transform the sectors located around the perimeter of the Agricultural Park that have not yet implemented the previsions of the Metropolitan Master Plan and require a revision of their current conditions in order to improve accessibility and strategic position. Further, current planning has not sufficiently reinforced the Agricultural Park in the face of the pressures of development, or generated the necessary resources to address the major structural reforms needed by competitive agriculture (land banking, renovation of irrigation and drainage networks, etc.). In response, IPT proposed a specific plan to reprogramme the edges of the Deltaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agricultural

area, which envisages generating capital gains in areas outside the Park itself to be reinvested to help preserve its environmental and cultural values. This Plan will consolidate the Delta as a food hub and ultimately ensure the viability of agriculture at the service of the surrounding metropolitan area of almost three million inhabitants, reducing the impact caused by the mobilization of long-distance goods. This proposal (Figure 2) addressed five basic aims: 1) to strengthen the connective role of the Delta within the metropolitan ecological matrix, between the coast and the coastal hill system, by restoring the watercourses, and to ensure the continuity of vegetable plots and pinewoods in open spaces of transition; 2) to characterize each edge according to its respective vocation: i) the residential and touristic edge of the seafront, ii) the natural and recreational edge of the lakes and wetlands, iii) the logistic edge of the airport site, iv) the industrial and logistic edge of the C-32 road, and v) the residential and facilities edge of the historic centre of Sant Boi; 3) the incorporation of new, quality uses associated with residence, production, leisure and culture, that are compatible with

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farming; and 4) the legibility and formal coherence of each edge in relation to its context with a view to creating distinctive spaces in their own right. Within this general framework, three project workshops were developed, with different programmatic accents: Lacasta, GarcĂa, Orte and CuĂŠllar: logistic and productive edges (Joncs-Airport); Rull, Olmo and Vall: touristic and recreational edge (Marinada-Remolar); EstĂŠvez and Vall: residential and facilities edge (Sant Boi).

Each workshop developed a group proposal organized around a strong civic matrix that interconnects the multiple individual proposals, and gives meaning to the place in the periurban fringe. They were hybrid matrixes, combining rural and urban values, where the classic public spaces of the compact city (squares, avenues and urban parks) are replaced by a new repertory of peri-urban public spaces (low-intensity local tracks, ecological connecting parks

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(between protected metropolitan open spaces: coastal hill systemâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; agricultural parkâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;wetlands), and parks around major infrastructure (C-31 roadâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;airport site). The intermediate vision between the building project and the metropolitan city project was therefore essential, with simultaneous decisions at the small and the large scale. In this respect, the FYP exercises brought together in this catalogue go beyond individual affirmation in search of synergies and

establish relations of complicity with elements in the landscape such as the pinewoods, vegetable plots and infrastructure. These are, ultimately, exercises in architecture that dialogue at all scales, which, accordingly, have the capacity to piece together a collective meaning.

BEST STUDENT WORK

Protofactory JOAN MARC GARCĂ&#x2030;S

The project is located in the north of Vallbona Hill, in Montcada i Reixac. The space is influenced by three principal factors: the motorway approach to the city, a cement factory complex, and a 10-metre difference in level from the urban front. The intervention aims to enhance the new front. It takes its lead from the existing layout of streets in the surrounding area, so that the new avenue is shaped by the town itself. The protofactory is based around the axis of the overhead crane, which is the genesis of the build. This axis is present throughout, acting as a guide for the public arriving from the outside and accompanying them inside the building, where they see the final product. Further, the spaces in the protofactory are arranged according to the product lifecycle, from the arrival of goods to R&D, production and the showroom, following the axis of the overhead crane. In this way, the project forms a dialogue between the town and industry, showcasing elements such as the overhead crane or goods delivery that are usually hidden, establishing an atmosphere based on material flows, and making the protofactory an industrial model for the present and the future.

Pinehood

Pinehood Territory as Collective Heritage Rosa Rull and Yolanda Olmo

A stick! In the summer of 2013, an advertising campaign for a simple new drink—“lemon and nothing”— captured everyone’s attention with its return to simplicity. The ad shows a little boy unwrapping a present. Inside the box, there’s a stick. The little boy takes it out, brandishes it in the air and starts shouting excitedly: “A stick! A stick! … Thank you!! A stick!” His cries continue even when the picture changes and a voiceover presents the product. As though it were the best present he could have wished for. Or perhaps the stick even represented all the presents he had wished for, rolled into one. Baix Llobregat Agriculture Park Every year, the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture invites its FYP students to take a stance on the future of the still indeterminate territory that surrounds our cities. Territory, landscape, ecosystem, infrastructure, productive activities, agriculture, rural, urban and many others are the words in the mouths of students as they

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argue the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of their final-year projects. It is not enough for students simply to develop the form and materiality of an isolated object. The proposals of those who bring a broader view in time and space to the development of an architecture project will always shun triviality and be more relevant. This year, the setting was the edges of the Baix Llobregat Agriculture Park. The remit was to preserve the park’s productive, ecological and sociocultural richness. This involves consolidating its edges by the implementation of a new brief, introducing activities that add value: programmes that intervene to transform and commercialize the park’s products, programmes that help to preserve 22

Pinehood

cultural heritage by ordering its social uses, and residential programmes that ensure the continuity of a neighbourhood that reinforces the sense of belonging. This will allow the participation of civil society in decision-making about the territory seen as collective heritage.Twelve students concentrated on rethinking the layout of the eminently residential strip, between the C31 road and the Baix Llobregat Agriculture Park, that overflows the municipal boundaries between Castelldefels, GavĂ and Viladecans, extending from Barcelona. From the Olympic rowing canal to the protected natural spaces near the airport, via the seaboard area, an extensive plain with scattered occupation and, mostly, pending urban development. 23

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This enclave contains enduring traces of a farming landscape (irrigation system, tracks and plot arrangement) and the sporadic continuity of an expanding Mediterranean pine forest, with a disorderly scattering of constructions. The parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s continuity to the sea is interrupted by the Castelldefels expressway. The C31 (C for carretera, road; 3 for parallel to the coastline, and 1, the first), built in 1949 to support the expansion of tourism in the 1960s, is still an expressway, ignoring its present-day role as a residential metropolitan thoroughfare supported by developing public transport, despite the construction of the alternative C32. It is time for the C31 to become an urban, crossable thoroughfare for public mobility. Between the C31 and the sea, a spreading, lowoccupancy residential suburb has erased the characteristic features of the local landscape and lacks structuring public space, with the exception of the beach. A pine! Beyond the complexity of the territory, the students were able to see a pine tree. Postponing the global view until the domestic and social value of the space among the pine trees had been specified meant that the premises for both the layout of the development and the construction projects reflect the experiential relation between people and pine trees. Just one a priori: public space as a basis for a degree of urban life. From the particular to the position. The pine has become the icon of position governing the degree of intervention in the territory: not only does it protect the ecosystem, it interacts with it. If only we could metabolize the pine! 24

Pinehood

From the particular to the general. The pine also became the origin of the layout, prioritizing the natural underlying order. The layout of the farmland and other enduring genetic features characteristic of the local landscape were identified and used as the basis for the new layout: an old track snakes through the pine trees as a new public path, and seven urban foyers occupy clearings in the pine forest to organize and concentrate new briefs within the plot boundaries. A new residential model marked by scattered compactness gives rise to a new neighbourhood: Pinehood. From the particular to the particular. The pine is present in the planning of specific projects as a catalyst of experiences and relations between people, in the public space they all provide. From the particular to the detail. A detailed, indepth look at the pine should have bought us to a more local materiality. Beyond the technology, we would like to see the emergence of a kind of anthropology of the construction detail. 25

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An Agro-Social Amenity for the Llobregat Delta Agricultural college and residence for people with cognitive disabilities MARINA BARÓ BAGUÉ

At the boundary between the agricultural park and the pinewoods to the south, we generate a transitory strip, in which residential clusters that we call stamps appear, respecting the existing pinewoods. The ‘plot layout’ suggests two different directions that we follow to position two special elements of the cluster. One of the elements is the ‘green house’, closer to the fields, with an iconic houseshaped elevation. The other is a second, ‘evolved greenhouse’ that contains a specialized brief. This second greenhouse is filled with wooden boxes that house the college’s classrooms and services. The classrooms generate a second level grouped into three communities, where another series of boxes contains the bedrooms. The various communities are joined by walkways that produce double and triple spaces. The rooms on the first floor form a third level for occasional occupation.

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Delta Crop&Congress GUILLEM DÍAZ HERNÁNDEZ

The pinewoods of the Gavà coastline and the agricultural fabric of the Llobregat delta have no defined borders; the urban planning project, in the form of clusters of housing or “stamps” and an associated amenity, will act as a nexus between these fabrics. The congress hotel is located on the stamp beside the Riera de Canyars gully. The largest strip in this stamp is taken up by the hotel; the congress brief is broken down on the ground floor to form pavilions whose roofs, and some of their façades, are invaded by crops. The pavilions are interrelated by a public space where the delta’s farmland and the pinewoods meet, so that the open space and the built area become part of the same project.

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CarbaĂąas ALBA FERRER FĂ&#x20AC;BREGAS

Residence recognises the landscapes of its setting: canal, pinewoods and farmland, and takes them as cause and consequence. The ground floor is situated on the lagoons like a plinth that adopts a human scale and turns the space into a large natural plaza. The structure of walls perpendicular to the canal creates opaque vistas from the plaza as opposed to the transparency achieved from inside the residential units. The reflecting outer finish ensures that the plinth disappears amid the vegetation, creating the visual impression that the first floor is floating. The ground floor structure forms a hard collective plaza, with the scale of the city: the most public space. The project connects with the rest of the buildings and allows continuous circulation at a height of +4m. An uninterrupted itinerary takes in a series of transparent spaces hat contain the brief, with great visual permeability towards the pine trees and the canal.

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The Square Management Centre (Hpc) Ă&#x20AC;NGELS GARCIA ANDREU

Situated beside the Olympic rowing canal, it forms part of a complex of facilities that create a high performance centre around a natural plaza. The first strategy adopted was to naturalize the canal, to stop seeing it as a boundary and integrate it into the wetland landscape. The Square Management Centre acts as a link between the facilities that also generates a plaza in its interior, created as a meeting point for users. The facility has an unfavourable west-facing orientation, which is exploited to create a large foyer-filter, with the more public programmes (auditorium and restaurant) positioned at the rear to protect them from direct sunlight, while the office and the rehabilitation centre are drawn back to create the plaza. In this case, the reeds growing in the wetlands are used to create vertical sunshading in the faĂ§ades.

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Water Pines MARIA MASSANET FORNĂ&#x201C;S

The project is located in the area near the Olympic Canal. After studying the site, the proposal was to design a Centre for High Performance Sport. The flora of the site and the canal are present throughout in a symbiosis with the construction. The aim is to blur the boundaries between the installations and the landscape to create a continuity between the pine trees, the wetlands and the HPC. Water Pines is divided into a sports area (sports centre and indoor pool) and a vocational training centre. The building is designed as a platform that embraces the two programmes, bringing together education and praxis. The amenity follows a visual itinerary that allow the construction to blend in harmoniously with the landscape, generating reduced visual impact and integrating the pine trees and the wetlands into the buildings.

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Cookinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ceramics AINHOA MUR PALLĂ S

The project is a filter between two types of space: public, in the form of a pedestrian axis, and secluded, the pinewoods. This takes place on the ground floor, generating an indoor multipurpose space that allows the school or the street to extend and establishes a visual relation by means of a sequence of empty and full. The idea materializes in three boxes with a leaf that folds inwards to give the structure greater stability and house service spaces. The material used for the structure, facing and finish is ceramics, closely linked to the place. Two different types of spaces can therefore be seen in the building: the ceramic box, showing off the texture and the light that enters through it; and the bare concrete structure that creates a sensation of floating above the canopy of pine trees.

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Cultural Market CARLES PALAU SALA

The project stands at a crossroads within the master plan. To one side, it is bounded by the street that structures the area and, on the other, it continues a footpath that connects it to the beach. On a site in the middle of a pine wood, the premise is to respect the position of the pine trees by building in the spaces between them and using them for sun shading. To establish itself as a meeting point, the programme is commercial on the ground floor and cultural throughout the upper level. A timber frame structure creates a large pavilion at a tangent to the two thoroughfares to house travelling markets and sports or cultural events. The cultural centre is organized in the form of a walkway around the pavilion and a wooded area to maximize contact with the outside through a transparent roof.

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ILC Intergenerational Learning Centre EDUARD PASCUAL

People are increasingly living longer lives, turning the dependency of the elderly into a challenge. Homes tend to be dark, cold buildings, like hospitals, with corridors and floors separating their residents. The principal resource adopted here is to complement the building with a pre-school centre that helps to spread youthfulness, happiness, energy and innocence to the residents. On a long narrow plot, situated between a pine wood and a stamp , the project is laid out in three vertical strips that accommodate the brief on the ground floor. The creation of courtyards in the side strips serves to explain the project from the inside: views in both directions, lots of light and contact with the outside.

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Equilines Racing Side SILVIA PERIS PALLARĂ&#x2030;S

Due to its geographical location, the project seeks integration and respect for the natural setting. It is based on rigid, compact concrete nuclei that form the bases of platforms to see the races, the horses and the landscape. The building therefore concentrates its load in minimum points of support, offering permeability and a place of meeting on the ground floor. Most of the useful space is exterior, and the interior is created using glass cases that offer transparency and visibility from any point of the project. The floor plans are rectangular in geometry, maintaining a coherent relation with the facility and the public space that is generated. The only exception is the floor plan of the grandstand, which turns through five degrees from the track to ensure optimum viewing conditions for spectators.

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Equilines H2orse Side SARA PRESAS

Since this is the stable block of the racing track, the building is open to its surroundings, relating to them by means of the prolongation of gullies and fields. In this way, the project creates spaces of transition between urban and country as the setting for constant relations between people and horses. The structural rhythm of the building is defined by the ideal measurements of a stall, 4x4m. The project is broken down into three parts due to the needs of the brief. We exploit this necessity to insert the stable block between the outdoor spaces produced by this division. The building turns delicately through ten degrees to break with the square layout and create more spacious areas between the stables. The lines of water that enter the building mark a separation from the stables, a physical but not visual barrier between people and horses.

Looking Back

Looking back at the FYP 2012-2016 Understanding Architecture to understand Architecture Miquel Lacasta and Marta GarcĂa-Orte

The usual way of living in our society has led us to a way of thinking that entangles us in a constant, never-ending web of changes. The consequences of destroying the past, with the traditional role of anchor and fixer of knowledge and customs it has until very recently played, and the exaggerated inflation of novelty afforded by a future fraught with obsolete promises has provided such happy metaphors as Zygmunt Baumanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s liquid modernity, to give one example. The image evoked by Bauman is well known. The operating model of our society, crammed full of new beginnings and incessant ends, is liquid in behaviour, where everything changes and nothing remains still, to quote Heraclitus. The chain of supposed events is unstoppable; global hyperconnectivity gives us access to a huge quantity of information that conditions our daily proceedings. The irruption of a volcano, falling oil 67

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prices and social unrest in a country in the process of consolidating democracy supposedly make us more aware of ourselves and what is around us. In barely a minute, we undertake a journey of thousands of kilometres and gobble down a few crumbs of reality that we have to take into account, however distant. This produces what we call an informed citizen. But perhaps the question we should be asking ourselves is whether it is necessary to know, in real time, what is happening in every corner of the globe? What’s more, since this is objectively impossible, are we aware that what we are getting is a modified, nuanced, manipulated—for better or worse—version of what is happening on the planet? Obviously we cannot get first-hand accounts of everything that is going on, so, given our thirst for 68

Looking Back

reality, we are obliged to trust a conglomerate of news agencies for our access to information, the constant object of biased interpretations. This observation prompts a further reflection: do we need constantly to be riding the waves of liquid society and modernity? Some resistance to the liquidity of our environment is emerging as a result of the major social and financial catastrophe of the last decade. Contrary to what we might think, however, slowing down our social model, taking it to the terrain of the close-at-hand and solidifying our field of interaction with reality, is not only impossible, it also runs a serious risk of choosing the reactionary, conservative option of the local, and abandoning the conception of the global and leaving it in the hands of greed and intellectual corruption. This conjecture, which forces us to 69

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choose between a solid, pacified reality and a liquid, vertiginous realityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in other words, between kilometre zero and the speed of lightâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is clearly inefficient and ultimately impossible to organize. It is inefficient because of the magnitude of the sacrifice we would need to make to be more or less consistent with such a radical decision. Staying cloistered in the local would mean leaving the global to the relentless forces of exploitation and extraction. Whether these forces focus on talent or on natural resources, letting others take care of the global means suicide for the local. We cannot and we must not leave the global conception of reality in other hands if we do not want to be swept away at a stroke. Slowing down is only possible if 70

Looking Back

we all do it, at the same time and in coordination. Something which, today, with the inequalities existing in the world, is clearly impossible. This is why well-intentioned ideas of degrowth have never prospered as a development strategy, as they would inexorably lead to self-inflicted poverty. At the same time, we have realized that we cannot allow ourselves to be carried away by the liquid hysteria of a hyper-consumerist society that designs a kind of programmed obsolescence that puts off ethics to a non-existent tomorrow. This liquid state, an irrepressible force, is an immediate and absolute defeat for everything that our parents and grandparents fought; letting ourselves drown in the brutal current of the liquid is also inefficient in that it represents the germ of our disappearance. So, what is the answer? A new state of the matter? Accepting that, in the end, our whole vital dynamic has to be converted into a gaseous nebula of excited, disconnected events? This is the context faced by students over recent years of the Final Year Project workshop, and one which, jointly, teachers and students, we have responded to in the form of reflection, research and application. There is, of course, no recipe for success, but I think that these three strategies are worthy of note. Reflection is a fundamental attitude when developing skills to undertake a project, whatever its origin. It is about looking up from the desktop and listening, activating the mechanism of curiosity as a basic structure, and encouraging an insatiable intellectual excitement at everything that is unknown. So often we see good architects become slaves to themselves, forced to repeat, to constantly walk the same path and wander off into 71

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obsolescence. A lack of curiosity and reflection leads academics to retreat into their hyperfocalized shell, and professionals to repeat tried and tested formulas. Understanding architecture means realizing that each challenge and each project involves starting over. Liquid reality is not going to stop moving, however much we would like to curb its phenomenal strength. Research means focussing deeply on our reflections. To research is to banish vanity, because it means assuming that someone, somewhere, in similar conditions, has already pieced together a body of knowledge that is of vital importance for that precise thing that is essential in the project about to be developed. Researching means joining a chain of high-octane intellectual value which, far from closing windows in the mind, materializes them, giving them depth and draft. Research in the field of architecture in such a changing society has ceased to be an option and become an imperative. Today, there is no architecture without innovation, and it logically follows that there is no innovation without research. And this is the bridge that we set out, from day one, to build: the direct interaction between designing architecture and researching architecture. This is precisely what I mean by the title of this article: Understanding architecture to understand architecture. It may seem a mere play on words, but it is not. Finally, all of this effort invested in reflection and research means nothing in architecture unless a project is designed. The application to a spatial design of everything we have reflected on and researched, carried to its logical conclusion, seems to me to be fundamental. Time and time again, we joke with the students that all that is missing now is 72

the build. Because in this half liquid, half gaseous world, something as solid and literally weighty as architecture continues to be very necessary. This is the paradox we face as we continue to consider it vital to provide the best tools for future architects in the final year of their training. Answer liquid reality with solid architectures! This is the message that todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architects took away from their Final Year Project workshop and which a large majority are experiencing in professional practices around the world. Fortunately, architecture continues to be imperatively necessary and potent, and to require the best architects for a world where the only option is to be better. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re staking a lot of future on young architects. 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; BAUMAN, Zygmunt, Liquid Modernity, Polity Press, 2000.

SITE-SENSITIVE ASSEMBLAGES / 01

Agricultural College MARÍA ALCARAZ RUIZ

In the context presented here, what better facility than an agricultural college, where citizens can learn all about working the land? A busy footpath separates the building’s two volumes, one devoted to the theory and the other to the practice of agriculture. The first is equipped with classrooms, offices, changing rooms and a library, while the second accommodates everything to do with farm machinery. The latter building has a rooftop allotment across most of its surface, offering a place to put theory into practice. The façades that give onto the footpath are made of corrugated polycarbonate, while the outer facings are corrugated sheet with perforations, providing a support for plants —all edible, of course.

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Delta Catering ROSA APARICI

My project is organized according to two clear axes: one industrial, the other parkrelated. Throughout, the intervention turns its back on the industry axis, opening up to the park. In keeping with the industrial matrix of 80x80m established by the master plan, the volumes are built to accommodate the firm’s different briefs. The industrial kitchen and logistics warehouse interrupt the industrial axis with its rigid façade that gradually descends to form part of a more urban project. Both the offices and the showroom open onto the park via a more user-friendly façade. The perforations in the aluminium sheet are designed exclusively for this envelope, in keeping with an imagen of the vegetation outside the park. The pattern of the microperforations aims to reflect the thick vegetation in front of the volume.

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Joncs Metropol OLGA BELTRĂ N POLO

Located in the middle of the Els Joncs master plan, the Metropol space is an urban project that generates social activities, incorporating sustainability, economy, environment and a social use. The Metropol space is a criticism of the industrial warehouse that surrounds it, giving it a new focus. All the materials used are recyclable and industrialized. The structure is built of laminated wood frames. The space is clad with two layers: the first is photovoltaic glass that will generate energy for self-consumption with the possibility of selling the surplus; the second layer is a skin of Flexbrick to ensure thermal comfort. This second skin also houses an automated system of installations (water points, electricity and Wi-Fi).

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Vocational Training Centre and Business Incubator RAFAEL BENNASAR MIQUEL

The project is located strategically at the intersection formed by the road leading to GavĂ town centre and the new axis running right through the new urban proposal. The project is envisaged as one of the gateways to the new sector, offering transition from present-day industry to the new proposed model. This intervention is much more site-sensitive, adapting to and respecting natural corridors and introducing new uses in addition to logistics. In contrast with the dense industrial setting made up of large opaque volumes and the almost total absence of public spaces, this proposal is based on the horizontal nature of a large urban plaza. A plane rises to accommodate the brief, drawing back, folding and gaining perforations to address different situations, enhance spaces and blur the boundaries between inside and out.

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Data Processing Circle ADRIÁN BUISÁN LARDIÉS

Set amid the jumble of the urban periphery, the project, together with the master plan, proposes a corporate area located on the outskirts of Barcelona’s airport site. The building is located on top of the slope created by a major infrastructure. The project widens the slope, developing the open space on top of it and concentrating most of the brief below. Due to the limited light below grade, a data processing centre is situated on the two basement floors, with offices, a restaurant and an auditorium on the ground floor. Altogether, they form the corporate headquarters for T-systems. In keeping with the master plan, the project is based on a circular geometry that breaks with the grid. This produces an open space at the centre and three recesses that will mark the entrances and respond to the different levels. The building also has a sloped roof that will continue the open space around it and offer a vantage point with views of the Llobregat Delta.

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Protofactory PABLO CASADEVALL LEMMEL

When you walk around cities with an industrial past, you come across the remains of old factories, buildings that have been put to new uses or that stand in ruins. We see how the urban, the residential and the industrial lived together in that space. The manufacturing city of the nineteenth century gave way to the industrial metropolis, where the industrial started to relate with the periphery, while the central city began to specialize in tertiary and service activities. This marked the start of the post-industrial city. The factory, seen as an activator of the economy, has always coexisted in our cities in the form of large, decontextualized fabrics. Knowing that it is necessary, but preventing its problems in the form of pollution and waste, we have to promote the industry of innovation and knowledge. The mix of public and private uses, and openness to the city are the pillars of integration of this new industrial fabric. We have to put an end to the industrial estate and start generating city.

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Butterfly Landing MARIA CERDÀ PONS

In the protective framework of the Llobregat Agricultural Park and in response to the present impairment of the environment, butterflies, as important environmental indicators, provide the point of departure for this project. The keys are: · To restore native flora and fauna, creating a specialized botanical garden that encourages the development of the food chain. · To rehabilitate and recycle unused spaces that form part of the historic site of Can Torelló, which, in the 1920s, was a naturalist site before being turned into a military barracks after the Spanish Civil War. A minimum intervention to the farmhouse turns it into the centre of the complex, and a reinterpretation of the old arsenal produces the butterfly farm. · To create spaces to promote the complex and provide backing for research in the form of laboratories, and for development in the form of cabins where people can experience the place.

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El Calamot Market ALEJANDRO CHICOTE

El Calamot Park is situated in the only undeveloped sea-mountain corridor in the Llobregat Delta, hence its environmental and landscape importance. Situated at the meeting point of irrigated farmland and hilly slopes, it presents an image of a rusty red stone faĂ§ade, crowned with pine trees. It is a topography that has been altered over the centuries by the hand of humankind, the place of dryland farming, carob, almond and olive trees. This landscape, crowned by the Mas de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Horta, a 10th-century farmhouse, is completely abandoned and dilapidated. El Calamot Market sets out to revitalize this landscape; to continue and complete it, and to reinforce its links with the city and the master plan, acting as a point of connection between the three. It is both a natural and an artificial body that generates the experience of park, avenue and plaza, housing hybrid leisure and production briefs. The park is amenity and the amenity is park.

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ITJ - Hybrid Building LORENZO FARCHIONE

The ITJ is a hybrid building located in the very north of Castelldefels, a border between the urban, industrial and farming fabrics; it is an element of urban design that forms part of the Delta Food Hub master plan, which aims to revitalize socially and economically the municipalities of Castelldefels and GavĂ . Study and analysis of the surroundings of the intervention and pre-existing elements (railway lines) suggested a brief divided into five complementary uses: bus station, intermodal station, conference centre, business centre and hotel, which, together, will provide economic (exchange) and social (cohesion) services in a visionary architecture that creates value for the place. The project sets out to be the iconic urban volume that marks the start and the finish of the master plan, proposing a vertical relation of mixed uses that allows the interrelation of visitors and the place itself.

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School of Gastronomy GALAM KIM

The continuity of time allows us to perceive the changes in the place and the continuity of spaces; also the changes in situation, maintaining the relation between past and future. This diversity approaches, allowing us to perceive this connection by means of materials, light and shade, briefs, activities, etc. The project will be the place to appreciate this variation, maintaining continuity of time and spaces, and seeking connection between them. The project materials will express the relation between past and future; timber, for example, is what has existed in the place since the past; concrete is new, and glass is the connection between the two materials, offering reflection and transparency. The interplay of light and shade will express the continuity of time. And the programmes and activities will be expressed in the connection of spaces and the variation of the place.

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Hydroponic Farming Research Centre ANDREA MASIP NOGUERA

The centre is located at the perimeter of the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park, which acts as a gateway. The site currently comprises land that is difficult to farm. The siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s former activities have left a continuum of layouts and paths, alongside plantations, which form the base for the redevelopment and distribution of the planned park. The centre is arranged according to the grid structure of the greenhouse layout. In keeping with the change of use, and its ecological and sustainable approach, the project replaces the iron that was used previously with timber. The philosophy of production of hydroponic farming works in the opposite way to traditional farming. The crops grow not in the ground, but from the tops of the building, so it is the paving rather than the roof that harnesses rainwater for reuse. This constantly changing space is both educational and fun. You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get more local produce. And it cuts both economic and environmental costs.

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Biogas Plant + Microalgae Rd&I JOSร LUIS MONTERDE RAMOS

The project exploits the characteristics of the place for its energy, to purify water of an excess of nutrients using microalgae, and to generate electricity from the organic waste of greater Barcelona. The circular geometry chosen by the master plan to avoid highlighting the built layout is further applied to this building, thereby creating a construction that is circular in both faรงade and section. A built crown is created of two nonconcentric circumferences, forming smaller spaces for offices and large spaces for industrial production. Circulation for both pedestrians and traffic flows through the inside of the crown, offering immediate access to all the production processes and allowing larger flows of trucks.

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Spiral Hotel MARC MUNAR MESEGUÉ

The project is located in an unorganized setting in the peri-urban periphery and forms part of a master plan that proposes a corporate area on the edge of the Llobregat Delta. The building stands at a tangent to the Valencia road, opposite Barcelona’s wholesale flower market. Thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of the group strategy and the project’s situation within it, the chosen brief is for a hotel to accommodate travellers passing through the airport and the users of the master plan. The hotel is based on a circular geometry which, with the incorporation of the third dimension, turns it into a spiral. This means that there is a continuous ramp inside the programme, interlinking all the parts. The ground floor accommodates the communal areas overlooking the private open space created within.

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Bee Farm PAULA PÉREZ CUARTANGO

The project is for an apiculture research and production centre: “Function leads to form.” The right-hand edge of the natural reserve is based on the hexagon as its principal element. Three rules size and fractalize the hexagon, creating a grid that extends from the territorial to the smallest element, the tile. In addition, there are three basic ideas: · Shrubby plants and regulations suggest the location, and changes in the park’s topography create different itineraries or areas of greater or lesser privacy. · The building is divided into three areas. Research and training, in the north, is a more closed, hermetic element; production, in the south, is related to the park, and the entrance opens up both to the research sector and to production and the park. · Finally, the large-spanned cantilevered roofs harvest rainwater to water the park.

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Hydraulic Landscape Research Centre TAM HOK CHI RICHARD

The Hydraulic Landscape Research Centre is located beside the Riera dels Canyars gully, just before it reaches the delta, in an agricultural landscape. The investigation centre explores the sustainable development of the Riera dels Canyars. Its architecture is influenced by the 1956 map, generating a transition from the urban to the natural over the years. Drawing on a study of crop fields, the building is based on different proportions of rectangles according to an irregular geometry that respects the old rural tracks. The volumes are displaced within the context in keeping with the functions inside the building. The rhombus is the general geometry applied, reflecting the tree structure; various types of density and scale of rhombus are applied in the building to create an interaction between the human and the natural by means of orientation, acoustics and wind direction, allowing users to move slowly from the indoor space to the natural environment.

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IAG Headquarters JOSEP MARIA VALLS ZAMORA

The project reflects the complexity of situating a building between boundaries. Here, the boundaries are formed by the farmland layout of the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park and the forceful imprint of Barcelona airport, not forgetting the importance of the natural areas that crop out in the immediate vicinity. The project has to adapt to these three conditioning factors. To do so, it uses a largescale programme, natural materials such as timber, and a geometric form that makes for fluidity of space: the circle. The fractality and discontinuity manifested in the faรงade serve to integrate the project into the context, producing a building that allows the landscape to continue beneath it. This prolongation on the ground floor is achieved by supporting the brief from the roof.

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End of Degree Course, End of Cycle

End of degree course, end of cycle Alberto T. Estévez

On 4 October 2016, it will be 20 years since the first architecture class—given by yours truly—that inaugurated what was then known as the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia. Its first 32 students included some who were to become teachers there, such as Jordi Roviras, Cristina García-Castelao, Raquel Colacios, Iván Llach and Manuel Peribáñez. The singularity of the event, which was also symbolic at various levels, prompted me to entitle it “Antoni Gaudí, Life and Work”. Then, in a curiously Gaudian alfa to omega, I also presented each of them with their architecture diploma in 2002, International Gaudí Year. Since those beginnings, the School has seen the architect as a person who brings together various areas of knowledge in their work, leading to the widely used metaphor of the architect as an orchestra conductor. To qualify this, the orchestra conductor must know how to play an instrument well; similarly, architects naturally come to develop—without losing their overview—a special

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liking for a particular field. The development of teaching in Spain has brought great rigor to all of these issues, becoming a prestigious academic tradition recognized the world over. Course after course, the School has pursued its work to make integrated project teaching a reality. And, every year, different measures have been adopted to improve it. As the first Director of the ESARQ — now UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, I wrote the following words in the special issue of Quaderns magazine: “The Education of the Architect” (2005): “The methodology of the IPT school: integrated, presential, permanent training workshops for the ongoing synthesis of all areas of knowledge based on an architectural project, as though each academic year included a major end-of-degree project.”

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End of Degree Course, End of Cycle

This has always been the aim: all areas working together to design a single project, to achieve maximum pedagogical efficiency in this undertaking. Something that other schools also aim to do, with varying degrees of success. More specifically, with regard to the FYP (final year project), it was during the early years of the School that the above-mentioned figure of the orchestra conductor emerged: the teacher who guided the project of each individual student, throughout the course, week by week, controlling when all the others should come in. And, although the correction process could give rise to discrepancies between teachers, they never affected the grades of students who had followed their teacher’s indications. Even the Director of the School, who chaired the Final Year Project panels, at all times respected the grade awarded by the teacher. Since the purpose of these lines is to reflect on the last three years, perhaps what we have learned—not just from the last three, but also from the five before them—is the need for a delicate respect for the criterion of the person “conducting the orchestra”. It is here that the occasional disagreement has taken place, causing some confusion to students. (From the ETSAB, I remember the anger of Albert Viaplana, exclaiming loudly when a FYP that he had tutored, and considered deserving of an Eight, was awarded a Four.) Precisely because they are all architects, though working on the project in a single, specific area, it is inevitable and almost natural that they end

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up correcting elements that are in fact debatable, possibly contradicting the criterion of the Projects teacher: a layout of spaces here, a position of doors there, changes in flooring, or any other issue on the long list of components that make up the project. When the model is clear, there is no room for discrepancy. This School designed the Final Year Project as a fine-tuning of the fifth year project. This meant that, while teachers in other areas were invited to the corrections, it was the Projects lecturer who ultimately gave the grades. We have to be coherent with each teaching model. For example, according to a different but equally legitimate model, the FYP would be a different project to the one produced in the fifth year, and 142

the Projects teacher would be one teacher more, alongside those of technical and urban planning areas. Here, the student would be responsible for bringing together the different areas. This model has proved to be a failure, producing hundreds of students with their FYP pending at other schools. In view of human difficulties in mutual understanding and sincere respect, contradiction in teaching can only be justified if we believe that it is the existence of conflict that gives it valueand makes it more authentic and effective, because â&#x20AC;&#x153;education will be convulsive, or it will not be at allâ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;Ś

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Forum BORJA MONSĂ&#x201C; GALINDO

Forum is a project that sets out to recover an area of historic heritage as a new centre in the old town of Sant Boi. A new place for local people to meet, get involved in different activities, and take in views of the whole Llobregat Delta. Three distinct stretches of ramp respond to the considerable differences in level. The first stretch features a series of overhangs, offering views of the urban allotments. The second is a ramp with a bench to sit and enjoy the new park. The final stretch leads from the street to the new building. From this street, Carrer de Sant Pere, three volumes are generated, each at a different level, corresponding to the ramps. These volumes seek to resemble Mediterranean vegetation in their use of two materials: wood and glass.

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Sant Boi Spa Centre (Water Walk) JUDITH PLANAS PUIGFERRER

The project is located in a border area where the city begins and vegetation ends. It arises from an old irrigation canal that became obsolete due to the dissolution of the agricultural area that the agricultural park has undergone over the years. It aims to draw out an itinerary between water and landscape, restoring its strength to the canal and creating guidelines that deform, contain and soften water and land, to open up, like a gateway to the park. These guidelines materialize as walls of local stone that vary in size to produce an interplay of shadows that generate the tenuous atmosphere of a spa. The building is enveloped by the park, its roofs continuing public space to become part of the landscape.

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Hotel in Sant Boi SERGI PUJADÓ SOLER

Making the most of a disused corner of Sant Boi, this project starts—or culminates—a reference for the Llobregat Delta. In urban design terms, it generates a landmark and is responsible for resolving a complex area. The river Llobregat lies just metres away from the hotel, and major road infrastructures pass even closer. The 14-storey building extends upwards and outwards. The elliptical floor plan adapts to its new urban function as the building extends. The ground floor is aligned with the civic area, while each of the upper floors turns five degrees from the one below to adapt to the urban landscape. The communal and service areas are housed between the ground and the fourth floor. The rooms are arranged on the upper floors, as far as floors 12 and 13, which accommodate the restaurant and the terrace.

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Library in Sant Boi de Llobregat GLĂ&#x2019;RIA SALA VILARDELL

The library is situated in Sant Boi de Llobregat, beside a pre-school centre, and a primary and a secondary school. The rectangular volume and its geometrically rigid faĂ§ades contrast with the curves that mark out the large spaces inside. The structure, installations and shelving of the amenity are made by repeating a single element: walls one metre wide, spaced one metre apart, creating a constant visual rhythm of full and empty. The floor structures between the first and second floors are horizontal platforms that intersect with the walls. The bearing walls are plywood board and meet the following design requisites: dry construction, prefabrication, lightweight structure, low environmental impact and coherence with the project. Finally, the design of the interior vertical claddings is based on the abstraction of the spines of books and their chromatic effects.

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Med Culinary Centre JENNIFER VILĂ&#x20AC; CALOPA

The project sets out to link the town of Sant Boi del Llobregat with the top part of the Deltaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Agricultural Park, acting as a gateway. This connection is also materialized in the brief and its chosen form, based on the abstraction of the geometry of the artichoke, a typical local product. The surroundings are essential for the definition of the project, offering greater integration in the area. The different types of walls (solid, latticework or technical), the entrance of light from overhead and also through the irregular openings in the wall, simulating barcodes, and the green production spaces, both on the roof and in the inner courtyards that connect the project with its green setting, create unusual spaces in which to develop and learn the culinary profession.

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Leisure Architecture in the Llobregat Delta, 1954-1965 Excerpt from the doctoral thesis, in process Eva Prats

“In a ludic society, urbanization will automatically take the form of a dynamic labyrinth... Instead of a centre to be reached, there will be an infinite number of moving centres.” —H. Constant1

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This article is an excerpt from the research for my doctoral thesis, which involves collecting a series of projects built in the pinewood landscape of the Llobregat Delta over a time period of a decade, all with the same programme of free time and recreation. What makes the study of this specific situation so interesting is the exceptional achievement during this period of a complementary relationship between landscape, use and architecture. This relationship produced a series of projects, some publicised in books of their creators’ works, as in the case of Antoni Bonet and Francesc Mitjans, but most of which have not been publicised or studied as a joint response to a given brief and time.

C ONTRIBUTIONS

Fragment of the drawing dated 1590 belonging to the Barony of EramprunyĂ .

The need to organize free time that first colonized this territory came mainly from the nearby city of Barcelona. It was, then, initially a need manifested beyond the area itself. However, the implantation of this programme worked in favour of the natural environment, and the necessary constructions for its use (bathing establishments, camp sites and holiday homes) shared a common proposal with the pinewoods, the dunes and the seafront. The new facilities served to design the relation that future users would have with this environment. Contact with the outdoors seen as something positive channelled specific attention to the design of the built boundaries of these services, sometimes allowing construction to

extend into the woods or across the sand. The role of architecture in this context was to promote contact with the earth, the water, the shadows and the trees, giving rise to situations of recreation in the natural environment. The origin of these projects lies in the pinewoods, but what remains unknown today is the origin of the woods themselves. There are references to the existence of seaboard pinewoods in the Llobregat Delta in 16th-century documents, but the origin is still unknown, presenting the possibility that it may be artificial or natural. The pine trees were first drawn in this 16th-century engraving, in a very similar situation to when they were discovered in the early 165

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Aerial view of the Ciutat de Repòs, 1932.

1930s by the GATCPAC group of architects (Grup d’Arquitectes i Tècnics Catalans per l’Arquitectura Contemporània). For this site, the GATCPAC proposed the Ciutat de Repòs (City of Rest) to be organized throughout the pinewoods, crossing over municipal boundaries. This city formalized a newly emerged programme: leisure for the working classes, the organization of free time for urban workers in a natural open space. It was an ambitious proposal with comprehensive documentation, presented as an immediately possible project. Ultimately, the initiative was not built, but when occupation of the area by urban leisure re-emerged as a possibility in the 1950s, the Ciutat de

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Repòs project surfaced as a reference that was either accepted or denied by the respective architects working in the pinewoods. Another two decades were to pass before a decisive date for the development of the area: that date was 1954, when the Castelldefels expressway was opened, linking the land around the Delta with the city of Barcelona. The construction of this road was accompanied by an analysis of the territory conducted by the Studies Department of Barcelona City Council. This study continued to envisage delta land as a preserve for leisure and urban sport. Despite the existence of this document,

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Peyretti pavilion, Ricard Ribas Seva, 1955.

development was carried out in piecemeal fashion and on private initiative. The construction of the expressway enabled the appearance of the various projects presented below and explained in more detail in the thesis. The generation of architects working in this area was younger than that of the GATCPAC, but despite the cultural interruption of the Spanish Civil War, its members were familiar with the Ciutat de Repòs project. Some of them, as in the case of Antoni Bonet or Ricard Ribas Seva, had taken part in the project as collaborating members; others, such as Francesc Mitjans, had been

student members of the GATCPAC. The different projects built during the decade under study functioned as a variety of centres scattered throughout the maze of pine trees in the Delta. In this period, we can distinguish two phases of colonization of the territory. The first provided the basic services needed for Barcelona citizens to enjoy a day at the beach, including various bathing establishments (Pineda de Gavà, Baños Capri and Pabellón Peyretti). The next stage involved campsites and second homes. Campsites made longer stays possible, and not just for visitors from the nearby city; they also attracted tourists from all

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Spiral showers at the La Pineda baths. Ramón Tort Estrada, 1956.

over Spain and the rest of Europe. La Ballena Alegre and Las Naciones are two examples. An example of second home is La Ricarda house.

time and space: space itself becomes the object of play, adventure and exploration.

The various centres offered leisure activity in the pinewoods, amid the trees, in a unitary landscape, all connected. After reading Constant’s description that heads this article, it is possible to consider the period under analysis was a first real example of this dynamic labyrinth, where the principles of orientation and economy of distance that characterize utilitarian urbanism give way to a more dynamic use of

1 — H. Constant, The Principle of Disorientation, page 86 of the catalogue of the exhibition at the MACBA, “Situacionistas. Arte, política, urbanismo”, curated by Libero Andreotti and Xavier Costa.

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La Ballena Alegre campsite, Francesc Mitjans, 1960.

La Ricarda house, Antoni Bonet Castellana, 1962.

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Places of Opportunity Regenerating the Peri-urban Territory Carlos Pereda

Architects owe a permanent debt to their contemporary moment; they live and act in the present, and their work is directly, constantly linked to realities. At the same time, architecture and urbanism also have to address and communicate, from the singular to the everyday, realities that are spread out over time. In the present-day context, in the reality that it is our lot to experience, the speed of the time-money equation in the capitalist world has meant that the urban structure of many cities lacks overall organization or considered reflection that would have enabled planned, gradual, orderly growth. This speed rapidly leads to

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the idea of â&#x20AC;&#x153;opportunityâ&#x20AC;?, which, in many cases, makes it impossible to form an idea of the future beyond the successive needs of the moment. This situation, this agglomeration of conveniences, is generating new landscapes, empty geographies within the consolidated fabric, fringe situations, gaps or seams between a whole range of plans which, in many cases, seem barely to have an entity of their own. Today, these spaces are emerging more and more dramatically, fraught with difficulties: places that are highly conditioned, areas that come to our notice but seemingly relegated to oblivion.

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All of them, as situations of interface, become spaces of mutation over time as an added difficulty, often generated on the back of an urban idea that lacks ambition in the collective sphere, expressed as the evolution of one-off decisions that accumulate and are manifested in the physical traces that they leave behind. The peri-urban phenomenon, in a permanent state of metamorphosis, reaches spaces that, with the passing of time, extend, relocate or change place—areas in transitional situations that always back onto the urban territory. In the contemporary city, we can now say that everything is new and different.

They are mainly manifested as spaces that present the challenge of creating a “whole” from innumerable different, unfinished situations, of varying degrees of the conceptual and the material: places that are called on to resolve and complete the difficulties of the discontinuous city that they generate; places that seem to blur the boundary between belonging and separation; areas where architecture is required to allow the survival of places which often have no face—areas, in short, for investigating and discovering what is to emerge. These formless spaces of declining activity become inert settings or

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barren surfaces as opposed to the more consolidated city, which advances on its vital, social, working and economic path with no need for the hand of the architect. All of these spaces form part of today’s real context of the working scope that architects cannot overlook, where their hand is needed, and where we have to bring out the best in ourselves to turn them into places of opportunity. This new era of “economic rationalism” must be materialized by an effective, sustainable urbanism that analyses, proposes and constitutes the new genetics of the 21st century city. It is here that investigation into new uses can play a vital, active role, definitively completing an “opportunity” that allows the project to take root in the deepest conditioning factors of the place. This is a task that architects must not only not overlook; they must actually see it as a chance and as an active field of work to be able to advance— all the more when the excessive planning of recent years has depleted some of the more conventional urban needs. It is in these contemporary areas that architects have to take up a stance, guiding their unceasing obsession with questions and answers to salvage what has been lost, the values that passing time has disfigured, supported by the ethical practice of architecture and a position of service.

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Once again, it is here, in these places, that urbanism and architecture have to prove that they are not merely employed to delight the senses; they must reassert a responsible, judicious approach to the specific problems they come across, injecting architectural and urban quality into places that have been violated. Architecture affects reality, juries are often heard to say; our discipline must aim to improve the reality of citizens, and this is a great responsibility that must be incorporated genuinely into the rationale of architects.

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The FPY: A Collective Portrait in Tweets

“UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s thesis programme confirms the role of architecture schools as key actors in the debate about the present and future challenges of architecture and urban design.” —T ONI M ONTES

“Ha, ha, yes! Le Corbusier (1935), Hans Hollein (1968) and Alberto T. Estévez (2001) agree (not everyone quite as much): ‘It’s all architecture!’ ;-)” —A LBERTO T. E STÉVEZ

“There’s still a lot to be said in architecture. Now, more than ever, the future is ours.” —M IGUEL Á NGEL A GUILÓ

“There is no better way to influence the construction of a city than teaching the future architects of that city to make it better.” —J ORDI B ADÍA

“Impressed by UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s review installation: floor taken up almost entirely by regional topo model, walls by drawings of very detailed designs.” —R AFAEL G ÓMEZ -M ORIANA

“I recall an intense day of architectural criticism orbiting around a large urban model: a great setting that forecasted architectural engagement with the city.” —P EP A VILÉS

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“Architecture at all scales at the service of metropolitan Barcelona, made reality by the generosity of students and teachers.” —P ERE V ALL “We live life by two kinds of experience: love and learning. The thesis programme at UIC Barcelona School of Architecture demonstrates intense feeling for architecture.” —J OSEP F ERRANDO “I admire UIC Barcelona School of Architecture’s commitment to training artisans who are capable of addressing contemporary challenges.” —A LEX I VANCIC “Productive Landscapes is a very real and powerful commitment to an across-theboard approach to all the fields and scales involved in the construction of the territory.” —C ECÍLIA O BIOL “An intense course, a blend of reality and project, rigor and imagination, energy and synergy. Being an architect before you actually are one!” —F ERRÁN G RAU

“An exercise that allows students to experience the importance of an individual project with the aim of multiplying, strengthening, contributing, and participating in an overall collective result.” —E VA D AMIÁ “From the large scale to the construction detail, with creativity and rigor in equal parts. Congratulations on the work done!” —E UGENI AND A NNA B ACH “Hard work and enthusiasm sum up a whole degree. A pleasure to have been able to share this learning experience.” —M ARÍA B ARCINA “A perfect dose of fictional reality that recharges you with enthusiasm and energy; the FYP is an across-the-board course with great professionals!” —M ARTA G ARCÍA -O RTE

MEMORABILIA

DOCENT TEAM W ORKSHOP 01: Rosa Rull, Manel, Yolanda Olmo, Arenas, Guillem Carabí, David Baena, Jordi Sutrias, Juan Ignacio Eskubi, Xavier Martínez, Enrique RoviraBeleta, Carmelo Adrián Santana, Toni Solanas and Pere Vall. W ORKSHOP 02: Miquel Lacasta, Marta García-Orte, Manel Arenas, David Baena, Guillem Carabí, Pau Casaldàliga, Álvaro Cuéllar, Juan Ignacio Eskubi, Xavier Martínez, Carmelo Adrián Santana and Enrique Rovira-Beleta. W ORKSHOP 03: Alberto T. Estévez, Manel Arenas, Jordi Sutrias, Guillem Carabí, Juan Ignacio Eskubi, Xavier Martínez, Enrique RoviraBeleta, Carmelo Adrián Santana, Toni Solanas and Pere Vall.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The authors would like to express their gratitude to: Maria Alsina, Miquel Àngel Aguiló, Josep Armengol (Head of the Sub-Directorate General for Territorial Planning and Landscape, Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat, Generalitat de Catalunya), Sergio Aparci, Iñaki Baquero, Sonia Callau Berenguer (Head of the Unitat d’Espais Agraris, Diputació de Barcelona), Aitor Estévez, Carlos Pereda, Eva Prats, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Álex F. Azofraç, Ferran Figuerola (Cricursa), Carlos Garmendia, Felipe Pich-Aguilera, Juan Trias de Bes, David Rifà (Tallfusta), Miquel Rodríguez, Andreu Santacana, Joan Sans Martínez (Onducart), Carmelo Adrián Santana, Arnau Tiñena and Ferran Tiñena.

CONTENTS

F OREWORD

The Edges of the Delta Food Hub Putting Integrated Education in Design (IED) into practice PERE VALL AND ÁLVARO CUÉLLAR 10

B EST S TUDENT W ORK

Protofactory JOAN MARC GARCÉS 21

W ORKSHOP 01: P LACES

O PPORTUNITY

Pinehood Territory as Collective Heritage INTRODUCTION - ROSA RULL AND YOLANDA OLMO EXERCISES 67

W ORKSHOP 02: S ITE - SENSITIVE A SSEMBLAGES

Looking Back at the FPY 2012-2016 Understanding Architecture to understand Architecture INTRODUCTION - MIQUEL LACASTA AND MARTA GARCÍA-ORTE EXERCISES 139

W ORKSHOP 03: E NHANCING C ONNECTIONS

End of Degree Course, End of Cycle INTRODUCTION - ALBERTO T. ESTÉVEZ EXERCISES 164

C ONTRIBUTIONS

Leisure Architecture in the Llobregat Delta, 1954-1965 - EVA PRATS Places of Opportunity - CARLOS PEREDA The FPY: a Collective Portrait in Tweets 176

M EMORABILIA

Publication: UIC Barcelona School of Architecture TFG 2015/2016 Editors: Pere Vall, Director of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture Álvaro Cuéllar, Deputy-Director of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture Marta García-Orte Mique Lacasta Yolanda Olmo Rosa Rull Alberto T. Estévez

Editing of the Project Descriptions: Guillem Carabí

Content Coordination: Marta García-Orte Miquel Lacasta Anne-Sophie de Vargas

Editorial Concept: Paula V. Álvarez / Vibok Works

Graphic Design, Editorial Design and Production Management: Vibok Works Translation and Proofreading: Elaine Fradley Department of Culture and Publications of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture: Anne-Sophie de Vargas Olga Sankova Marta Benages Manuel Arenas Alexandre M. Llapart Guillermo Marfà ISBN: 978-84-941464-6-6