Master's thesis_Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues by miguelmenudo.arquitecto

Homelessness in Barcelona:

An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture ETSAB - MBArch Author: Miguel Peña Menudo Tutor: Xavi Llobet i Ribeiro

MASTER’S THESIS Author: Miguel Peña Menudo Academic Year: 2021-2022 June 2022, Barcelona

UPC - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelona School of Architecture ETSAB - MBArch Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture CONTEMPORARY PROJECT - Specialisation line

“I don’t know what I’m doing, but my incompetence has never stopped my enthusiasm.” - Woody Allen DEDICATION. I would first of all like to thank both the MBArch management and the Mediació area of the Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona for allowing me to participate in the Cultures d’Avenir programme together with some amazing fellow artists and the reception we have received from the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin and their coordinating teams. Thank you. Especialment, voldria agrair al Xavi Llobet pel seu acompanyament durant tot aquest curs i la redacció d’aquest treball, la guia i l’ajuda prestada durant tot el procés, les xerrades després de classe i les correccions clandestines. Moltes gràcies. Y sobre todo, no me puedo olvidar de mi círculo, de mi familia, por su amor y apoyo incondicional desde el inicio de mis estudios hasta este punto y seguido. Por ser mi constante respaldo en la sombra y mis manos cuando más lo necesito. Por tener siempre un lugar al que volver. Os quiero. A Plaza Nueva hay que volver.

INDEX 6 6 6 7 8

I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Objectives of the work 1.2 Motivation for choosing the topic 1.3 Development methodology 1.4 Document structure ·PART I

II. CULTURES D’AVENIR: SOCIAL COHESION, DISCRIMINATION, GENDER&PARITY AND ENVIROMENT 2.1 Background - Objectives 2.2 Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase 2.3 Workshop from Berlin - Action and shaping phases 2.4 Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

12 12 17 29 36

III. SOCIAL COHESION AND HOMELESSNESS:AN ARTISTIC APPROACH 3.1 Concept 3.2 llustrated conversation 3.3 From the street, back to the street 3.4 Barcelona workshop presentation at CCCB 3.4.1 Interactive exercise + Result 3.4.2 Video projection + Speech 3.4.3 Open debate

52 52 55 74 80 80 84 87

Part I: Annexes ·PART II

89 98

IV.HOMELESSNESS IN BARCELONA THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL SPACES 100 4.1 Introduction to the topic 100 4.2 Step 0: Current situation in Barcelona 103 4.3. The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces 120 4.3.1 Step 1: Churching 126 4.3.2 Step 2: Squatting 139 4.3.3 Step 3: Temporary housing 146 4.3.4 Step 4: Bridging 154 4.3.5 Complete phases project 160 4.3.6 Overview 169 4.4. Relationship between homelessness’ research , Cd’A project and proposals 174

V. IMPLEMENTATION OF SPACES FOR THE HOMELESS PEOPLE 177 5.1 Hygienic facilities on temporary housing building 177 5.1.1 Location+Action 177 5.1.2 Planimetry+Explanation 182 5.2 Comprenhensive centre for the homeless 190 5.2.1 Location+Action 190 5.2.2 Plans 194 5.2.3 Elevations&Sections 210 5.2.4 Explanations&Images 234 VI. CONCLUSIONS

238

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY, TABLE OF FIGURES AND ANNEXES

241

ABSTRACT. With the participation in the European programme Cultures d’Avenir for master’s degree students from different artistic fields, which aims to rethink the future of social problems that concern us today, a process begins with the documentation and representation of the course of the experience as well as the approach to homelessness from an artistic perspective as a working tool for an approach to this reality that allows us to rethink it in architectural terms and study the relationship between homeless people and architecture, and which, together with the support of the literature written on the subject, and the study of this phenomenon in the city of Barcelona through the formal and spatial analysis of places frequented by these people as well as the resources available to them, culminates in proposals in the form of architectural projects that seek to propose solutions and implement spaces that improve the living conditions of the homeless people discussed in the course of this document, focusing on the strategies proposed as a result of the knowledge acquired during the study of the subject matter dealt with. KEYWORDS. Homelessness, homeless people, architecture, inclusion, societal issues, spaces improvement

RESUMEN. Con la participación en el programa europeo Cultures d’Avenir para estudiantes de máster de diferentes ramas artísticas, que tiene como objetivo repensar el futuro de problemas sociales que nos conciernen hoy día, se inicia un proceso desde la documentación y representación del discurrir de la experiencia así como el abordamiento del sinhoharismo desde una perspectiva artística como herramienta de trabajo para una aproximación acerca de esta realidad que permite repensarla en términos arquitectónicos y estudiar la relación entre las personas sin hogar y la arquitectura, y que, junto con el apoyo de la literatura escrita sobre el tema, y el estudio de este fenómeno en la ciudad de Barcelona a través del análisis formal y espacial de lugares frecuentados por estas personas, así como de recursos dispuestos para los mismos, se culmina con propuestas en forma de proyectos arquitectónicos que buscan proponer soluciones e implementar espacios que mejoren las condiciones de vida de las personas sin hogar versadas en el trascurso de este documento, incidiendo en las estrategias planteadas como fruto del conocimiento adquirido durante el estudio de la temática tratada. PALABRAS CLAVE. Sinhogarismo, personas sin hogar, arquitectura, inclusión, cuestiones sociales, implementación de espacios

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Objectives of the work

The present work is developed in relation to my participation in the European programme for Master’s students “Cultures d’Avenir”, and therefore differs from the line of argument enclosed by “Research by design” of the Master’s Thesis inside the spatialisation line “Contemporary Project” within the Master’s degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture at the Barcelona School of Architecture. With all this in mind, there are two main objectives in the development of this exercise. On the one hand, the first aim is to document the experience throughout the course of the programme, from its initial phase to its completion with the presentation and exhibition of the different projects developed by the groups of students, with a critical view of it. The second objective is to explore the topic chosen for the development of the programme (Homelessness) from an architectural perspective within the social sphere as a method of link between this Master’s degree and the Cultures d’Avenir programme, being the point of connection for my contribution to the development of the experience. As an extra objective, subjective as it is, I’m trying to find an answer to the questions “Are we architects artists? Can we consider ourselves or be considered artists?” which has been on my mind since the beginning of the programme with the stay in Paris and the meeting with the other participants, because as an architect, I fervently believe that architecture is an art, but I don’t consider myself an artist as the rest of the programme colleagues.

1.2 Motivation for choosing the topic

As the objectives presented are dual, so are the motivations that have led me to carry out this work. The first of them, to do the master’s thesis in relation to Cultures d’Avenir, is directly related to the opportunity that the CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) and Xavi Llobet have given to me within the MBArch of the ETSAB in the form of a grant to participate in this programme.

Introduction

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

In this way, it allows me to explore certain concerns that are not purely architectural within the transversality of the different fields of the artistic field that make up this experience, being in relation with colleagues with a different academic background and baggage to mine when it comes to developing a common project. In this sense, the thematic basis of Cultures d’Avenir is based on contemporary social and environmental challenges that allow me to rethink them from an architectural perspective, and can clearly enrich me as an architect with the visions proposed by other disciplines. Thus, I have chosen the research on homeless people in accordance with the above exposed, as I find it really interesting to address this social problem to which as architects we must attend and try to respond, or at least rethink to improve our cities and their habitability for groups that seem invisible to our eyes, being a subject in which I believe I can contribute to the development of the common project within Cultures d’Avenir thanks to my previous training.

1.3 Development methodology

The methodology for the development of this work will be as follows: On the one hand, to carry out the programme that has been underway since 1st November 2021, compiling all the information related to it, as well as being an active participant in it both in the face-to-face and online workshops, as well as in the autonomous and group work based on them. In the same way, to be in contact with the different participants to know their impressions about the programme, as well as to know the progress of their projects during the duration of it in order to be able to document and graph it from a complete perspective. During this period, I will carry out the research work that will serve as a link between MBArch and Cultures d’Avenir about homeless people, taking as a reference the city of Barcelona following the guidelines of my tutor for the study of the same, as well as the analysis of case studies that together, will lead me to give a response and contribution within the European programme. The selected bibliography will be used for this purpose, as well as field work with volunteers who work with these people in order to get to know and rethink the problem from a closer and more human perspective, as well

Introduction

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

as to better understand the needs in the form of space and architecture that they demand. With the end of Cultures d’Avenir in March 2022, I will be able to complete the documentation with the projects developed by all the participants, as well as draw the conclusions of the first thematic block around this experience. From then on, I will be able to continue with the research work from a purely architectural point of view, as well as to carry out and design the formal proposals with a defined program on which to finalize the second part of the document, and after that to obtain the global conclusions.

1.4 Document structure

As indicated in the table of contents, after this introduction with the objectives, motivation and work methodology, it will be structured as follows: A first part which is developed with the second chapter will be dedicated to the documentation of the documentation of the Cultures d’Avenir program, from its initial formulation with the background and presentation of the program, participants and participants, as well as the programmed objectives as an introduction. Subsequently, three subchapters will follow, divided on the basis of the workshops carried out, as well as the transition period of autonomous and group work between them. Thus, it starts with the on-site workshop in Paris from November 1st of this year and the reflection phase after it. This will be followed by the action and shapping phases, with a digital workshop in Berlin in January. Finally, the final phase with the last workshop in Barcelona and the presentation and exhibition of the work developed during the duration of the program. The third chapter to close the first part will be configured with my project within the European program about sinhoharism from its conceptual conception, its development and its subsequent public exhibition at the CCCB center.

Introduction

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

At the end of this chapter will appear annexes to complete it and allow the correct understanding of whole programme, as a compendium in which all the projects presented by the groups of participants will be collected with their explanation/manifesto or other necessary contributions. This is followed by the second part, which takes an architectural view of the chosen theme and then develops into a fourth chapter that will directly address the main theme of this thesis, the relationship between homeless people and architecture and spaces, dedicating space to research on the subject, which will introduce the literature written about it, as well as the analysis of case studies, both formal and theoretical thanks to the bibliography presented, as well as the study of this problem in the city of Barcelona with the consequent fieldwork as previously exposed. After this, the relationship between this topic within the MBArch master’s degree and the development of the project in Cd’A will be formalized, which will give rise to the next chapter. The fifth epigraph will constitute my architectural proposals as a crystallization of the study carried out in the previous chapters that will formally address the results of this research with two implementations of spaces previously exposed, the first as a generic action applicable to other projects to be built and the second as a specific project per se. The sixth and last chapter of the body of the work will be dedicated to the conclusions obtained throughout the work, both at a global level on the Cultures d’Avenir experience and on the sub-theme of development of the chosen project, trying to respond to the initially formulated objectives. Finally, the bibliography that has supported this master’s thesis will appear as well as the table of figures present in the document.

Introduction

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

II.

CULTURES D’AVENIR: SOCIAL COHESION, DISCRIMINATION, GENDER&PARITY AND ENVIROMENT 2.1 Background - Objectives

Fig.1. Cultures d’Avenir mapping Made by the author. Resources extracted from ShutterStock.

1. Extracted from the official programme presentation)

“Rethinking the way artistic creation addresses societal issues with young, committed artists – that’s the goal of the Cultures d’Avenir project. How can a framework of new knowledge about art and the society be produced? How can culture and youth become a transformative engine through mindset renewal and networks?” 1 With this paragraph is presented the international and intercultural programme in which for a period of five months (11/2021 - 03/2022), with the collaboration between the museums Centre Georges Pompidou in

Cultures d’Avenir: Social cohesion, discrimination, gender&parity and enviroment 12

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Paris2, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)3 in Berlin and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)4 under the institutional and financial support of the Franco-German Youth Office (OFAJ - DFJW)5 bring together a group of 25 university master’s students from various artistic disciplines to create a joint international network with the goal of using the concept of the future as an oblique approach to imagine or represent alternative or ignored presents. In this sense, students from France, Germany and Spain who come from various artistic disciplines such as theatre, dance, visual arts or architecture will try to further develop, modify or amplify our background, gain new knowledge, develop new curricula and artistic ideas and bring the course of our experience and the results of the project to our home universities. In this way, new connections are created between students, universities and institutions that should have a lasting impact on the establishment of a real European network. Thus, cultural institutions, universities and art schools tend to consolidate their current situation, as well as to reinforce and reaffirm knowledge. To this end, the students selected to participate in this project come from the following universities: From France: Villa Arson ICI CCN, Master Exerce Université Paris 8, Master Théâtres, performances et sociétés, UFR Arts, Philosophie, Esthétique Association 1 000 visages From Germany: Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) University of Duisburg-Essen HFBK Hamburg Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Design From Spain: EINA - UAB. Màster Universitari de Recerca en Art i Disseny (MURAD) ETSAB. MBArch (Màster Universitari en Estudis Avançats en Arquitectura) Institut del Teatre - UAB. Màster Universitari en Estudis Teatrals (MUET). University of Barcelona. Master in Artistic Production and Research (ProdArt).

Background - Objectives

2. The Georges Pompidou National Centre for Art and Culture in Paris houses the IRCAM, a centre for musical and acoustic research; the library (Bibliothèque Publique d’Information) and above all the National Museum of Modern Art, one of the most complete collections of modern and contemporary art in the world.

3. The Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin is Germany’s national centre for the presentation and discussion of contemporary art, with a special focus on non-European cultures and societies. It organises art exhibitions, theatre and dance performances, concerts, author readings, films and congresses on visual arts and culture.

4. The Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona organises and produces exhibitions, debates, festivals, concerts, programmes, film cycles, courses, lectures, encourages creation based on new technologies and takes its productions to other cultural centres, museums and national and international organisations.

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

5. The Franco-German Youth Office or OFAJ is an international organization dedicated to Franco-German cooperation, based in Paris and Berlin. OFAJ supports youth exchanges and youth projects between Germany and France aimed at deepening Franco-German relations and providing Europe with key skills, stimulate curiosity about partner languages, promote cross-cultural learning, share German-French youth exchange experiences, and reconcile with third countries.

6. Extracted from the official programme presentation)

Now that the institutions have been presented, it is time to present the programme itself. As mentioned above, it is an international and intercultural programme for young artists from various fields of study to enrich their artistic experience and strengthen their European links with a view to rethinking the future of Europe through culture and art, promoting critical thinking and transformative ideas by supporting the flow and circulation of transversal ideas, thus fostering creativity among young people and at the same time creating spaces for debate and reflection in order to enhance the development of the various projects in mind. In this sense, the focus of the programme is to address four urgent contemporary challenges through artistic practice, such as equality and gender, processes of discrimination, environmental emergencies and social inclusion. Thus, the bases for the development of this experience are presented through the time period exposed, and based on them, it is the students and artists who seek our own concerns within this thematic framework for the development of our proposals and contributions to the overall project. Returning to the programme’s introductory text, we can extract this quote that exemplifies what the project is trying to be: “Effectively countering climate change or understanding and combating discrimination and racism – the tasks are complex. How can we think and act across disciplines? How can we incorporate fight against entangled forms of discrimination into our own work – and do so in a creative way that doesn’t get bogged down in political trench warfare? [...] How is it possible to bring together, think, share, and act?” 6 Within this background, it is proposed that we try to rethink or imagine new approaches and ways of dealing with the main themes of the project, even following an open line towards creative research on them in an experimental way, as this is a programme free of the formalisms with which academic research is developed in the university environment. This process can be understood as an open conversation between participants, institutions and mentors who accompany the development of the programme, creating in some way a transversal research proposal that is fed back by the knowledge in different fields of art and the artistic practice of the participants. In practice, we are divided into three large groups to be assisted, helped

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

and guided by three mentors according to the theme on which we develop our own contribution according to their fields of knowledge, and in turn, we create smaller groups of between two and four students to specify the final proposal according to our research interests and artistic/social production. The group of mentors is composed of Leila Haghighat, PhD candidate on participatory practices in cultural education in the context of gentrification processes after having studied political and cultural sciences in Paris, as well as Japanese studies and international economics in Bremen, Caroline Delboy as independent documentary filmmaker focusing on social issues such as invisible workers or social dictates on women’s bodies and Bani Brusadin as independent art curator, educator and researcher with studies in Communication and a PhD in art production. (More information about them scanning the code)

Fig.2 QR code containing the file with detailed mentor information.

Fig.3,4,5 Mentors Extracted from the official presentation file of the programme.

Leila Haghighat

Caroline Delboy

Bani Brusadin

In addition to the accompaniment of these mentors throughout the process to resolve doubts, help and attend to the occupations of the working groups, and apart from the physical and virtual meetings during the workshops held, there are talks and debates with other experts related to the artistic field selected by the institutions themselves, by the mentors themselves in relation to the development of the projects they are mentoring, or at the request of the participants. We, the participants, come from the universities mentioned above, located throughout Germany and France, and in Barcelona in the case of Spain. However, in the group of eight students from Catalan universities we come from other communities besides Catalonia, and in the case of the German and French universities there are students from other countries such as the USA, Italy, Egypt or Chile among others, making the experience even more international and intercultural. Among our studies and professions you can find photographers, directors, actors, visual artists, art theorists, architects, anthropologists and an endless number of artistic branches that reaffirms the transversality of this project. (Check out the list of participants and their info by scanning the code) Background - Objectives

Fig.6 QR code containing the file with detailed list and participant information

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.7 Group photography made in Paris. Extracted from CCCB Twitter account @cececebe

So all participants will do kind of the same and teams will form around similar or compatible ideas selected in Paris’ workshop or inmediately after that. Suggested approaches from the guideline are, for example, to build unusual or experimental representations of information, social relationships, or collective emotions, either from your own or your peers’ point of view. Suggesting possible steps towards an innovative way to investigate a social, aesthetical, technical, or political issue, or to Imagine, discuss or build a scenario where actual solutions can be found. Even, we can give hints about the exploration of a relevant place or to imagine, discuss or build a speculative scenario. In all of these cases, the proposed format for the final presentation is completely open, and may adopt a free style in its representation in accordance with the project itself, ranging from a video, an audio or sound track, some kind of visual work or a text in the form of a manifesto, among any other options that the working groups can imagine. To conclude this section of the first chapter, the proposed timetable is as it follows: Kick-off with workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase (5/17-Dec) - Action phase (3-Jan/11-Feb) Second workshop (online) from Berlin - Shapping phase (14/25-Feb) - Final phase (28-Feb/11-Mar) Final workshop and work exposition in Barcelona

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

2.2. Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase The programme officially started on 2nd of November 2021 in the city of Paris. To do so, the participants, both students and the team of organisers from the 4 institutions mentioned above, travelled to Paris the day before. Those of us who travelled to the French capital stayed in a hostel in the historic centre of the city, a short walk from the Centre Georges Pompidou, where the following days would take place.

Fig.8 QR code of the official programme (París) PDF

This accommodation point also served as the first point of contact between all the members of the group. The Cultures d’Avenir experience got underway in a room of the hostel with a welcome and presentation of the institution organising the first series of international workshops. Fig.9 Hostel Les MIJE Fourcy Paris where we were hosted Extracted from Association MIJE

Our three mentors, who have been guiding us in the development of our projects throughout the programme, were also introduced. And of course, we started to get to know each other, the Master’s students who would be part of the programme. Coming from different cities in France, Germany and Spain, we met in a room where we began to carry out a series of exercises arranged, organised and guided by intercultural facilitators with the aim of, precisely, getting to know each other and beginning to gain confidence in order to create the group that would spend the following three days developing the intensive cultural days organised by the Centre Pompidou. This was followed by the first of the three types of activities that we would carry out during those five days in Paris, the conviviality, with a group dinner before the break to start the days the following day. Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.10 Centre Georges Pompidou principal facade, centre of the activities. Photo taken by the author

On 2nd November, the first of three marathon days of activities, conferences, talks, debates and cultural inputs began. Throughout these three days, the organisation opted for a dual route in which the participants could choose between the activities that most closely matched their interests and curiosities (within the aforementioned theme of the programme) with meetings with artists that overlapped in time. These proposed activities also included thematic visits to the museum, as well as international cooperation exercises and group work workshops. In this way, the three main activities are presented: meetings with professionals, experts and artists from different branches and projects as the main elements around which the Parisian experience revolves, the thematic visits programmed to the museum’s exhibition, focusing on the main areas of the project, and the spaces for coexistence, among which are the cooperation exercises, the rest spaces between activities, and the lunch and dinner times in which we discussed the activities carried out

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

previously, our interests or simply took the opportunity to get to know each other better. Thus, we began the first of the days that would take place in the rooms prepared for them on the 4th and 5th floors of the museum. Fig.11 Centre Georges Pompidou 4th floor corridor Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier @paddelproduction

This began with a thematic visit on the environment with selected works of art, complemented by the presentation of the TARA OCEAN foundation, which, through scientific consortiums, is dedicated to developing innovative science on the high seas that, in the future, will allow us to better predict and understand climate risks and to better protect biodiversity, with the aim of raising awareness and educating the public and making decision-makers react at the highest level to enable developing countries to acquire new knowledge about the ocean. Within this environmental space we met the author and director Samuel Valensi who presented the challenges of the ecological transformation he is undertaking with his project “Shift Project” in which a number of experts from the cultural sector work on a carbon-free economy, gaining an insight into climate and energy issues by sharing his experience implementing programming and production solutions within his company. After this first environmental block and the subsequent break and space to have lunch and digest the information received, two new activities were presented, one in the framework of social cohesion and discrimination by the documentary photographer Carolina Arantes, via videoconference, who showed us her project “First Generation”, a photographic project on the construction and affirmation of black female identities in France, to understand the consequences of a post-colonial mentality still very present in the economy, culture and modern Western society. Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.12 Carolina Arantes’ online videoconference Photo taken by CCCB Twitter account. @cececebe

As a complement, we had a conference session with Centre Pompidou curator Christine Macel about her exhibition “Women in abstraction”, presented both at the museum itself and at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, which combines the history of feminism in the 1970s with the struggles of artists and great theorists, questioning the legitimacy of the concept of “woman artist” given the artist’s own positions and complexities and her paradoxes, presenting an alternative history of abstraction, with a view to incorporating the prominent artists with certainty into future rewritings of art history. In this sense, it advocates a presentation of women artists as agents and co-creators of modernity and its legacy in their own right by highlighting the decisive milestones that have marked this history, while questioning the canons of abstraction, paying particular attention to the contexts that have favoured or, on the contrary, hindered the recognition of women artists: educational as well as social, institutional, ideological and even aesthetic contexts. Fig.13. Lucy+Orta conference at Centre Pompidou Photo taken by “OFAJ-DFJW Twitter account @ofaj_dfjw

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

The last cultural activity was a meeting with the visual artist Lucy Orta, who investigates the interrelation between the individual body element and community structures, exploring the diverse identities and meanings of cohabitation through drawing, textile sculpture, photography, artistic recording and performances. The first day of workshops ended with a protocol cocktail with the directors of the organising institutions, as well as the representatives of the participants’ universities and ourselves, organised on one of the terraces on the fifth floor of the Pompidou Centre overlooking the city, where we also took half-hour breaks between activities, thus closing the first official day.

Fig.14

Link to the official video by OFAJ - DFJW of Paris workshops

The structure of the second day was certainly similar to that of the first, starting with a new thematic visit to the museum, this time on women, parity and gender, as well as new introductory exercises on intercultural cooperation mediated by the facilitators. Fig.15 Thematic visit of the museum on gender&parity Photo taken by the author

Likewise, there was a new meeting about the TARA OCEAN foundation, this time with an artist and not a scientist, Nicolas Floc’h who showed his work about installations, photographs, sculptures and performances about the representation of the underwater habitat, producing a definition of the landscape under the sea in relation to global warming. At the same time, there was a meeting, within the framework of social cohesion, with chefs from the Refugee Food Project programme, which was born out of the conviction that cooking and food bring people

Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

together, break stereotypes and constitute an element of integration. As can be seen, the presence and background of different experts and elements within the programme is very diverse both in terms of subject matter and the projects themselves, opening up a wide range of knowledge which, due to the design of the programme in terms of timetable, was difficult to digest due to its density. Thus, we arrived at perhaps one of the workshops that was most appreciated by all the participants, called “It I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution”, which tried to explore different ways of producing and transmitting knowledge through performance. During this workshop the participants had to bring an interesting object, or some document of our own artistic production in any way. This was really interesting because it was the first time we started to see the production of our peers, to talk and discuss about it, to get to know more closely not only the cultural but also the artistic interests of those who would be our project partners during the following months. Despite being the longest workshop of all the days, it was short in time, as not everyone was able to show part of their work, and this in turn led to an interesting point in the days in which the participants themselves realised that the programme, although very interesting, was very dense and didn’t allow us to get to know each other properly, to know our artistic practice, to exchange opinions after the meetings and debates, and we began to organise ourselves as a group to organise spaces where we could carry out these exchanges. Fig.16 Participants during a break on the 5th floor’s terrace Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier @paddelproduction

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

However, to close the day, there was one last meeting, this time with the French sociologist Eric Fassin, who focuses his study on contemporary racial and sexual politics in both France and the United States and the intersection between them as a comparative perspective. This meeting was repeated immediately afterwards, open to the public in the hall of the Pompidou Centre, animated by Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, director of the Centre’s culture department, for those who could not attend the private event because they were at another workshop, as well as for any interested visitors. Fig.17

Participants (author included) attending a conference Photo taken “OFAJ-DFJW @ofaj_dfjw

Thus officially ended the second day, in which fatigue was beginning to set in due to the number of different events attended, with little time in between to rest and process all the information received. Nevertheless, we continued to form a group and after leaving the museum, many of the participants went for dinner and drinks together with the tutors and mentors. The third day began with the last of the thematic visits to the museum, in this case dedicated to social cohesion and discrimination, accompanied by a conference-debate by Emilie Bougouin, director of Souffleurs de Sens, a programme that tries to develop a strategy with the aim of promoting access to culture and artistic practices for people with disabilities, taking into account the needs of each individual. Equally interesting was the parallel programme Souffleurs d’Images for access to culture for blind people, of which it was a part. An interesting debate was generated around these issues. Afterwards, there were two simultaneous meetings, one with the essayist Reine Prat on gender issues and discrimination for equality in culture

Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

and the arts in France, delving into the functioning of the sector and its structural characteristics in which she gave notions of how recent feminist movements have been an opportunity to reveal and show how inequalities and discrimination persist in the cultural sphere. The second was with a couple of architects, Jon de la Rica and Elena Carrillo, who specialise in construction with elements of the land in Mesoamerica and the implementation of communities through collaborative selfmanagement, the processes of participation and implementation in architectural matters in these rural communities, as well as assistance for self-construction as a method of conservation and creation of housing with local materials and low environmental impact. Fig.18 Architects Jon de la Rica and Elena Carillo’s medio ambiental construction workshop Photo taken by “OFAJ-DFJW Twitter account. @ofaj_dfjw

In addition, the last series of intercultural cooperation exercises were given by Lydia Boehmert and Anna Favre, who accompanied us from the first day and made possible a better cohesion within the group of master students who embarked on this experience. On the other hand, the last two meetings took place, both with the presence of Isabel Mercier, founder and producer of “La Vague Films” as well as member of the collective “Collectif 50/50” created by film and audiovisual professionals with the aim of promoting the visualisation and equality of women in film, as well as breaking the glass ceiling. According to the organisation itself, it carried out its first action at the Cannes Film Festival by organising a meeting on the red carpet of 82 international film personalities to denounce the fact that 82 is the number

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of women directors selected in competition for the Palme d’Or by the Festival since its first edition, compared to 1688 men. In addition, the second meeting will be joined by Louise BrzezowskaDudek who will expand the theme of this workshop around questions of how to identify situations of harassment, both sexual and moral, or discrimination in the workplace and how to react to them based on case studies of real situations in the film and acting sector. Fig.19

Isabel Mercier and Louise Brzezowska-Dudek’s conference Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier @paddelproduction

These workshops should have been the end of the three-day series hosted by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, however, through self-management and encouraged by the mentors, we stayed in the classroom set up on the 5th floor of the museum to, with a time limit of 3 minutes per person, teach something of our artistic practice, talk about our particular interests or propose ways to develop the project over the next months. This was one of the best moments of the French workshops, because, at the last minute, we all had a voice space for the rest of the group to get to know each other better, both personally and artistically/labour-wise, and we began to glimpse where our next steps in the programme would take us. At the end of this space we went to the auditorium of the museum to see the artistic performance “Mal - Embriaguez divina” by Marlene Monteiro Freita within the framework of the Festival d’Automne à Paris.

Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.20 Mal - Enbriaguez Divina Photo taken by the author

Afterwards, we all went to dinner together to practically close these intercultural days in Paris and, for the more experienced ones, to have a drink afterwards. Fig.21

Participants (author included) with mentor Bani having a beer Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier @paddelproduction

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On 5th April, this phase of the programme came to a definitive end and the next phases would follow. On this day, before our departure to our cities of origin or study, we went to the hall of the hostel where we were staying and where the Cultures d’Avenir experience began. Fig.22 Last day meeting when choosing the topics to work on Unknown author

There, the managers of the Centre Pompidou gave their farewell speech, a general evaluation of the conference was made, and the series of themes on which we would be working in groups in the following months began to be put on the table. As a first outline, each of the participants commented on what we would like to develop our project in broad terms and with whom, either spontaneously or by consensus during the previous days. In addition, we had to choose who would be our liar and guide until the last day of the project in Barcelona. After that, the farewells began, coinciding with the lunch organised by the organisation, and so, between hugs and words of affection, we left our location to return home. The following weeks were a period of reflection in which we tried to digest all the information, inputs, relationships that had emerged during a short but intense period of time. In this sense, I’ve recovered my feedback document when I said that what I liked most about this experience was the contact with people from the different field of art on the themes presented in the programme, the synergies we created between us, enhanced by the international scope and the variety of experts, artists and lecturers with whom we were able to talk during the intensive days at the Pompidou Centre.

Workshop in Paris - Reflexion phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.23 Welcoming cocktail at Centre Pompiduo terrace Photo taken by “OFAJ-DFJW Twitter account

I think that what I have learned most during the first phase of the programme is to have a more global vision of the topics covered. Most of them I have not been able to deal with during my university education, being perhaps the most distant discipline due to the broad technical content of architecture, therefore, with the help of my classmates and the experts and mentors I think I have managed to open my mind in other terms that have surely served me for the development of the research/project during these six months. At the same time, on some comments about the experience, I would like to point out that it has been extraordinarily enriching for me as I think for the rest of my colleagues, however, we found the programme very dense, although I think that all the activities were really interesting, I think it was difficult to digest all the information in such a short space of time, and at the end of the day it was difficult to be completely focused because of the accumulated tiredness during the day. And as I have already said, what I think was most enriching was the contact with the different students of the programme, however, and I think this is a generalised opinion, I lacked the time to get to know them all better personally and to share our work, or even to start a group work session on the topics presented during these days. The first conversations were also held after the first meeting to form the definitive groups, as well as the preference when it came to choosing a mentor for each group. It was then that we were ready to start our project within the programme.

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2.3. Workshop from Berlin - Action and shaping phases After the two weeks of reflection, the groups were completely formed into a total of nine groups of between two and five students each, giving priority to internationality, as well as a diverse academic background and a common interest in the subject to be dealt with and developed over the coming months. With these nine groups, they were divided into three groups to be guided and tutored by each of the three mentors appointed at the beginning, creating individual meetings per group and with all the groups biweekly with the aim, not only to guide the work of each component, but also to put in relation and knowledge the work of the other colleagues.

Fig.24 QR code of the official programme (Berlin) PDF

In addition, a common space was created on the Miro platform to upload content both our own and that could be useful for other partners, as well as for mentors and organisers to upload available or interesting resources. Fig.25 Miro’s display created to work on the projects and check colleages’ process Screenshot author.

Thus, we arrived at the second important point of the programme, the workshop days in Berlin organised by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW). This was marked from the beginning by the progress of the global pandemic of covid-19 that we suffered during this period, as well as the sanitary measures imposed by the German government forcing a period of quarantine for those arriving in the country, so that, as it was proposed from the beginning, they were online workshops.

Workshop from Berlin - Action and shaping phases

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Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Not only did it affect the modality of the programmed workshops, creating a specific platform for it, but it also coincided (taking place in the third week of January, from the 18th to the 20th) with a new wave of this pandemic, even more contagious than previously, and therefore, not a few participants and organisers were affected by it during the development of the programme. Fig.26

Online platform created by HKW to develop the workshop from Berlin Screenshot author.

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Moreover, it coincided with a generalised period of exams and deliveries in our respective Master’s courses at our universities of origin, which perhaps meant that the follow-up was even less. However, as these workshops were held in a shorter period of time than the previous ones in Paris, as they did not involve days of travel, and the fact that they were not held in person meant that they were somewhat more emotionally decaffeinated on a group level, as we would meet again through a screen, although equally less dense, which meant that the follow-up of each workshop was more optimal. With all of this, this second meeting organised from Berlin was considered as the moment to organise meetings with experts directed towards the themes we were working on as a group, having previously opened a process of request and recommendation through the mentors themselves so that the workshops could serve as inputs for some of the projects, and a greater approach to them on the part of the rest of the companions. Thus, the first day, scheduled for 18 January 2022, began with a test of the platform created expressly, as mentioned above, by the organisers during the morning, and the official welcome by Daniel Neugebauer, Head of Communications and Cultural Education. Cultures d’Avenir: Social cohesion, discrimination, gender&parity and enviroment 30

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In addition to presenting the platform, each of the participants (since it was the second time that the whole group had met after the workshops in Paris) had a moment to explain where they were in their project, where their individual and group interests were heading, and their own and common intentions for the coming months. After that, the first of the videoconferences began with Manuela Bojadžijev on a project created by HKW called “Archive of Refuge”, which was presented to us in depth, from the set-up to the development and design of the project. The curator of the installation and Professor at the Institute for European Ethnology in the Department of Philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin presented the project in the form of an archive that narrates through 41 interviews with people who emigrated to Germany as part of their post-war history through the collective memory created in society by this phenomenon in order to protect the testimonies from being lost in oblivion. Fig.27

Gudrun Lintzel’s interview on refugee testimony Extracted from Archive of Refuge’s archive in HKW.

Thus, by compiling stories about home and uprootedness as a differential element in the representation and symbolisation of immigration, they bear witness to the exciting and multifaceted narrative of German history, fragments of which were screened in addition to the explanation of the archive project itself. After a short break, the third and last meeting of the day took place with the writer and drag artist Olympia Bukkakis, with whom we had a conference months before in which he explained his activity within queer activism in Berlin.

Workshop from Berlin - Action and shaping phases

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Therefore, this second meeting was interactive, in which Olympia proposed a series of interesting exercises about artistic identity, among which she urged us to reflect through a list of questions to create an artistic character, a pseudonym with a real invented story, and then share it with the rest of the participants, something really fun and suggestive, thus bringing the first of the three virtual days to an end. Thus, we arrived at the second day of workshops, beginning with a presentation by Bernd Scherer, director of the HKW, on “Cultures of the Anthropocene” which he has been studying, focusing on a plan to examine the process of transformation of our society; post-colonial structures, including racial inequality, as well as ecology and technological upheaval with the effects of deindustrialisation with the subsequent asymmetries in risk and equity that this produces. Fig.28 Bernd Scherer’s (HKW director) presentation during online workshop Screenshot author.

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This intervention was followed by a question and answer session afterwards, providing an impetus and an interesting question for groups focusing their work on issues of sustainability and equity. This was followed by a pre-recorded panel discussion on diversity in Berlin between Kenny Fries, Miriam Camara, Sanni Est, Rhea Ramjohn with the moderation Samie Blasingame. Diversity is a “must-have” in the identity of most Berlin cultural institutions. Sometimes they even invest resources for the multicoloured flag that flies over them. So are diversity measures just another set of methods of solidifying what they claim to change? This panel, moderated by Samie Blasingame, puts it to the test: what does it look like in Berlin’s cultural landscape? What are the inconspicuous formal routines, the small Cultures d’Avenir: Social cohesion, discrimination, gender&parity and enviroment 32

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

informal habits, the official and unofficial rules that create the feeling of running into a wall that one claims is not there? Are there any institutions somewhere that are undercutting the perfidious game and are there any impulses, strategies, methods, or people that are at least beginning to dismantle the supposedly non-existent walls? Are there perhaps even already best practice examples?7

7. Extracted from Freie Universität Berlin www.sfb-affectivesocieties.de

After the break there were two interactive workshops, the first one called “Emotional networking” by Hester Dibbets, about her workshops of the same name in which she seeks interrelationships between the scientific world and heritage using a duality of views, both historical and ethnographic. Fig.29 Hester Dibbets’ workshop on emotional networking Screenshot author.

This was followed by a “Physical Intermezzo” animated by Lydia Böhmert, who accompanied us in Paris with exercises of both muscular and inner relationship, to disconnect from the fatigue produced by spending so much time in front of the computer screen following the workshops. The last activity of the day was a film debate about art, the body and activism with several authors of short films produced by ARTE Media, which in the weeks prior to these days in Berlin were provided for us to watch, and in this way, to have prepared in advance the questions we wanted to talk about and make the conversation more fluid. Thus we arrived at the third and last day, the midpoint of the whole Cultures d’Avenir programme. It started with a conversation between Gila Kolb & Konstanze Schütze in which they shared their knowledge and practice on the present and future of arts education, creating a multiple perspective on current approaches to arts education, inviting us to learn together and from each other across local and institutional boundaries.

Workshop from Berlin - Action and shaping phases

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Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.30

Melting spaces: Whrn restrictions became options by Gila Kolb

This was followed by a presentation and Q&A session with Gemma Medina and Alessandra Saviotti about their archiving project “Arte Útil” as a collaborative space generated for research and subsequent action in the form of an expanding database for using art for social transformation. After the respective break came the final input with a workshop led by z as part of a collective of workers in the context of homelessness, activism and social justice. It was really interesting as, after his presentation, he proposed an interactive tone through exercise with drawing as a method of development, somehow therapeutic, which gave us new notions and knowledge about the issue of homelessness and dealing with this vulnerable group. Fig.31

Image from Teo’s Initiative “Sommer paket” working with homeless people Extracted by own Teo’s blog - “Sommerpaket”

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

In addition, some months later, we had another meeting with Teo and our mentor, Leila, where we were able to learn more about her practice and she helped us to develop our projects within her field of study and work. Thus, after another “Physical Intermezzo”, we said goodbye to the programme in Berlin, which was marked, as I said before, by the telematic development when the programme, in form and time, was more balanced than in Paris, and would have given us all more time as a group to continue with our discussions about the workshops and our own projects. After that, the final phase would begin that would take us to the end of the project with its conclusion, this time in person, in the city of Barcelona by the CCCB. Fig.32 Miro’s platform display Screened by the author, resources in common

During the following months, contacts and meetings became more frequent, both among colleagues and with mentors, and the platform was filled with content, documents, references... Looking for the final form in which to exhibit our process during the Cultures d’Avenir tour in the rooms of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.

Workshop from Berlin - Action and shaping phases

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

2.4. Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase The Barcelona event, organised by the CCCB and its Mediació team, marked the end of this edition of the Cultures d’Avenir programme and a full stop to the interests and projects of all the participants.

Fig.33

QR code of the official programme (Barcelona) PDF

Thus, from Wednesday 9 March until well into the early hours of Sunday 13 March, the conference was organised by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona as the final event of the joint project that began five months earlier in Paris.

Fig.34. #3 Season Finale Extracted by official progamme, edited by the author

For this reason, the students from different parts of France and Germany arrived during the week until Wednesday morning, staying in a shared hostel near the CCCB, to meet up again in the square that links the main building and the theatre of the complex. Because the Berlin meeting took place telematically, and although there was continuous contact in the development of the projects during these months, there was a reunion that was certainly emotional and at the same time strange because of the situation itself, while we were given the welcome pack and the accreditations that would allow us to enter and leave the building during the following days. After this moment, we went into the “Sala Raval” inside the Teatre building of the CCCB that the organisation had arranged for the development of the conference during the coming days, while the artist Anna Moreno,

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who would be the curator of the planned activities, was introduced, and we made contact again with the three mentors who accompanied us during the development of the programme. Fig.35

Welcome by CCCB team and Anna Moreno at Teatre CCCB building Photo taken by the author

This workshops were, unlike the previous ones, focused on our own proposals, so the organisation sought to set in motion a series of dynamics that allowed us as a group to produce a type of knowledge that went beyond the programme itself and the institutions involved in it, seeking to solidify the networks that have been established. Thus, following the description of the programme itself generated by the CCCB, the central concepts of the following days are nostalgia, fear, apocalyptic affection, presentism, joy and brightness. Therefore, each day there will be presentations of the research carried out by all of us, in different sessions that have been conceptually divided into Past, Present and Future, not as a restrictive concept but as a thread that encourages fluidity between the concepts we have been working on. After the welcome and the presentations, we were given free time to work in groups with the mentors, to think and plan how to make our own presentations in the room, the conditioning of the room and the physical space that we intended to create through the furniture and the elements arranged. After that, the programme of human coexistence between artists from different fields began with the first of the dinners that took place in Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

restaurants near the museum in the Raval district planned by the event’s organisers, as well as the subsequent meetings on our own before going to rest to begin the workshops in Barcelona the following day. The first day began with a meeting on the seafront of Platja del Somorrostro under the Mapfre Tower, Hotel Arts and the Peix sculpture with the architect Berta Gutiérrez, part of the studio “forty five degrees” dedicated to design and research and the critical creation of collective space, who would be one of the experts who would accompany us throughout the day. With her we began the first activity, a sensorial walk from the meeting point to Glories, passing through Poblenou. We found, therefore, three different areas accompanied by some literary texts that I bring up. Fig.36 Meeting with Berta Gutiérrez at Barcelona seaside. Photo taken by Eman Badir

The first of these, the maritime zone, shows the post-modern capitalist face of architecture, where night-time commerce covers the entire beachfront and buildings such as those mentioned above appear as proof that anything is possible in architecture, as in the examples mentioned above. “We call possible what is not impossible: obviously, this non-impossibility is the condition of its actualisation. But this possibility is not a degree of virtuality, is not ideal pre-existence.... From this negative sense, we shift unconsciously to the positive sense of the word. In the first definition, possibility means absence of hindrance; but we are shifting now to the meaning: pre-existance in the form of an idea. Cultures d’Avenir: Social cohesion, discrimination, gender&parity and enviroment 38

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Who will decide the outcome of this dilemma? Who will decide the actualization of one possibility or another?”8 From here, we enter the city through a series of undefined spaces, diffuse architectural typologies of what is found in the city of Barcelona between social housing, shops with little activity, high-density roads and low-impact public space to enter Poblenou, a former industrial area that today shows the duality of low-rise workers’ buildings with industrial warehouses and a large number of buildings under construction that will be the Barcelona of tomorrow. “My new trans body is an empty house. I enjoy the political potential of this analogy. My trans body is a rental apartment devoid of all furniture, a place that does not belong to me [...]. The beauty of this singular experience which we could call ‘unfurnishing’ makes me wonder why do we rush to furnish our homes, why it becomes so necessary for us to know which gender we belong to, what kind of sex we like. Ikea is to the art of inhabiting what normative heterosexuality is to the desiring body. A table and a chair are a complementary couple which does not tolerate any questions. A wardrobe is a primal certificate of private property. A lamp next to a bed already signifies a marriage of convenience. A sofa opposite to a TV screen is a vaginal penetration. A curtain on a window is the antipornographic censorship when it arises at dawn”.9

8 Quote by Henri Bergson from “Le possible et le réel”, pp. 99-116 in La pensée et le mouvant, P.U.F.

9. Quote by Paul B. Preciado from “Casa Vacía”. El Estado Mental, 2016

Finally, after this sensorial walk, in silence, listening and perceiving the city and its elements, we arrive at Glòries, where all the construction sites we had previously encountered are now finished. Is this the future? Is this the present? Have we arrived late to the future? A tense landscape. Fig.37 Final point of the activity with architect Berta Gutiérrez. Photo taken by the author

Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

10.Quote

by Ozayr Salojee. “The fraught landscape”. Extreme Landscapes. Studio, 2018.

“It is a terrain that has not settled. It has not reached that state: an equilibrium that gives comfort, assurance, stability, surety. The fraught landscape exists as an unsettled terrain and as a result, it up-ends our knowledge of it. It up-ends our ways of knowing - our attempts to know it - precisely because it exists in a state of fragments, of shifting particles, of windswept motes of sand. It is a landscape that challenges knowing, that challenges certainty, that resists the empirical qualifiers of the city and our urban spaces. [...] It is a mirage and it is fixity. It is spectral and it is real. The fraught landscape frustrates and vexes. But it is precisely because of this inconstancy, this seemingly fickle non-fixity that the landscape is so enduring, alluring, so devastatingly beautiful that we cannot help but lose ourselves in it, in its meanings and histories, in its vistas and politics, in its heat and in its coolness, its ghosts and its desires”.10 With the end of this activity, we travelled to the CCCB where the rest of the activities would take place. Once there, the first presentations of the work and research carried out during these months of the programme began. To begin with, Max Herzogenrath and I gave our presentation on homelessness from different perspectives.

Fig.38 Max Herzogenrath and the author presenting at Teatre CCCB Photo taken by Claudia García de Val

First of all, we hung in the room a series of posters that I had made for this work as part of an illustrated conversation for the rest of the audience to see, look at, take a copy and write or draw anything that came to mind, any idea, association or anything that suggested itself to them.

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Fig.39 Participants carrying out the exercise proposed by me on homelessness Photo taken by Eman Badir

After that, the video I had prepared with this conversation was projected, and the series of posters stuck on the streets of Barcelona, wanting to show the vision of homelessness that I had previously illustrated. After that, I explained the reason that led me to take this direction and made a brief speech about it. After that, Max began his part of the presentation, explaining the reasons and concerns that led him to study and work on this issue. As part of the same, volunteering with homeless people, and due to his training in art education, we replicated an interactive exercise in the form of art therapy that he had carried out in meeting centres with these people, to end the presentation with a series of points that would open the subsequent debate. Berta Gutiérrez and the historian of art and architecture Martina Millà Bernad, who joined us to follow the day, opened the floor to anyone who wanted to contribute their views, with interesting comments, references, questions about our work and the results of the interactive exercises we proposed. After the lunch break, the presentation of the second group began, made up of Luis Peset, Sophie Silva and Teresa Minguell in which, seeking to make the invisible visible, they made and projected a video entitled “Sickness of Time” in which a representation on a fixed plane with the superimposition of voice in different languages was combined with subtitles out of tune with the sound in reference to mental illness, an audiovisual piece that shows this reality and tries to make anyone who at some point has suffered from it, find themselves identified with it, increased by the bewilderment.

Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.40

Sickness of Time projection on mental health topic Photo taken by the author

This audiovisual piece shows this reality and tries to make anyone who has suffered from it at some point find themselves identified with it, increased by the confusion of the out-of-sync text and the play of the audio. 11.Quote from the artist teresa w (Teresa Minguell)

“I see a girl struggling to express herself, looking for a way to express what’s inside of her, but she probably can’t even understand what she feels and what she has to say but she definitely has kept way too much inside of her; and the only thing she is certain of, is that she has to share it with the world, otherwise she will explode.” 11 After the projection, the presenting group began to explain the video, its intentions, background and a round of questions that ended with the debate session that preceded each exhibition in which, also dynamised by the experts and artists present, personal impressions and testimonies were given, even related to the subject of the video shown, as well as questions such as whether this is a subject that is talked about in our close circles or whether it is or is seen reproduced in the social networks, among others. Then, after a short break and time to set up the room, the next group consisting of Isabell Caps-Kuhn, Ana Alarcón Yanini, Maja Milewska and Patrick Pollmeier started their presentation which approached the topic of nature from a multidisciplinary perspective. First, a video was shown in which Patrick’s photographic work was combined with interviews and questions on “What is nature?” to family members, random people in the street or Artificial Intelligence systems.

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Fig.41

What is nature? projection on enviromental issues Teatre CCCB Photo taken by the author

After this, an interactive activity was proposed in which the participants were grouped into three groups, and each of them had to answer one of the following questions: “what is nature?”, “how is your relationship with nature?” and “what was nature for you as a child?” in order to relate the answers to photographs of nature in the video shown. Fig.42 Carrying out the exercise proposed on nature and enviroment Photo taken by the author

Once the exhibition time was over, we came back together and shared our answers to the big question, “What is nature for us?”, as well as giving feedback on the video, the images, the interviews, and in general the magnificent work shown by this group of students.

Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

With this, we ended our participation during this day to attend an open conference in the hall of the CCCB by the directors of the institutions present in the programme: Bernd Scherer, Mathieu Potte-Bonneville and Judit Carrera guided by the cultural journalist Alex Vicente about the emergency to modify the cultural institutions with the aim of opening them to the citizenship marked by the war in Ukraine in which the democratic principles in Europe are questioned. After this, to end the day, we went with the mentors, the experts who accompanied us throughout the day and the representatives of the institutions to a nearby restaurant for dinner, where we discussed the day, our presentations, caught up with each other and began to rest to prepare for the next day. The second day began directly at the CCCB with a meeting with the visual artist and photographer Tanit Planas in which she proposed, as an example of part of her work prior to the photography sessions, a series of corporal-spatial exercises that we carried out individually and in groups prior to the start of the proposed presentations together with the artist Arash Fayez. Fig.43

Tanit Planas’ warm exercise at Sala Raval Photo taken by CCCB Twitter account @cececebe

The first presentation was by the group formed by Martin Kaulen Luks, Maria Giulia Serantoni, Bastien Touati and Chiu Yu-Hsuan, in which after some relaxation and conscious breathing exercises to connect the mind with the body, they showed an audiovisual piece in which social cohesion is mixed with performance and dance through ancestral and typical dances of the regions of the participants, in an exercise of body vibration and trance state.

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Fig.44

Martin Kaulen presenting during CCCB workshop Photo taken by the author

Thus, the relationship between the body and music as a catalyst for transgenerational culture is explored, taking references from rituals such as tarantism or technocapitalism. After this, as on the previous day and for the rest of the day, there was a round of questions and debate on the work presented, again animated by the guest artists. Subsequently, the work of Narjiss Jamoussi and Nesrine Abdat, both from the association 1000 Visages as filmmaker and actress, was shown, in which, as in the second group, the theme of mental illness is dealt with, this time from a more artistic and personal plane, as a verbalised inner dialogue that shows the ups and downs of a crisis while bringing up and raising problems common to the society in which we live.

“To the salted soul I speak” on mental illness topic Fig.45

Photo taken by the author

Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

After a short break to refurbish the room, it was the turn of Tobias Lischka, who has been working on the subject of Fast Fashion on his own for the past few months. He started his presentation with a short quiz to get us involved in the topic and to make us aware of it. The questions were about how many people work in the fashion sector, how many litres of water it takes to produce a T-shirt, how much total C02 the industry generates, or how much we estimated that a worker should earn as a floor versus what he or she actually earns. The answers certainly did not leave anyone indifferent. After that, he showed a video in which he asked about the shopping habits of some of the colleagues present, and after a brief speech on the subject, he showed a world map and based on it, according to the place where the clothes we were wearing at that moment were made, shown on the labels, we had to place ourselves and group ourselves by countries, clearly showing where the bulk of production was located. Fig.46 Fast Fashion exercise

enviro-

mental issues at Teatre CCCB Photo taken by the author

This led to an interesting discussion about clothes and money, whether they are directly correlated, whether ethical clothing is a matter of privilege, not only by country of origin but also by social class, and on this basis, whether it is possible to achieve green production including regulations. After this round of presentations and discussions and the subsequent lunch, the next round of presentations and discussions began. Cultures d’Avenir: Social cohesion, discrimination, gender&parity and enviroment 46

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Fig.47

Roundtable with intitutions’ directors Photo taken by the author

The first of these was a round table discussion with the heads of institutions, who had given a lecture the day before, in which the students Cara Petrovic and Claudia García de Val presented their work in the form of a manifesto for the improvement of institutions, beginning with the following: (All of the) institutions are buildings, they are houses with complex systems and orders. Cultures d’Avenir gave us a window to three different houses. It did not only show us the project itself, but also gave as a glimpse of how institutions work in genera. ARE YOU AWARE OF THIS? So, each of us present took the microphone to read each of the points of the manifesto, and afterwards, the directors were questioned about the points described and a debate started with them. Fig.48

Participants reading the manifesto with the CCCB, HKW and Centre Pompidou directors Photo taken by the author

Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

After this session and a short break to recondition the room, the next exhibition was given by the group formed by Rafael Cribillés, Aaliya Steckann and Zoé Meyer, whose central theme was the concept of rotation in artistic practice. After some relaxation exercises to create a synchronisation within the group in a calm atmosphere, they presented their scope of work that ranged from the intergenerational as a rotational relationship, synchronicity as a rotational movement, the amateur as an equally rotational, non-ascending exercise and cunning as a hypnotic element. It began: “What is rotation? Rotation is the antidote to ascension. Rotation is not mastery, perfection, professionalism, nor is it being the best. No! Rotation is the artful practice of returning, of circling, of earnest amateur practice”. Fig.49 Rotation! manifestom about artist issues Photo taken by the author

After reading their manifesto, they played a rather hypnotic video about the themes they were dealing with before proposing an interactive exercise based on rotation, amateurism and synchronicity in which a group of three people created a part of a drawing and passed it on to create a complete piece. After this time of relaxation with the exercise, the subsequent debate, feedback and questions related to the work and the concept of rotation began, which turned out to be very interesting.

Cultures d’Avenir: Social cohesion, discrimination, gender&parity and enviroment 48

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

After this space and a long and intense day, the last of the presentations of our work was given by the group formed by Badrieh Wanli, Carla Pocchiola and Eman Bedir about the feeling of belonging to a place, a family, a country, a culture? For this, we were asked to bring an object that represented belonging for each of us, and with this, a kind of altar was set up where all our images and elements of belonging were together. Fig.50 “Between melodies” projection Photo taken by the author

After that, a poem was read about this theme, about the loss of memory as something that cannot be stopped, of identity. Afterwards, an emotional video-interview with Badrieh’s father, a Syrian by birth, was shown about immigration, belonging to a place, language, identity? In this case, the debate was somewhat different, more interactive if possible, because with a series of threads that we were throwing to each other to talk, we wove a web around our concept of belonging, thus ending, poetically united, our presentations of the work carried out during the duration of the programme. The third and final day was the farewell, the most atypical of all. It started early in the morning with a Breakfast-matinee with DJ set by Maguette Dieng. Once this session was over and activated after the intense and exhaustive previous days, we had an interesting meeting with the philosopher and writer Marina Garcés about her work and writings.

Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.51

Meeting with the philosophyr Marina Gracés at Sala Raval as closing activities Photo taken by the author

Once this session was over and activated after the intense and exhaustive previous days, we had an interesting meeting with the philosopher and writer Marina Garcés about her work and writings. Later, after lunch, the closing session took place with a meeting moderated by mentors Leila Haghighat, Caroline Delboy and Bani Brusadin to imagine future perspectives, speculate on tomorrow’s collaborations, raise pressing questions and generate constructive feedback on the overall experience. Fig.52 Farewell activity of Cultures d’Avenir at Barcelona Photo taken by Eman Badir

Cultures d’Avenir: Social cohesion, discrimination, gender&parity and enviroment 50

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

At the end, and after a cocktail party to close the event, we were invited to attend the Aclucalls Dance Show and a final party in the hall of the CCCB with DJs JOVENDELAPERLA and Berenice and Da Rocha. And finally, we all ended up getting together again around a bar table, making a night-time pilgrimage through the bars of the Raval between farewells and beers to finally conclude this exciting experience that has been Cultures d’Avenir. Fig.53 Cultures d’Avenir group farewelling picture (I) Unknown author

Fig.54 Cultures d’Avenir group farewelling picture (II) Unknown author

Workshop in Barcelona - Final phase

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

III. SOCIAL COHESION AND HOMELESSNESS: AN ARTISTIC APPROACH 3.1. Concept My project for Cultures d’Avenir can be understood as a prior work of the following chapters of this thesis, as part of the previous one where I have tried to capture the situation of homelessness in Barcelona. However, the production for this programme has flowed both ways during its duration and in the period leading up to the completion of this work. That is why the presentation proposal for the event hosted in Barcelona is presented as a sample of the theoretical-creative process at the time and not as a final, closed and definitive product. Understanding architecture as a political action of the first order, and therefore, as a social action, the evolution of this project has led me to carry out an artistic practice with a vindicative vocation developed in different phases. From the beginning, as an architect, I was considering studying the relationship between the homeless and space, both public and private, between homelessness and architecture, and as I was researching and absorbing knowledge about this subject (thorny, complicated and with many edges) I saw the need to reconcile my architectural vision with artistic practice and rethink and interpret this social issue from this prism. This is due, on the one hand, to the development of the project itself, understood at first from a more human and humanistic than architectural vision, and, on the other hand, to the need to represent the architectural issues being worked on to a public that is not specialised in it. In fact, not only is it not intended for a consumer with an artistic education, but through specially prepared posters, part of the work is offered to the vision of ordinary citizens in a vindictive way, and therefore, it had to be something simple and precise despite hiding a wide range of thought in the architectural theoretical framework.

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Fig.55

Own production on Nikolái Suetin’s russian suprematism composition Made by the author.

Concept

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig. 56 HOPE(HOME) LESS Made by the author.

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

These posters arise as their own illustration of extracts from a personal conversation with a homeless person as a differential fact that led me to make this proposal around it, and to rethink the relationship between homelessness and architecture in a deeper way. In this sense, this field exercise can be understood as the starting point of the architectural proposal, and this representation the initial theoretical and visual methodology for the subsequent programmatic development. After that, as a next phase, it is taken to the streets of Barcelona to share this story, and later, a video is created by superimposing all these processes with different voices as artistic license, to represent a broader reality than a single testimony. All of this is presented open to feedback from the participants in the project as a catalyst for their own perception and thoughts on the messages launched through illustrations, and as a video projection showing this whole process at the moment the work is in progress.

Fig.57 Extraction of the mentioned projection Made by the author.

Concept

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- During my study of this topic I came across a piece of art that tried to define what a homeless person is, look, I translate that for you: Isolation, vulnerability, not having a key or address, not having anyone to talk to... After this conversation we’ve had, what is it for you?

Fig.58 “Inhabiting in inhumane conditions” Made by the author. Photo taken by the author in Barcelona

· Well, I would say vulnerability, you try not to think beyond, to live from day to day because otherwise it becomes more complicated.

- What would you tell me if I tell you that what I was reading was written 50 years ago?

Background from artwork by Steph Evans – “What Is Homelessness?”, 1978, extracted from Museum of Homelessness’ archive.

· Pff, you are saying it all, in the end this is a situation that is very complicated to get out of, you live in inhuman conditions, sometimes I think that each one of us is just “one more”, a number, we are nobody, I don’t know, it’s sad. Fig.59 “What Is Homelessness?” by Steph Evans in 1978. Courtesy of MT Gibson-Watt, Simon Community Archive

Illustrated conversation

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- An architect used to say that he faced the city with his body, that the city and the body complement each other. How do you face it?

Fig.60

“This is my

blanket” Made by the author.

· Well, as I said before, from a position of vulnerability, the street is not a safe place, you feel rejected and sometimes intimidated by bad people. It’s not only the fact of being cold or hot, thirsty and hungry, you don’t sleep well any day, there is a lot of noise, from 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning there is already a lot of noise from trucks going to supermarkets or something, so I get up very early and at night the same. In the end, you sleep little and badly.

“So I face the city with my body: my legs measure the length of the colonnade and the width of the square, my gaze unconsciously projects my body onto the façade of the cathedral, where it wanders between cornices and contours, touching the size of the recesses and ledges. The weight of my body meets the mass of a door and my hand grasps the handle, polished by countless generations, as I enter the void behind it.

12. The city and the body complement and define each other.”12

Pallasmaa, J. 2016. Habitar, p.50

Fig.61 “The Glowing Homeless” artwork by Fanny Allié, 2011. Public art instalation.

Illustrated conversation

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- You say you get up very early, what do you do from then on? What does it mean to you to live?

Fig.62

.“He’s a real nowhere man” Made by the author.

·Well, the first thing is that I try to go somewhere where I can wash myself and maybe change my clothes, for me it’s important to be hygienic and look good.

Photo taken by the author in Barcelona. Lyrics of The Beatles’ song “Nowhere Man” 1965

- Are there many places for that?

· Well, not too many, but there are good people who want to help you, so that’s what I try to get by with.

- So what do you do?

· Well, I just hang out in the street until it’s time to look for food, I see people passing by, going up and down. Sometimes I like to imagine who is who, where each person is going and why. It’s like a way to entertain myself.

- Like if all this was a stage?

· Well, something like that.

Public space is presupposed as the place where people’s activity takes place in the city, the outside, the opposite element, therefore, of the inside, the dwelling, that place where one rests and regains one’s strength, where one is really oneself. 13. Joseph, I. 1988. “Le

Isaach Joseph points out that this outside world is full of fears and desires: one is the fear of being recognised, the fear of being recognised, the fear of being isolated, but at the same time the fear of being invaded, attacked, degraded and even ignored.13

passant considérable.” Essai sur la dispersion de l’espace public. P.13

“Public space is presented as a scene of daily drama in which subjects are constantly socialising and desocialising themselves, taking on and disengaging from roles through their sensitivity to their surroundings and appearance.” 14

14. Ibid. P.17

Illustrated conversation

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- And these people you are referring to, how do you think they see you? · They don’t see me, and if they see me they pretend they haven’t seen me. In the eyes of the people you are invisible, it is true that there are good people who try to help you, like these people who have fed us, or people who pass by and give you a coin.

Fig.63 “Have you ever felt invisible before?” Made by the author. Photo taken by Arrels Fundació in Barcelona.

There are also the opposite, there are bad people who try to hurt you, I don’t understand it, we haven’t done anything, just being in the street, it makes me very sad when something like that happens. But in general, as I said, you are invisible to everyone and that affects a lot, for example, there are few places we can go to, or help or something like that. Look at all the people here, there are so many of us and we don’t have a voice. Fig. 64 Photo taken by the author, Barcelona 23rd February.

As an interesting experiment,I found this situation. People passed by without perceiving or wanting to perceive what was happening. I stuck up the sign and started taking pictures. It was then, when passers-by started to turn their heads to see what was going on. Is it really necessary that a non-stigmatised person needs to do an action like this to make people look at reality?

Illustrated conversation

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- Speaking of these places to go, have you had the opportunity to get help like this, a place to sleep?

Fig.65 “I had the chance” Made by the author.

· Yes, I have had the chance

Drawings made by the author. Dog’s picture taken by the author.

- And do you take it?

· I wish I did, but I don’t. I have my dog, Tobby. In places where we can be hosted we can’t leave our pets, so if he has to spend the night on the street, I’d rather spend it with him than leave him alone. At the end of the day he’s my family, he’s all I’ve got, I’m not going to leave him stranded so to speak.

Lifebuoy image taken from Pinterest.

- And there’s no place where you can go and leave your pets?

· No, well during the pandemic there was, those were the best times in a long time, they opened the sports centres, they controlled us a lot, but they treated us very well, and there was room for our pets. It was a good time. Fig.66 Temporary homeless shelters in Las Vegas, USA, during the Coronavirus crises. Photo extracted from the New York Times newspaper

Illustrated conversation

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- And for you, what is architecture?

Fig.67 .“Sometimes I

· Hmm I don’t know... houses

Made by the author.

- Houses? And not streets and promenades or parks?

· No, not the streets nor public spaces

- Why? We also design the streets as well as the houses.

· Well, because the street is not a comfortable and cosy place like a house, as we have talked about before, it is not a safe or pleasant place, that is my perception, maybe for a while as you use it, it is, but not in our condition.

- And what would you put in them to improve it?

· Pf, I don’t know, I don’t know about that, better you think about it

- And if you had to remove something?

· Ah well, I do know about that, lately there are a lot of things, spikes, balls, bollards... so that we can’t sit or lie down. It makes me sad because sometimes it makes me feel like I’m left over in my own place, I don’t like it, I would remove all that.

It is interesting to raise a point here. While there is a lot of literature written about defensive or hostile architecture, as well as the laws that govern it, from a public space perspective the discourse seems to be much simpler, or at least it should be. It is clear to no one that cities, in general, are changing, taking space away from the cars that have been choking them for decades and giving it to people, but to which people? We the “normal” non-stigmatizated ones?

Illustrated conversation

feel like I’m left over in my own place”

Model and images taken from ShutterStock.

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- And houses? What is a house for you?

Fig.68 “What is a house?”

· Well, a place where I can be safe and quiet. You know, to read the paper, sit on a sofa, watch football. To have a kitchen and a toilet for yourself... A place for Tobby too.

- It’s funny because what you describe is not the architecture itself, but the living in it, something very architect-like.

Made by the author. Photo taken by the author in Barcelona Drawing “What is a House?” by Eames Office featured in the July 1944 issue of Arts and Architecture magazine.

· Well, it’s probably more a lack of knowledge, I’m telling you, for me a house is to be able to do the same thing I do here, but in a safe place, with privacy, to be able to be alone, I don’t know if you understand me.

In some of the social places I go to, I spend some time with people, we watch TV, we play cards, but then we have to leave. The same thing, but being able to stay at the end of that little bit of escape.

- Another architect, Siza, said that living in a house is an endless task, in reference to the fact that there is always something to do or to fix. Is it an endless task to live in public space?

· Well, if you say that there is always something to fix, imagine yourself in the street and besides, nothing depends on you, but above all it is neverending because the days become very long and everyday is almost the same as the previous one.

“The idea I have of a house is that of a complicated machine in which every day something breaks down. Living in a house is a full-time occupation. The owner of the house is at the same time a fireman, a nurse and a lifeguard. He masters all the arts and professions, he is a specialist in physics, in chemistry, he is a lawyer, or else he will not survive...”.15 It is interesting to note that when you ask a person with a home what a home is, they tend to think of something far removed from the dwelling itself.

Illustrated conversation

15. Siza, Á. 2004. Álvaro Siza: Casas 19542004, p.9

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

- For you, what would be the most important thing in a house, if you had to say “In my house there would be...” What would it be?

· Well, I’ve already told you my living room so that I can invite my colleagues, kitchen and bathroom, but I think I would say

- Doors?

· Yes, doors. You know, for privacy and intimacy. Here I’m practically always in sight of people even if they don’t see me or don’t want to see me, but I feel exposed. So yes, a lot of doors. Also the security of closing the front door and knowing that when you come back everything will be as you left it, I think that’s the value of a house. Here if you leave something and you go somewhere you don’t know if it will still be there when you come back, so you have to carry everything with you.

This statement opened up a reflection for me. Nowadays, when we look at the planimetry of a building, especially collective or social housing, and we observe an abuse of partition walls, and therefore, of doors between spaces, we find it strange and even disturbing. However, privacy has the main function of being a regulator in people’s social interaction (and normally these people usually share housing in their first years post-homelessness). Therefore, privacy patterns must be necessary for the development of people in their social context, and we must provide and guarantee the privacy necessary for the correct reintegration into society, as this privacy allows them to keep control of the information that the person transmits, as well as to define their feelings and interpret perceptions.

Illustrated conversation

Fig.69 A door. Made by the author. Photo taken by the author in Barcelona Artwork “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?”, 1959 and “Interior”, 1964 by Richard Hamilton

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

- Well Albert, thank you very much for having shared with me your time, your experience and for having helped me to better understand the reality that you unfortunately live. I am sure that it will help me to learn how to make a more humane architecture. Fig.70 Collage on an advertising poster MACBA’s square

Made by the author.

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Thank you for listening to me and for wanting to give me a voice. This conversation took place in Plaça de Sant Agustí in Barcelona on 11th February 2022. Fig.71 Poster of “Have you ever felt invisible before?” left at Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació of Universitat de Barcelona. Mix of “Inhabiting in inhumane conditions” and “What is a house?” on screen. Made by the author.

Illustrated conversation

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

3.3. From digital to streets However, I understood that I had to go one step further. After going from digital to reality to return to digital, I felt the need to return to the streets, this time to share this story, so that the reality of this city would be fixed on the walls. In a way, I was bringing back to reality what had led me to carry out this work in the points or areas of the city where, as previously seen, this problem is predominant. Fig.72

STREET

FIGHTERS Poster made by the author, photo taken by the author

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Fig.73 ¿Qué esperás? Nunca te la vas a poder comprar Poster made by the author, photo taken by the author

Perhaps even more interesting is to see how, through the action of sticking up these posters, a story is created with the pre-existing ones, as can be seen in the images, creating a story line in the urban environment that fills the action itself with meaning, as well as the interest of the passer-by in observing a reality that otherwise he or she would not have perceived.

From the street, back to the street

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Fig.74 From digital to the streets I Collage made by the author with photos taken by the author as well

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

From the street, back to the street

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Fig.75 From digital to the streets II Collage made by the autho with photos taken by the author as well

From the street, back to the street

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

3.4. Barcelona workshop presentation at CCCB With all this information and theoretical material shown above, as well as the practical material from the visits and coexistence and graphic material that gives shape to the thread of the project, comes the presentation of the project in Barcelona. This is not understood as an end point, but rather as a sample of the QR of PDF Presentation from Max&the author

work in progress, and for this, together with Max, we prepared a joint presentation in which each of us would show our approach to the complex issue of homelessness. To this end, as you have previously read in the general documentation of the experience, the presentation consists of three parts. The first part is based on the experience of putting up the posters in the city and observing, and in some cases listening to people’s reactions.

Fig.76 BCN own presentation CCCB

Teatre

Photo taken by Claudia García de Val

Thus, we placed the posters in the room set up, as well as a small copy to carry out a first exercise with the participants.

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Fig.77 Posters and copies places around the room Photo taken by CCCB Twitter account @cececebe

3.4.1 Interactive exercise + Result

“Warm-up exercise -

Have a look at the collages on the walls. Pick one you find interesting. Take 5min to write down ideas/associations. Feel free to take a smaller copy from the stacks below”. Fig.78 Participants carrying out the exercise I proposed at CCCB Photo taken by Eman Badir

Barcelona Workshop presentation at CCCB

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

ownership / usership

move economy

All too real endeless

INHUMANE [ in-hyoo-meyn or, often, -yoo- ] See synonyms for: inhumane / inhumanely 1. adjective not humane; lacking humanity, kindness, compassion, etc.

Where do all these descriptions come from? Are they your own? Inhabiting, what is the concept of inhabiting? We inhabit, but how do we do it? Immigration, how do we treat immigrants? Is it the same treatment as homeless people?

What is homless-ness? Wally? Is it structual evil sistem, maybe? With just a visible tip of the iceberg? Do we as class, as working-class, as war victims, as unenployed, as casual waiters, as peerstunned users of dysfunctional societies carry a little hit of homelessness?

Is homeless something like middle-class fear on a glimpse into a parallel reality, from a different planet that sists right here together with the one we know? Hopeless

NO RESOURCES? THEY NEED HELP, BUT HOW? HOW TO APPROACH THESE PEOPLE? Out in the open, live at the mercy of the world Cardboard, blanket, suitcase, this is it? Where to get more? Where to leave it during the day? Carrying? Seeking human kindness “I’ve lived across from this public park for a few years now. It’s not hard to recognize when someone is living from their vehicle, I’ve been there too If there is anything you nedd, food, water, etc, please feel free to knock at my door”

How to make the invisible visible? YES, AS A WOMAN I HAVE FELT INVISIBLE A SOCIETY THAT OPPRESSES AND SHOWS WHAT IS OF INTEREST TO IT What is it to be invisible? Not having a voice? To have no decision-making power? Not in these circumstances, but somehow sometimes I would like to be invisible. NOT TO FEEL

Who are they? What do they do? No plan? What is it like to live without a plan? If you have a plan, for whom? Not enough for yourself? LookBeyond

What is it like to feel invisible? Learn to fly, be invisible To be invisible To be invisible

Fig.79 Participants feed back. Made by author Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Inhuman, how is it possible that these devices exist in the city?

Empathy

Are we animals? If they have nowhere to go, why throw them out? A question of image? Status? Really sad

- How to have empathy? - Wich is not builded empathy? Relational work Hanging out Care Listening listening, understanding, solidarity and tolerance, and generates healthy bonds and respectful relationships that contribute to social harmony.

What is it like to feel left out? Does it undermine you morally? Does it exclude you not only physically but also mentally? Mental illness

“I used to be your neighbor”

What causes it? Does it come before or after homelessness?

Chance?

ARE THERE ANY REGULATIONS ON THIS ISSUE? IT SHOULD BE REGULATED. BENCHES, FOR EXAMPLE, ARE NOT EVEN COMFORTABLE TO BE WITH FRIENDS.

Opportunity inclusion?

for

return

social

WAY-IT-SHOULD-BE-NESS Home is to feel at peace

Friends, friendship, living happily, being able to travel, going out and coming in.

Entra ulls tancats_ tocar terra / sostre / porets / etc Descripcions_

And... When I retutn everything will remain the same Not remain the same

- Private - intimacy - myself

My house is my family, that is house, it is home, not a place but a space.

Its not a construction but the meaning of it, not the house but the home

Modernist door of Barcelona? Richard Hamilton on modernity, what makes a modern house? The spaces for these people have to be modern and equipped, from modernism to modernity also social. Rhetoric? A play on words? That it is the same again, that it remains the same? The situation as a concept?

Private property, right, untraceable

Barcelona Workshop presentation at CCCB

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

3.4.2 Video projection + Speech

After this free time for the participants to visualise all the illustrations, choose one and capture anything that occurred to them, the next part of the presentation would follow. Previously I collected these impressions to echo them and capture them in this work as seen above. The second part consisted of the projection of a video I prepared in which the illustrated conversation, transcribed, translated and re-recorded in English for the occasion, is combined with the images of the city and the illustrations themselves. However, after feedback on it from image and sound experts, I decided to retouch it for this work, keeping the essence of it, but using a bit more rhetoric in the concept of it, including different voices as a way of making visible a common reality. You can watch it in the following. Fig.80 Video screened Made by the author

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Fig.81

Projection of the video (I) at CCCB Photo taken by Claudia García de Val

Fig.82 Projection of the video (I) at CCCB Photo taken by Claudia García de Val

Barcelona Workshop presentation at CCCB

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

After the screening of the video I gave a short speech explaining what led me to make it, the phases of the project, and some reflections on them and what it meant. It is as follows:

Fig.83

Cd’A

BCN

Speech Written by the author

I chose to research and work on this topic from the conscious experience that it is a privilege to walk, go shopping, sit on a bench or in a doorway and never have experienced the gaze of the citizen who shuns and rejects me. I think that the city, far from being a space for coexistence, appears to me as the place where the hierarchies and differences between the individuals who make it up are manifested. I understand architecture and urban planning as useful for the expression of the city, which, as the only political medium and promoter of society, is a place of coexistence and its sustenance. As some of you know, I am doing my master's thesis on this experience and on what we have been working on these months. So the process has been gradual, I started from a theoretical point of view, immersed in bibliographies. But it wasn't enough, and encouraged by Max's work (which you will now see) I started to discover this reality in first person, I started to go to places where there are resources for homeless people, volunteering, talking to people... That's how this opportunity came, one day in a place, near here, helping with a soup kitchen, a volunteer told me that there was a person who wanted to talk to me. That's where this conversation came from. I thought that the closest way to get to know the reality was through the voice of those who live it and who have been kind enough to share their experience. This led me to illustrate the points that had the greatest impact on me, which made me rethink and question the relationship between space and the person. But it was still not enough, so, again after the digital, I returned to reality, this time, sharing these illustrations, this story, around the city as you have been able to see. Sometimes people would come up to me and ask me, what is it, what does it mean? And I would explain the story. They would answer me that it could mean one thing to me, and another to them, and it's true, the important thing is not that, it's that people see that this reality is happening. In the meantime, I will continue with my study to achieve a more human architecture. Many thanks to Max for his help, to Leila for her guidance, and to all of you for listening to me.

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

3.4.3 Open debate Fig.84 Max’s presentation with their topics behind Photo taken from CCCB Twitter account

@cececebe

After the speech, Max gave way to Max to explain the process and project with homelessness, which preceded the third and last part of the exhibition on my project. It was time to give impressions, ask questions and open a debate after the presentation by the guest architect Berta Gutiérrez and the art and architecture historian Martina Millà. Fig.85 Architects Berta Gutiérrez and Claudia García de Val and curator Anna Moreno during debate with illustration in the background Photo taken by Eman Badir

Barcelona Workshop presentation at CCCB

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

In this debate, interesting topics were discussed on the basis that homelessness is indeed a difficult topic to address, not only because of its broad scope, but also because of its starkness. In this sense, reflections and discussions about privilege and the effectiveness of talking about it from a peer-to-peer point of view without taking advantage of this position and making use of it were addressed. This is a theme that was also reflected in, and perhaps inspired by, Teo Klung’s talk at the Berlin workshop on Sinhoharism and dealing with homelessness In the same way, questions were discussed that are perhaps logistical but that concern us as citizens, for example, the resources that these people can access and how they are limited to time slots (an issue that was previously discussed in the general situation in Barcelona), such as water, showers, the need for large lockers as these people have to carry all their belongings, among others. In this sense, Berta gave some architectural references on projects or actions to alleviate these shortages by some architectural studios in shelters, as well as video documentaries of this situation in the United States, where it is even more worrying due to the number of homeless people that exist. Other topics discussed included care, as a result of Max or mine volunteering to help in soup kitchens to illustrate the situation in the city, charity, as well as the subject of mental illness (which was later reflected in other presentations) and access to effective help. In general, interesting questions were addressed that allowed me to continue researching and working on the subject, as well as theorising about it, in addition to questioning together with my colleagues the real problem, which although it was clearly presented that the problem is not the homeless, but us as a society, the non-stigmatised, I let my opinion be known that this is not the problem but the situation, alarming by the way, and the problem is not having a clear strategy to address it and correct it. In any case, it was a very fruitful space of time at the CCCB to close one part of this work and to begin a new one continuing with the theme in question.

Social cohesion and homelessness: An artistic approach

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

PART I ANNEXES: CULTURES D’AVENIR PROJECTS OUTPUT In this annexe chapter, after my own contribution to the program, the documents that the rest of the participants have been kind enough to share for the writing of this work are collected. It is certainly complicated to collect the final result of them, because more than a final presentation in Barcelona, a project in process was presented, the process itself and what has led each of us to carry it out. In addition, and as part of the program itself, the “final” format is completely open, so that, as has been observed in the documentation of the experience in the second chapter, each presentation covers several typologies. These range from interactive activities, sensory exercises through word or sound, video projections, poem readings, round tables, dramatic representation... Based, or not, on each one’s background and therefore, what is possible is documented here. As we have seen, although the four main themes of Cultures d’Avenir were gender and equality, processes of discrimination, climate emergency and social cohesion and inclusion, each group has been exploring its own concerns, bringing to light a new set of themes from these main ones. Thus, in the form of a show about how young people face this series of problems from a critical perspective with an artistic background, other issues such as love, identity and belonging, mental illness and its spread and acceptance in society, the problems of the fashion industry, the relationship between body and mind and their reaction to different stimuli... come to light. In general, different perspectives on a wide range of current issues that are important to put on the table, to think collectively, and perhaps, to imagine some solution or simply, to have a critical point of view about it.

Part I: Anexes

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Group 1: Miguel Peña Menudo and Max Herzogenrath (Part II) VOLUNTEERING

“As part of my project working with homeless people and my vocation for photography, I have been interested in investigating the relationship between urban art and homelessness, observing the traces of the same as traces of the relationship between sculpture and public/private space. And the general themes I have dealt with have been the following: - Altruism - Privilege - Agency - Charity - Institutions - Visibility - Public and Private Space”

Interactive drawing exercise with homeless as therapy Pick one of the following drawing exercises, take up to 10min for your drawing. When you are finished, explain your thought process and result to someone else. - Draw your vision of a perfect day, for example as a comic strip. What constitutes a perfect day to you? - Create your own coat of arms. Choose symbols that represent your strengths and uniqueness. - Think of a person who is dear to you and create a drawing for them. What makes them special and what kind of drawing would they be happy about?

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Teresa's performance :

Group 2: Teresa Minguell, Luis Peset, Sophie Silva SICKNESS OF TIME

I see a girl struggling to express herself, looking for a way to express what's inside of her, but she probably can't even understand what she feels and what she has to say but she definitely has kept way too much inside of her ; and the only thing she is certain of, is that she has to share it with the world, otherwise she will explode.

What does your art practice bring to other people? Performing language doesand language comecontact from ? with ourselves and others. By The artwork pretends to be anBut, ode where to sincere emotional What was the impulse that initiated language the way we know/figure it nowadays ? claiming that I think in feelings, I find the “sensitive thinking” useful to help people connect with theirLanguage human side. My pieces emergeimpulse somehow vulnerable part of me, related with be how I comes from an internal thatfrom first ahad to be understood, so then it could expressed – then we had find way to express this impulse, necessarily has to be done feel or some wounds I’dto like toarecover from. I truly believe and that this showing your vulnerable side by sharing with the others, as everybody's lives are interwoven, we can't live without one another. is powerful, because it connects you with the others as your equals. Beyond our differences, we Man was made to live in groups, he is a social animal and at the origins of the world, one share the same emotional needs. individual had to stay attached to the group in order to survive. And for people to live together, communication is key. topics -education healthon the caves' walls, then -psychology The first humans -mental drew figures writing was invented and so on … -love -individual/collective Language is an impulse -communication -identity and is key to survive -visible/invisible -masks it is also a link between human beings It can be reinvented again and again, in any form, as long as the impulse lives within each of us – an impulse to express and to share, but also to create – to create a better world together.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Wu7i99B5Ogqwne3Tg-_EaqG3_yQhM5_/view

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Group 3: Ana Alarcón, Isabell Caps-Kuhn, Maja Milewska, Patrick Pollmeier, Damien Ruvet WHAT IS NATURE?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q2H_QDY3p4

What is nature? Asking AI. What is nature? Is it really some mystical language? Are there any other magical and mystical places in the universe, like the sky, water, air, and stars, without any of the physical world or any other metaphysical force? The first answer I can make is that it may have something to do with God. We have no idea at all what kind of God God is, if we know, because the supernatural world is very vague and very meaningless. He is the one that we have no idea about at all, and we must rely on some type of physical or psychic force and what if he were to come and explain why we don’t have any clear idea yet. It seems so logical to me if you will. We know about his physical and spiritual presence. There is no physical evidence of it. On the contrary it would seem as if they would have a unique presence. But you can have such mystical experiences only if you know a way to explain them. The only way you can explain such mystical experiences is by believing that there is a natural force at work on Earth. The only way you can explain it is by claiming that there is a special kind of power in space and that that force has a nature of its own and that the same is true of the physical world. You may come into this strange place and get an effect of divine knowledge; it may not be quite as it thinks it is. To say nature has no place in our lives is incorrect, because we have no place in it. Nature does exist, but we don’t have any physical bodies. Nature is all of us, by nature, and we can’t be anything other than ourselves. Nature is not our physical bodies, nor can it be thought to create anything other than us.

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Group 4: Maria Giulia Serantoni-Kuhn, Martin Kaulen, Bastien Touati, Chiu Yu-Hsuan TRANCE “Ok. Are they gonna start fighting? Ah! I knew it. Some is in trance here, it’s the mood.”

These images make me think that they are ancestral dances.

Ha, mood change always with music, joy and happiness, always this idea of trance, we roll on the ground. Why is she crying? What’s happening? Madam is astounded, it’s beyond her.” Now there is the image of violins and as European, the other one seemed rather American, this one look European. First of all, many of these movements are clearly ecstatic and have this circular movement. Exorcism, I think, like you know being possessed by a certain spirit, in trance… It’s like in the video, women have this circular movement, and men much more vertical. “Ah, we are going to smoke a little cigarette just to be in shape. Oh dear! The cigarette was loaded, now there is an old man who also goes into a trance…” It’s very interesting the transition between different cultures, places and populations, they come together with music that has the same value and the same purpose of bringing people together and involving them in something that is popularly accepted and part of tradition, so this spirituality is searched through the movement of the body. It’s a lot of unsual, unsual positions in sort of gestures? It also looks like a trance of an evangelical church when the spirit enters their bodies. Is this happening a special day of the year? Just like one day of the year that you can do whatever you want to in church. “Here we carry our burden. Oh, beautiful. Ah! Pink! I love this. I need this outfit! It is still a party, it’s a world tour of fiestas, I have the impression with very happy people or in any case who need to get tired. There is no need to say, it is people who are in the mood”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=F4jQP3kKU7o

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Group 5: Nesrine Abdat, Narjiss Jamoussi TO THE SALTED SOUL I SPEAK

https://vimeo.com/691155030

Password: culturedav

When I wake up in the morning I’d like to tell myself: “Today I’m gonna enjoy y day!”. I’ll get up every morning, same time, same routine, go to the same place, take the same metro line, to see the same people and do the same thing every day. How is t possible to become a better person and change the world? When you’re stuck in humdrum? Who are you doing this for?! Eh?! Sorry, I don’t live to fill others’ pockets, I have my own path to follow. I’m not a slave! I’m not killing myself for the sake of some… I don’t know if there’s an afterlife, I don’t know if there’s a god who has plans for us, if we must try hard to behave and quietly undergo the oppression of the powerful… Lies, injustice, keeping it shut, hoping to reach heaven in the end… But I can feel inside me… I feel deep inside… Here, that I have to fulfill a mission. [...] And what if you were happy? I haven’t seen you happy for such a long time. That I can’t even imagine you happily ever after. It’s burning and it comes from here! What am I supposed to do?! Do you want to go back home? Go home! What are you waiting for? Sitting here, not moving, while everything is burning? What? I can’t hear you! I CAN’T HEAR YOU! SCREAM LOUDER! I want to shout… I want to leave! And cry! Is this your place? You’re telling me this is a trap? Somewhere else is nothing but desert, somewhere else is detention, I don’t care anymore about privileges. I want my mummy, I want my father, my brother, I want to stay with them and never leave them again, But I am not…I am nowhere…It’s exhausting.

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Group 7: Claudia García de Val, Cara Petrovic THE MANIFESTO OF THE WINDOW

(All of the) institutions are buildings, they are houses with complex systems and orders. Cultures d’Avenir gave us a window to three different houses. It did not only show us the project itself, but also gave as a glimpse of how institutions work in general. THE MANIFESTO OF THE WINDOW ARE YOU AWARE OF THIS? 1. Plan spaces and time slots where we can all discuss topics we are interested in. 2. Include more time for debate after a conference. 3. Focus on the needs of the participants as time for mental rest and be flexible with time scheduled. 4. Change exhibitions to have equal representations in terms of nationality, race, gender, age etc. 5. Make sure that it applies to both permanent and temporary exhibitions. 6. Don’t reproduce the myth of the western European countries as the most artistic and intellectual ones. 7. Ask yourself if your institution has any artwork from non-European cultures and countries. Since when are they in your institution? How did they come to you? Who gave it to you? Should you give it back? 8. Cooperate with different countries others than Germany, France and Spain and therefore with different art and educational institutions. 9. Provide the same information in every language on your website. 10. Serve vegan, local and seasonal food at events you host.

15. Obtain only green electricity and use a green bank account. 16. Pick a location for international meetings where everyone can come by train easily. 17.Be aware of how many travels by plane, train, car or bus you pay per year and don’t pay for inner European flight tickets. 18. Provide free care products for menstruation. 19. Support extra sick days for people who menstruate. 20. Cover the needs of employees with mental and physical issues. 21. Create relaxation spaces at your institution where visitors and employees can rest. 22. Offer a place with an independent person for visitors and employees to complain and express their concerns. 23. Transform your institution into a kid-friendly place. 24. Baby Changing Rooms should be accessible for all genders. 25. Culture is for and from everyone. 26. Make sure your institution is accessible to everyone. 27. Offer tours in sign language, visual descriptions and barrier-free language. 28. Make your building accessible for everyone. 29. Open your doors and let everyone use public services as toilettes even if they don’t want to visit the art galleries.

11. Provide free drinking water in the building.

30. Consider your institution as a place of education and not only consumption.

12. Always try to use reusable dishes and prevent food waste.

31. Don’t let the need of representation of your institution keep you from really changing things.

13. Implement plastic-free policies at your museum shop.

32. Give up your job to make place for those who have structural disadvantages.

14. Be aware of how many kilos of trash and CO2 your institution produces per year and reduce it.

33. Bring the knowledge of Cultures d’Avenir into your institution and restructure them.

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Group 8: Rafael Cribillés, Zoé Meyer, Aaliya Steckaan ARTIST ISSUES

What is rotation? Rotation is the antidote to ascension. Rotation is not mastery, perfection, professionalism, nor is it being the best. No! Rotation is the artful practice of returning, of circling, of earnest amateur practice. So, why is it that we are motivated towards rotation? In a time such as this one it is hard to narrow down the challenges at hand, and the motivating factors for why we do what we do. We have been plunged so intensely in the directions of industry, productivity, professionality, mastery, apocalypse, isolation, governmentenforced learned helplessness. What we have been discussing is how desperately we need to usher in some earnest energy towards play, creative exploration, interpersonal healing, and celebrated engagement. We are in desperate need for balance, especially when the tools that we can use to most effectively balance us (play, art, abstraction, slowing down, trickery, meditation, reflection, imagination, the list goes on) are now more than ever represented as fruitless and silly behavior. We need earnest celebration, in a similar way that we need revolution. We need silly, we need slow, we need goofy. We need each other. These attributes, these practices, are inherently intertwined with each other. With true radical change, with collective resistance, with disobedience, come radical creativity, collective healing, art. It asks of us rotation in all its forms. We yearn for freedom, for healing, for new ideas, for connections, for cultivation. How can we envision this for ourselves? How can we unlearn learned helplessness? How do we grieve, fight, protect, revolutionize, and at the same time prioritize our creative and emotional wellness? We are not speaking about hedonism. We are speaking about imagination and celebration! And it’s not as naive as it sounds. In fact, revolutionary acts require us to dedicate time and energy to our interpersonal and creative wellness. I feel at a fundamental level what we are arguing is that we need to re-envision healing. We need to step away from our perceptions of emotional recovery as foofy, rich, unworthy, impossible, feeble, ineffective, or lesser than other issues. Emotional and creative wellness are in many ways the wellsprings of solutions for all our other problems. The brutality of capitalism, environmental doom, burnout, war, inequality… What could be more fundamental to this moment in time than our ability to connect, work together, pull from one another, process our stories, and radically imagine what could be? We need to cultivate our cap city to envision something, to think outside of the box, to create a strong, healthy base for our revolution. And this creative wellness is not a neutral state that we arrive at when we are not busy, when we finally have the time, when we are not afraid. It is an earnest practice we achieve through daily personal and communal work, and that we can and should integrate into our activism and rebellion with intention and respect. Let us rotate together !

Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Group 9: Eman Badir, Carla Pocchiola, Badrieh Wanli BETWEEN MELODIES

What are the conditions of possibility of the feeling of belonging? How to feel that I inhabit the place? That I don’t avoid it? This kind of elusive modernity goes through our body as if it were a spear. Where are our pieces? Someone told me once: “Lightness and roots are a must”. Where to take root? How to take root? How not to feel like an eternal foreigner? Perhaps it is necessary to weave networks. It doesn’t matter in which direction. Maybe it’s not so important to dig a hole where to plant the flag, but branch out to the edges or from the edges or between the edges.

eternal foreigner - cultural prejudice - the idea of other -experiences of discrimination - vulnerability - mixed marriage - What you do against the forgetting? Do you feel lonely? - “Losing your memory is something you can’t stop.” - global citizen - sharing stories as epistemologies - a life could become a work of art do you idealize your hometown? - Would there be more in-betweens? There is more of you, when you speak Arabic. - how to weave the 3 positions together? how to keep it open? - humour as a way of belonging -people are home - Will I have a future here? - survival strategies - how to define home -lack of identity

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

IV. HOMELESSNESS THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL SPACES 4.1 Introduction to the topic I have chosen to carry out this Master’s thesis on homelessness in the city of Barcelona being fully aware of the privilege of going out into the street, going for a walk, watching the hours go by sitting on a bench and having a place to come back to, a home to live in and a roof to sleep under without having experienced the rejection or invisibility of anyone I have come across. The choice to carry out the research for the Master’s thesis on the relationship between homeless people and architecture, as well as their interaction with the spaces they inhabit, comes from the development of the first Cultures d’Avenir conference. Although one can think of this problem from a sociological approach within the population, I understand that it is closely related to the practice of architecture, and therefore, architects must provide answers in order to improve the habitability, and thus, the quality of life of these people. During my training as an architect, I quickly understood that the ultimate aim of the profession is to serve people. We think in architecture, in spaces, typologies and programmes to be inhabited and enjoyed by users and therefore we must find the best solutions. Currently, far from being a space for coexistence, I understand the city as a whole as a space in which the different social ranks are present, producing inequality between the people who make it up. But in the same way, I think of architecture and its application to urban planning as a practical and essential tool to manifest the character of the city as a political and physical medium, capable of making possible the social relationship between individuals, being the place of coexistence of all possible models of life. If we look around us, everything is architecture, every person has a direct relationship with architecture day after day. We all live in it, we inhabit it, we relate to it, we carry out our tasks in it and we protect ourselves from external elements through it. When we think of architecture, big names come to mind, great works of high architectural quality, without realising that, just like everyone else,

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

we spend our whole lives amidst anonymous architecture. And what’s in between? The street? Public spaces? Of course it is also architecture, but when we design roads, promenades, even squares, we do so with different parameters. By definition, the street is the most public space of all, and therefore, it corresponds to parameters of functionality, routes, services. The street belongs to everyone and to no one. However, in line with the above, there is a multitude of people in every city where “their domestic programme” takes place in the street, in the most public space of all. The homeless. It is completely logical that the design parameters for two housing developments are completely different from the street that connects them. However, for a variety of circumstances there are people who are forced to live on that street. Our perception of public space is usually measured by how pleasant it is to walk there, or how functional it is to drive along a road, or to cross it as a pedestrian, or even in larger public spaces, how pleasant it is to spend a certain amount of time there. But what about inhabiting it, what is the relationship between the people who inhabit public space and their own conditions, what is the relationship between architecture and homelessness? Do homeless people only relate spatially to public space or are there different spaces where they go about their daily activities, where they relate to each other perhaps? While it is true that there are some places where homeless people can sleep or wash themselves, what are these places like, and is it possible to live in them decently? This is a reality that occurs in every city, and with this, I want to study and address this issue, taking into account the social perspective, from an architectural approach, analyzing case studies of different typologies of buildings built to temporarily house these people, or built for another purpose and that are adapted to house homeless people, redrawing them, making them mine to clarify the interrelations between the place and the person in order to better propose the contributions we can make as architects to help our society.

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Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

With all this, I see the first step as asking ourselves what and who a homeless person is. 16. According to Cambridge Dictionary definition

Homeless16 adjective /ˈhəʊm.ləs/ Without a home: - Accommodation needs to be found for thousands of homeless families. - Homeless people have nowhere to live.

Synonyms: destitute, exiled, displaced, dispossessed - The homeless: People who do not have a home, usually because they are poor SMART Vocabulary - related words and expressions: bag ladybe - of/have no fixed abode/address - couchsurfing - derelict - displace - displaced - doss - dosser - down-and-out - fixed habitation - hobo - shelter - housing - benefit - mendicanton the streets - rootless rootlessness - rough - roughsleeper - sofasurf - sofa-surfing - soup kitchen - street - childstreet - homelessstreet - homelessnessstreet - peoplestreet urchin - tramp - traveller - vagabond - vagrancy - waifwaifs and strays

However, the definition presented above does not take into account the complexity of all situations of vulnerability or precariousness in housing. On the basis of the relativisation of residential exclusion lies the difficulty of reaching a consensus at the European level on a definition that would allow us to establish gradations in the problem of “homelessness”. 17. Rubio Martin, M. et al., 2007. “Las personas sin hogar en la Comunidad de Madrid: hacia la invisibilidad de la exclusión social extrema más allá de las fronteras de las grandes metrópolis.” P.110

ETHOS (European Typology on Homelessness) is a measuring instrument that aims to cover all possible situations in which a homeless person may find themselves. Based on the premise that a household is made up of three spaces or domains (physical, social and legal), it establishes that there are four conceptual categories (Roofless, Houseless, Insecure Housing, Inadequate Housing, Inadequate Housing) and thirteen operational categories that include different situations in which the problem may arise.17

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Fig.86 Homeless description and definition according to ETHOS. Table made by the author

Thus, knowing who the homeless are in all their diversity, we can begin to see what their situation is in the city of Barcelona, how they relate to space, their demands and needs, as well as begin to glimpse what are the first contributions that we architects can propose to improve their living conditions and habitability, both socially and spatially.

4.2 Step 0: Current situation in Bacelona “This hardship of housing is not peculiar to the present time; it is not even one of the miseries peculiar to the modern proletariat as distinct from all the oppressed classes of the past; on the contrary, it has affected almost equally all the oppressed classes of all times; on the contrary, it has affected all the oppressed classes of all times in almost the same way. [...] What is meant today by housing shortage is the particular aggravation of the poor housing conditions of the workers as a result of the sudden influx of the population into the big cities; it is the formidable rise in rents, a greater crowding of tenants in every house, and, for some, the total impossibility of finding shelter”.18 Engels, F. (1873)

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18.

Fiedrich Engels. 1873. “The Housing Question” How Proudhon Solves the Housing Question.

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

19. Lis, C. y Soly, H.1 985. “Pobreza y capitalismo en la Europa preindustrial (13501850)”. Vol 66.

20. Mantecón, T. A. 1997. “Los pobres y sus actitudes en la temprana Edad Moderna” P.92

Throughout history, poverty was understood as a “natural phenomenon” of a “society of scarcity” characterised by technological backwardness and a tendency towards uncontrolled population growth19. The concept of poverty was not based on the possession, or not, of material wealth, but was understood as the participation, or not, in power, privilege or social prestige. The concept of “poor” maintains a conceptual duality and has been debated between compassion and charity as a response and contempt and control.20 Thus, the poor were the needy, the destitute, but also the dangerous and idle.

21. Ibid. P.96

Therefore, two types were distinguished: the worthy poor reached this condition due to causes related to different circumstances of vulnerability (those who had an orphaned childhood, the disabled, the incurably ill and the elderly) and causality (small agricultural owners or impoverished artisans and people with constant health problems).21

22. Maza Zorrilla, E.

On the other hand, the undeserving poor were considered to be poor voluntarily (vagrants, idlers, criminals, prostitutes). The condition of being poor worthy or unworthy determined their passport to assistance or exclusion from the care provided for them.22

1987. “Pobreza y asistencia social en España. Siglos XVI al XX.” P.14

Fig.87 Poor person in front of Parròquia Mare de Déu de Betlem, Barcelona Photo taken by the author.

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And since ancient times, poverty has been linked to the Church, as the Gospel highlighted poverty as a “spiritual value” and the poor were necessary for the salvation of the souls of the powerful since, through alms, they could redeem their sins.23 In this way, poverty and homelessness have been linked to the church from the Middle Ages to the present day, where a multitude of religious organisations still lend their charity to the needy, as they stand at the doors of churches in search of a little help.

23. Fernàndez Evangelista, G. 2016. “El acceso a la vivienda social de las personas sin hogar. Estudio de casos: Alemania, España, Finlandia y Reino Unido”. P.22

Fig.88 Homeless person sitting in front of Parròquia de Sant Agustí Photo taken by the author.

According to the Social Rights section of Barcelona City Council, the homeless were considered to be a group with their own characteristics (mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, unadapted lifestyle), which classified people living in a situation in a category very close to social deviance.24 In this sense, to speak of homelessness instead of talking about homeless people means discursively reinforcing that the actions of administrations and entities are not aimed at any group or collective, but rather at combating a situation that violates people’s right to housing and assuming that what homeless people have in common is that they live in a situation of severe residential exclusion.

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24. Fortea Busquets, C., & Herruz Pamies, L. 2017. Primer la Llar: aplicación del modelo Housing First en la ciudad de Barcelona, p.243

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

Homelessness is identified as one of the most extreme forms of poverty in our cities, and homeless people, who live 24 hours a day in public spaces, are the most visible part of homelessness, but not the only one. Residential exclusion manifests itself in different intensities depending on people’s relationship with the space available to them for their personal lives. Fig.89,90 This could be you Made by XAPSLL and layed out by the author

25. Fortea, C. 2005: “Programa Municipal d’Atenció a Persones sense sostre”, Ajuntament de Barcelona p.66

26. The “Ley de Vagos y Maleantes” (1933) passed during the Second Republic was aimed at the treatment of vagrants, nomads, pimps and any other element considered anti-social. In 1970 it was replaced and repealed by the Law on Dangerousness and Social Rehabilitation with very similar terms, but which included sentences of up to five years of internment in prisons or asylums for homosexuals and other individuals considered socially dangerous so that they could be “rehabilitated”.

In the city of Barcelona, care for the homeless has a long history, dating back to the beginning of the last century).25 Initially, the type of care received by the homeless was linked to welfare. Welfare and begging went hand in hand, and remained so for a long time. In 1979, there were two shelters in Barcelona, Valldonzella and Sant Joan de Déu (still active), which were able to meet the demands for care of this group, under the “Law on Vagrants and Miscreants.”26

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From 1985, with the first Catalan Social Services Law, care took an important turn, with the creation of new resources with much more dignity.27 At the beginning of the 1990s, the first street teams, day centres, winter reception centres, Operation Cold, the Can Planas centre, and new shelters or accommodation centres were set up. Currently in the city of Barcelona, there are at least 4,000 homeless people, according to the periodic count carried out by the Xarxa d’Atenció a Persones Sense Llar in collaboration with Fundació Arrels.28

27. Fortea Busquets, C., & Herruz Pamies, L. 2017. “Primer la Llar: aplicación del modelo Housing First en la ciudad de Barcelona”, p.240

28. Cap del Departamento de Personas Vulnerables del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona.

Fig.91 #NINGU DORMINT AL CARRER Periodic count by Fundació Arrels Photo providen by the organization

Nobody lives on the street because they want to. And although staying in a shelter is a resource that some people reject (because it is not an option that takes into account the situation and difficulties of all people), in Barcelona those who want to stay in a shelter find themselves with a waiting list of more than half a year according to this foundation. Barcelona has consolidated services and resources for homeless people that are considered to be of great relevance in Europe. Services and resources based on the scale or transition model, articulated jointly and shared by the different organisations in the city, which have a long history of intervention with homeless people.29

29. Fortea Busquets, C., & Herruz Pamies, L. 2017. “Primer la Llar: aplicación del modelo Housing First en la ciudad de Barcelona”, p.240

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Fig.92 Current situation of homeleness in Barcelona. Data extracted from Arrels Fundació and XPSLL.

Made by the author.

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Fig.93

Existing resources for homeless people.

Data extracted from Arrels Fundació and XPSLL.

Made by the author.

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However, the census of people living on the street makes this harsh reality visible. And there is no optimistic outlook. There are neither sufficient resources nor any long-term consensus to eradicate this injustice. Beyond resources, there are laws, such as the law on foreigners, which prevent many of the migrant population from having any kind of future prospects. In addition, the number of young migrants living on the streets is increasing and they are totally unprotected and in some cases at the mercy of mafias. Fig.94 Young migrant people attended at Sta. Anna church. Photo extracted from Betevé.cat

Most of the public and private resources that people living on the street in Barcelona can access directly, without the mediation of a social worker, are currently concentrated in the Ciutat Vella district, coinciding with the places in the city frequented by the greatest number of tourists and, therefore, the area of the city with the most tourist accommodation. However, the more than 1,200 people living on the streets are located in different areas of the city, as can be seen in the previous graphics. 30.

Understanding these places as cheaper for an action that requires income without producing any benefit)

As well as the network of existing resources in the city, both secular and religious, which are distributed, as can be seen, in the outskirts of the city30 as well as in the historic centre, attending to the high demand of homeless people, understood purely as people who live on the streets In this sense, we can find three types of resources essentially (beyond the welfare assistance of social workers): accommodation, hygiene and food. In terms of accommodation, there is a range of typologies, from first reception centres or temporary shelters, hostels run by religious

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organisations such as the city council or NGOs, as well as shared flats following the Housing First model that the Barcelona City Council has tried to promote. Fig.95

Temporary shelter by Arrels Fundació Photo taken by the author.

However, these resources fall far short of the demand needed, with endless waiting lists, making conditions not the best despite the hard work of the volunteers and social services involved, and sometimes there are even situations of insecurity that make these people prefer to sleep on the street rather than in one of these spaces. There are also some toilet facilities (which are not located in shelters or reception centres) arranged according to the location on the map above. These are undoubtedly insufficient to cover the necessary demand, not only for homeless people, but even for a non-stigmatised person who needs a toilet at a certain time. In particular, there is the problem that these bathing centres have short and restrictive opening hours that are not adapted to the reality of the lifestyles of homeless people on the street, and we can observe scenes of “personal hygiene” in the public thoroughfare as a last resort. 31. Taylor, M., & Walsh,

In addition, this image shows other problems such as the placement of anti-homeless furniture all over the city, as well as the lack of accessible storage space which means that most people have to carry all their belongings in fear of being stolen even if they are worthless.31

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Fig.96 Homeless person shaving in the Rubió i Lluch gardens Photo taken by the author.

On the other hand, we have the soup kitchens, which are actually points of distribution of food to people in need rather than canteens per se, a situation that has increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions on capacity in closed places. 32. Op. cit. Psychologist Maraver Gil, J. consulted during the study of this topic

This eliminates a very important component in the process of social inclusion such as human contact and accompaniment, a fact that is immediately reflected in mental health according to psychologists.32 In addition, once this food aid has been received, it is difficult to find a place to take it in company due to the lack of urban furniture in the

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Fig.97 Hunger queue in Comedor Social Reina de la Paz, carrer de l’Arc de Sant Agustí Photo taken by the author.

vicinity, either because it does not exist or because it is inadequate. Moreover, the situation is exacerbated for groups that have already been abused during the COVID-19 pandemic. For most of us, it didn’t matter where we were: we were most likely at home, with our partners, family members, or even friends. Yet hundreds of people have spent months and months on empty streets trying to protect themselves from the global pandemic. Two very different realities: that of the homeless and that of the rest of society.

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Fig.98 NEWS! Made by the author

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33. Opc. cit. According to volunteers from Fundació Arrels consulted during the study of the topic

34. Herández, N. “La pandemia de los invisibles” March 12, 2021

The arrival of Covid-19 has had an impact on the situation of people living on the streets and on the resources that attend to them, reducing Barcelona City Council’s services for homeless people.33 Just before the pandemic, anyone living on the street in Barcelona could go to the three municipal shelters and ask for a place that would take months to be allocated, but since the beginning of the pandemic this possibility did not even exist. Barcelona has been 15 months without direct access to shelters and homeless people have had fewer daytime rest areas which, moreover, “have been affected in terms of capacity and limitations on the length of stay, and some have been temporarily closed.”34 Among that, most of the food distributed to people living on the streets is still takeaway and cold.

Fig.99 Homeless person cosuming alcohol and tobacco at Passeig S.Joan, Barcelona

Photo taken by the author.

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A large number of these people also carry serious problems of alcohol or drug addiction. In fact, almost 12% of homeless people recognise that alcohol was one of the causes of their situation.35 Others, on the contrary, recognise that addictions are a consequence of their homelessness. According to the conclusions of the study “Health, quality of life and substance use according to the length of time spent homeless”, it is those who have been on the streets the longest who tend to consume more alcohol and drugs, and have a more degraded state of health: only 2% of those who have just lost their homes use heroin compared to 20% of those who have been homeless for more than five years.36

35. Panadero-Herrero, S., & Muñoz-López, M. 2014. “Salud, calidad de vida y consumo de sustancias en función del tiempo en situación sin hogar”. P.6

36. Ibid.P.6

Fig.100 SIN TECHO? ¡CON DERECHO! Extracted from Rocasalva, Anna 2020

Homelessness should be understood as the most extreme point of social exclusion, where people who have arrived on very different paths meet. Living in a state of constant sleep, cold, constant rejection and, above all, fear are other problems that homeless people face on a daily basis. Thus, these people are currently in the city of Barcelona suffering daily from the cold, the heat, violence and indiscriminate aggression, the absolute of their situation after the loss of their supportive environment, as well as being considered as a nuisance in the “props” of our streets.

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4.3 THE IMPOSSIBLE PATH OF SOCIAL INCLUSIÓN THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL SPACES

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Fig.101 The

im possible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces

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Fig.102 The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces. Architectural location

spaces

Made by the author

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Fig.103 The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces. Architectural close location

Plaça Catalunya

spaces

Made by the author

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1 - Santa Anna Church 2 - Squat house_Casa Cádiz 3 - APROP Ciutat Vella: Vivienda táctica de emergencia 4 - La Balma: Habitatge cooperatiu 5 - PFC_BarcelonaDesperta! The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces

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4.3.1 Step 1: Churching Parish Church of Santa Anna

The first case study in which the relationship between homeless people and architecture understood as spaces becomes clear is this small church in the Ciutat Vella district. Protecting the homeless, as opposed to overcrowded urban centres and urban gentrification, means housing them in the same house. In this sense, and according to the coordinators of this movement, the action of sheltering begins with those who encounter the most difficulties. This way of life clearly shows that everyone should be welcomed and protected. It is therefore a religious organisation that has been opening the doors of this Romanesque church with a square apse and a cross-shaped floor plan, as well as a Gothic façade, to homeless people since 2017. Fig.104

Santa Anna Church. Photo taken by the author.

37. According to Santa Anna Hospital de Campanya organisation.

38.

Data extracted from the Municipal Statistics of the Barcelona City Council

Subsequently, it will be converted into a field hospital for the reception and assistance of people in vulnerable situations, increasing the number of places from 20 originally, to occupy the entire floor of the building37. It is estimated that during 2017 (the starting year of this project)38, eight million tourists passed through the historic centre of the city. Around it, there is a whole world of commerce and tourist activities. However, among all this hustle and bustle there is a hidden city, the city of the most

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disadvantaged who have nowhere else to go. In Barcelona, around 1,026 people sleep on the streets every night. In addition, 2,006 people spend the night in residential centres and flats in public and private programmes. If we add the 417 people who spend the night in settlements and informal structures installed on plots of land, a total of 3,383 people live in extreme housing exclusion.39

39.

Data extracted from Santa Anna’s own organisation webpage

Moreover, these data contrast with the fact that a large number of these people live in the most touristy part of Barcelona where, in turn, finding housing means very high rents. Thus, over the last few years, the “Hospital de Campanya” project has taken shape in the parish. From the outset, the project was set up as a place to provide breakfast and snacks, as well as a refectory for hot and cold drinks. Fig

105. Homeless people and volunteers tidying up the church outdoor space

The project continued to develop, extending the reception area where they spend the day, they can have a permanent wifi service and mobile phone charging, as well as a space to rest. In the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, a listening area has been set up with tables for the personalised attention of professionals and volunteers.

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Fig.106

Santa Anna Church during the day. Drawn by the author.

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Fig.107

Santa Anna Church hosting homeless people. Drawn by the author.

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Fig.108

Santa Anna Church during drawing. Drawn by the author.

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Fig.109

Santa Anna Church hosting homeless people drawing. Drawn by the author.

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The central space of the church has also been adapted for prayer and liturgical celebrations for parishioners, as well as for welcoming visitors who wish to get to know the old monastery. Fig.110 Homeless person reading the newspaper. Photo provided by the foundation

Moreover, this space, as can be seen in the planimetry observed, changes diametrically during the day and at night. We are talking about a building of hybrid use in a rigid structure, which generates a diffuse and anarchic disposition in the uses of the spaces in order to make the most of them. Fig.111 Church at night time. Photo provided by the foundation

It is undoubtedly an interesting project, as it gives a second life, nocturnal in this case, to a building that would remain closed if this action did not take place, and which goes hand in hand with the church’s traditional

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support for the most disadvantaged. However, this is the only example to be found in the city of Barcelona, apart from the occasional case caused by extreme situations such as extremely adverse weather conditions or the coronavirus crisis suffered in recent years. We are therefore dealing with a case study of a religious nature, unique in its work (although there are many other religious organisations that help homeless people in different ways). During the day it is a tourist enclave, although hidden by its location in the city despite being close to Plaça de Catalunya, with a fantastic cloister where you can stop and observe the architecture that surrounds you. Later, this same cloister will serve as an improvised soup kitchen, and the space used for the mass and homily will be transformed into a dormitory. Fig.112 Cloister used as a soup kitchen Photo provided by the foundation

You enter the parish church of Santa Ana and you automatically have the perception that you are not in just any church. On one side you find food and groceries and on the other, spaces for conversation, prayer and listening, the most human face of the church in conjunction with the architecture. There, the volunteers work with the homeless, battling against the cold and, above all, loneliness and abandonment.

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Fig.113 Homeless people and volunteers inside the church Photo provided by the foundation

However, and going back to the data previously shown, many more “Santa Anna” examples would be needed to combat this silent and silenced reality that occurs in our streets. Somehow, in terms of the fundamentals of inhabiting, and inhabiting the contemporary city, this example shows a clear lack of one of the fundamental elements for people in these situations, which is none other than privacy. 40. Taylor, M., & Walsh, E. 2018. “When Corporal Acts Are Labeled Criminal: Lack of Privacy among the Homeless”. P.137

41.

Collel, E. “Santa Anna, l’església sense fronteres de Barcelona” El Periódico. July 21, 2021

As shown in the study by sociologists Taylor and Walsh the homeless, by and large, have no access to truly private spaces they can lay legitimate claim to [...] their daily activities pose a sort of omnipresent threat to their privacy, possessions and even their bodies.40 In this sense, implementations within this chaos contained within the church walls come to mind, such as Shigueru Ban’s proposal for an emergency shelter made of paper and cardboard, safeguarding the privacy and intimacy of the refugees despite their dramatic situation. In addition, according to Elisenda Colell41, the church of Santa Anna has for weeks been seeing young North Africans, some of them adults, others minors, asking for shelter in its church. They use wooden stretchers to Homelessness in Barcelona through architectural spaces

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join the pews and set up fifty beds, as well as serving breakfast. Inside the church it is possible to sleep from eight in the morning to eight in the evening.

41. Ibid.

But in recent months the church has seen the arrival of a new type of homeless person: Maghrebi children, some of them over the age of 18, who live badly on the streets of Ciutat Vella.42 Fig.114 Children sleep on the church pews Photo by Ferran Nadeu

In this way, the “Hospital de Campanya” project not only cares for homeless people, but also opens up the range of assistance to anyone at risk of social exclusion. However, studying this case I have reported the existence of the concept of “Champing” to camp in a church as a leisure activity on demand that is becoming more and more widespread.43 In this sense, and knowing in person the case of Santa Anna in Barcelona, I can’t help but think not only of a trivialisation of the space (although it has been disentailed) but of the situation per se. There are bars inside old churches, as well as bookshops and theatres, but I understand this case to be, at least, morally different.

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43. Data extracted from https://champing.co.uk

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Fig.115 The author in the “Book Store Dominicanen” in Maastrich, Netherlands

44.

Quote extrated from LaVanguardia article “Champing’, una noche de terror en una iglesia medieval”

In fact, according to one of the organisations, “The Association for the Preservation of Churches, which runs St-Mary, provides camp beds and sleeping bags to sleep in this unusual environment, in whose subsoil the notables of yesteryear are buried”.44

Fig.116

Examples of “Champing”. Photos taken by Glyn Kirk for AFP Press

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4.3.2 Step 2: Squatting Squat house_Casa Cádiz As a second step towards a full process of social inclusion and leaving homelessness behind, squatting could be considered. The term “squatting” comes from the word occupation, which refers mainly to the occupation of abandoned houses or buildings (without permission or payment of rent, of course). It emerged in the 1980s and is a phenomenon that was initially the result of the influx of people from the countryside to the cities, as well as urban speculation that pushed up housing prices to exorbitant levels.45

45.

Reeve, K. 2011. “Squatting: a homeless issue. An evidence review”. P.5

Squatting groups become relevant as soon as they take possession of abandoned buildings in central areas of the city. The case of the Casa Cádiz squat is brought up here. Fig.117 Casa Cádiz facade Photo taken by the author

“Okupa Casa Cádiz” was a voluntary self-management project for homeless people from Barcelona and refugees arriving in the Catalan capital. The aim was to offer a temporary alternative to its users that would give them enough time to find a solution to their needs.

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Fig.118 Squatt house_ Casa Cádiz plans Drawn by the author after several visits to the site

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The premises in question is a space abandoned for more than a decade jointly by the city councils of Cádiz and Barcelona, covering some 700 square metres on two floors and located in the heart of Barcelona’s Eixample district, just a few metres from the Sagrada Familia. Here, for the last three years, people have been living who previously slept in cash machines, in stations or in the open air. An occupation that has served to convert this abandoned building into a self-managed hostel for homeless people. Fig.119 Ground floor main space Photo by Sense Sostre BCN Twiter account @sensesostreBCN

46. Merino, O. “Una re-

A first group settled in and coined the term “Welcome Sense Sostre”,

pública gaditana y a su aire en Barcelona.” El Periódico. November 8, 2019

According to Olga Merino, more and more people of different nationalities arrived and up to a hundred people remained on the waiting list. It was literally a hostel self-managed by the homeless themselves, supported financially and materially by neighbourhood associations.46

47. Attout, A, & Ciruge-

The Sevillian architect Santiago Cirugeda relates in his book “You are here:

da, S. 2018. Usted está aquí: Recetas urbanas, p.34

urban recipes” that good architecture can be made from the citizenship,

48. Ibid. P.37

and this bothers a lot the arrogance of the guild.47 In this sense, he distinguishes between productive squatters, whom he esteems, and destructive squatters, the thing is that the movement has always been linked to anarchism, but there is squatting with commitment.48 And here there was, according to the current residents, it was the

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community itself that took charge of the necessary works to increase the habitability of the house: showers and more bathrooms. In addition to refurbishing the whole place, painting and decorating it with Andalusian and Catalan motifs and works of “arte povera” made by the residents themselves, which were also displayed on the curtain walls at the entrance. Fig.120 Art work facing entrance curtain wall Photo taken by the author

However, hardly anything remains of that project. Only the homeless and the space. This project has been overshadowed by the serious allegations hanging over some of its current and former occupants. In the last few months, touching, sexual abuse, threats and labour exploitation, among other things, have been publicly denounced in a jigsaw puzzle of halftruths where everyone is implicated to a greater or lesser extent, according to the current inhabitants. “This is not what it used to be, now people come, others leave, but we don’t have a project, we are just trying to survive”, one of the current “caretakers”.49 As soon as one enters through the door, locked with straps and chains, a verse by the Sevillian poet Manuel Machado is visible under the heading “Cádiz, salada claridad”. Moreover, there is none of that clarity in this space. At present, natural light is only obtained through a patio of lights and the large windows of the façade are covered, either so as not to show the conditions in which the space is found, or because of the accumulation of tools for the overcrowded inhabitants.

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49. Op.cit. Testimony of a squatter in Casa Cádiz

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Fig.121 Entrance view Photo extracted from “ElPeriodico” newspaper

There is therefore a mixture of squatters of the type mentioned by Santiago Cirujeda, some of whom are committed to helping the newcomers, others who are destructive because they contribute nothing and the state of the building is lamentable, and people without resources or opportunities who are simply passing through in search of something better (or worse). If we look at the planimetry, we find two main differentiated spaces, the ground floor where people spend the day, a kitchen, a place to eat and an oversized room. Fig.122 Ground floor “bedroom-shelter” Photo by Sense Sostre BCN Twitter account @sensesostreBCN

However, the most depressing thing is when you go up the stairs, what used to be a large, well-lit central space from which you could see the façade of the Passion of the Holy Family has become a small-scale ghetto

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where mattresses and people are crowded together in inhumane living conditions. This picture is repeated, even worse in the rest of the floor that completes the premises. What began as a place of support for the homeless, where people could stay and contribute to the community through domestic chores, has turned into a vacuum of dehumanisation, precarious conditions and filth. Fig.123

Upper floor “bedroom-shelter” Photo by Sense Sostre BCN Twitter account @sensesostreBCN

Sometimes

homeless

people,

seeing

other

possibility

50. Reeve, K. y Coward,

accommodation, turn to squatting as the lesser of two evils. However, the

S. 2004. “Life on the Margins: the experiences of homeless people living,” p.52.

type of accommodation they squat in is determined more by opportunity than preference, often being in poor condition, even structurally defective or inadequate

as in the case of “Casa Cadiz”.

Following this, Squatting tends to occur later in people’s homeless careers. It is rarely an immediate response to becoming homeless, with very few resorting to squatting as a means through which to resolve their housing crisis at the point of losing their settled accommodation. Furthermore, according to the research evidence,most homeless people who squat approach their local authority for help.

We take into account the varying needs of many homeless individuals, suggesting that vulnerable homeless individuals do not have adequate housing assistance. With no other option, they turned to squatting.This situation is likely to worsen.

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51.

Reeve, K. 2011. “Squatting: a homeless issue. An evidence review.”

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4.3.3 Step 3: Temporary housing APROP Ciutat Vella

The following case study belongs to a social modality, managed by Barcelona City Council within the framework of the “Provisional Proximity Housing Programme (APROP)” located in the Gothic Quarter. 52. Fortea Busquets, C., & Herruz Pamies, L. 2017. “Primer la Llar: aplicación del modelo Housing First en la ciudad de Barcelona,” p.242

Although the plan of the Barcelona City Council is, through its “Pla de Lluita contra el Sensellarisme de Barcelona 2016-2020”, to orientate access to housing and accommodation to combat homelessness within the framework of the Housing First programmes 52 these being more in line with current housing standards, here we find an example of mediumterm emergency housing that is interesting to study. Homeless people continue to be the most fragile sector of social exclusion, but they are no longer blamed for their situation; instead, attention is beginning to be directed from the perspective of access to services, considering users as subjects with full rights.

53. McManus, D. et al 2010. “Breaking down the myths: Providing and managing housing services for homeless people A toolkit for housing practitioners,” p.17

54.

Blanchar, C. “APROP: Barcelona estrena los primeros pisos sociales fabricados con contenedores de barco”. El País Cataluña. December 16, 2019)

In recent years, it has become more common practice for homeless households to move directly from emergency accommodation to more permanent long-term accommodation, in line with a ‘housing-based’ approach. 53 Thus, we found a series of temporary modular housing units on a vacant corner site in the historic city centre owned by the city council. As a starting point for the construction of these dwellings, it was intrinsically proposed that they could be dismantled and taken to another location where there would be another opportunity to locate them once they had fulfilled their useful life. 54 To this end, it was decided to construct the building using maritime containers from the city’s port, whose life cycle as a transport element is out of date and which can be used for a quick, economical and highly sustainable construction. To this end, it was decided to construct the building using maritime containers from the city’s port, whose life cycle as a transport element is out of date and which can be used for a quick, economical and highly sustainable construction.

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Fig.124 Ground floor plan, drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3

Ground floor plan

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Fig.125 Upper floors plan, drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3

Upper floors plan

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Thus, according to the jury of the FAD awards (in which they obtained a Special Mention) “The project generates applied research on reversible modular prefabrication from reused maritime containers, with criteria of urban, ecological and social sustainability”. 55

55.

Quote extrated from www.arquinfad.org

All the modules were therefore dry-assembled off-site in a short period of time, so that when construction began, the structural model, including insulation, installations and carpentry, was ready to be installed. “Containers have many characteristics that make them convenient for use in architecture. They are prefabricated, mass-produced, cheap and mobile. Because they are compatible with practically every transport system, they are easily accessible all around the world. They are strong and resistant, while also being durable and stackable. They are modular, recyclable, and reusable.” 56

56. Kotnik, J. 2008. Container architecture, p.26

Fig.126 On-site modules. Photo by Adrià Goula for ArchDaily

And although in terms of innovation it is a very interesting project, on the architectural level I think it is necessary to be a little critical of it, despite its many virtues. The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces

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The use of a ground floor for community use, as well as the users’ own premises overlooking a courtyard, which in turn allows for cross ventilation, is quite appropriate. On top of this, 4 floors of 3 flats are superimposed, two single and one double per floor with an exterior vertical communications core, interior gallery entrance and balconies facing the street from the bedroom. Fig.127 QR code with link to a video for a virtual tour of the project

Fig.128

Section AA’ drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3

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However, looking at the floor plans it is easy to perceive the rigidity of the proposal in which practically, due to the dimensions that come from the containers themselves, there is a single room. It is therefore difficult to live in this space (especially in the individual ones) for more than a short period of time, and although they are certainly temporary dwellings, it is a temporality in space and not in time.

Fig.129

Section AA’ drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3

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Fig.130 Inside spaces of sigle appartment (I) Photos by Adrià Goula for straddle3

It must be taken into account who these dwellings are aimed at, not only people at risk of social exclusion, homeless people, but also victims of gentrification. Looking at the images of the project, they suggest magnificent spaces, that is to say, they do not renounce to good finishes and furniture. The aforementioned fact of cross-ventilation obviously makes them well-lit spaces. 57. Kotnik, J. (2008). Container architecture, p.12

However, with such a strict modulation (when with the metal that could be extracted from a container, more square metres could be built with a Steel frame system) 57 we find a corridor dwelling, as there is little space, there are hardly any partition walls, and again, going back to the photos, an inhabited dwelling does not look like this. The point is that, if it is used as social housing, it is not free, it is intended for low-income people and, moreover, you do not choose it, you get it, therefore, all housing has to be the best possible, including social housing. In the case of taking in homeless people, who are beginning their social insertion process, the same thing happens, we are talking about people

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who have the same spatial needs as the rest of the people, and that although due to their situation they are forced to take in any option, this has to be as dignified as possible. Fig.131 Inside spaces of sigle appartment (II) Photos by Adrià Goula for straddle3

Carmen Lucía Ramos says that paradoxically, cleaning the homeless off our streets has a lot to do with confining them to spaces of control and overcrowding such as shelters. 58 This case is undoubtedly better, but not because it is better it is ideal, and not so much in form but also in method. In other words, the solution to the problems of habitability of homeless people cannot be restricted to being able to take advantage of an empty space in the city that could become part of the city council’s own sphere. Therefore, I understand this case to be interesting as a pilot example, although more for its potential than for what it really is. Perhaps with a less rigid modulation the spaces could have emerged more easily. However, as I was saying, as an experiment it is extremely interesting, and I believe that better levels of habitability can be achieved in the future, as long as the council continues to maintain its strategy of ending homelessness, or at least tackling it, through the Housing First model.

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58. Ramos, C.L, 2021. “No-habitar la ciuada ci¡ontemporánea. La ciuada que rechaza al sintecho”, p.62.

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4.3.4 Step 4: Bridging LaBalma

The following project is framed within a different typology and is interesting in both form and substance for a number of reasons. At first glance it may appear to be a block of flats for social housing, but on closer inspection it turns out to be a cooperative housing building, and going further, it houses young people who have been released from prison as part of their social reintegration process.

Fig.132 QR code with

Thus, the LaBalma project, which belongs to the SostreCivic cooperative network, is being built on a plot of land awarded by Barcelona City Council for its realisation in Poblenou.

link to a video interviewing a owner for beteve.cat

Fig.133 Exterior facade Photo made by the author

59. https://sostrecivic.coop

According to the organisation’s own website, the alternative model of access and tenure to housing has two basic characteristics that differentiate it from other types of housing: collective ownership and the right of use. 59

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These characteristics are linked to the social interest, as cooperatives in cession of use are essentially non-profit making, as it is the residents themselves who are the owners. Furthermore, they integrate public and private initiative in a non-speculative market. But what is really interesting about this project, and that is why I am highlighting it to analyse it, is that they are trying to promote more forms of community coexistence that enhance the interrelation between the people who live in the building and those outside the community and the cooperatives, and they are seeking to create a building that needs its surroundings. For this reason, they have set up a social inclusion project in which one floor is destined for young people under guardianship60 (another form of homelessness outside the classic meaning), as “bridge-housing” thanks to the collaboration with the Punt de Referència61 programme, an organisation dedicated to promoting the liberation of these vulnerable young people with funds from Projecte Lliures62, with these young people also participating in the design process of the project and being part of the democratic management of the building.

60. Punt de Referencia programme

61. https://www.puntdereferencia.org At “Punt de Referència” we accompany them so that they can enter adult life with more opportunities.

62. With the collaboration of Coop57, Òmnium Cultural i ECAS

Fig.134 Common gallery for the homeless picture. Photo provided by the organisation

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Fig.135

Ground flor

plan. Drawn by the author from the original project by Lacol

Fig.136 Floor dedicated to homeless people. Drawn by the author from the original project by Lacol

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Looking at the analysis of the building’s spaces, we can see first of all how the ground floor becomes mixed, with commercial premises facing outwards, and a series of flexible, multipurpose spaces which in turn open onto an outdoor courtyard which also serves to accommodate the functions of outdoor living, as well as ventilation and lighting. Understanding the common spaces of this

63. Davis, S. 2004. De-

type of cooperative building conformation as

signing for the homeless: architecture that works, p.48

changing spaces according to the needs of the community, and therefore, its inhabitants, as well as the incorporation of new members, growth and ageing processes63, it can be an interesting space for a correct social integration with an attachment to the community. This is reflected in the floor plan of these dwellings dedicated to people at risk of social exclusion or homelessness. The layout of the dwellings is a series of “semi-gallery” dwellings, as the entrance to them is from a communal space, which, perhaps I think, is not generous enough for the possibilities of activity that it could accommodate, in contrast, of course, to the greater privacy of the dwelling. This is highlighted by the common room on the

64. McManus, D. et al

corner, where residents can interact outside

2010. “Breaking down the myths: Providing and managing housing services for homeless people A toolkit for housing practitioners,” p.6

their

homes

but

within

their

community,

creating different degrees of privacy, something that seems fundamental in the integration of a homeless person.64 The dwellings have a rigid proposal of three bays, with the middle one being a service bay to house the wet areas of the dwelling, toilet, kitchen and perhaps dining room as well.

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Fig.137 Standard floor plan Drawn by the author from the original project by Lacol

Each dwelling, following this conformation, is different, giving a series of capacities as a temporary space to accommodate homeless people, from individual groups to couples converting some of the rooms. And this is interesting because the common spaces are not particularly generous, perhaps taken with minimum housing measures, but this is not transferred to the rooms, which have correct dimensions that allow life inside them with complete privacy. Perhaps, by following such a strict modulation, there are rooms that give directly on to the access gallery, and this could be a problem, precisely in terms of privacy, as it could create servitude. In any case, looking at the other floor plan, which follows the same configuration of three modules with the intermediate service module, a larger gallery appears, with more space for communal activity outside. In the same way, the floor plans do not change excessively, but masterbedrooms and living rooms and passageways in general begin to appear, more generous in detraction from the rooms themselves, with the understanding, therefore, that the life of a family nucleus is based beyond the total privacy of the rooms themselves.

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So, to conclude, it seems to me an interesting project for several reasons. The first is its location, it is framed in a “new” emerging neighbourhood, which was once industrial and now there are opportunities to carry out this type of projects without having to go to the peripheries (as shown in the map of existing resources in Barcelona). Subsequently, I think it is interesting the

65. Ramos, C.L, 2021.

relationship between private entities to provide

“No-habitar la ciuada ci¡ontemporánea. La ciuada que rechaza al sintecho”, p.74

solutions to people in need, which although it should be something coordinated and not a one-off element, with this system you are really taking a person off the street, as opposed to temporary accommodation and shelters.65 And futhermore, I believe that the building in question, looking especially at the floor designed for people at risk of social exclusion, or directly homelessness in an advanced state of reintegration) responds to their needs in that it shows different degrees of privacy, there are common areas at various levels, both outside and inside the homes, and in turn, these are not the axis but complement the rooms that represent the spaces of greater privacy.

Fig.138

Ex-custodian person entering in his home. Photo provided by the organisation

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4.3.5 Complete phases project BARCELONA DESPERTA! Centre Integral d’inclusció, d’emergència social i ambiental As a last case study I propose the analysis of an academic work, in this case, a Final Degree Project of the ETSAB for the following reason; Carrying out a project for the university you do not have the difficulties that you can find in real life, you have complete programmatic and economic freedom, both in time and execution, but at the same time, this allows you to have a broader approach or to be able to respond to more problems through the project from an academic framework. Fig.139

Axonometry drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual) Redrawing&Layed by the author.

out

Therefore, since the beginning of my study on homelessness and architecture, I have been reviewing the different PFCs located in the city of Barcelona that deal with this subject, and I would like to highlight this case study in my work, as it seems to me the most interesting among those I have been able to review, carried out by the architect Eira Pascual i Ferrusola.

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First of all, the author detects (as previously reflected in the maps of the state of Barcelona) the problem that exists in the old part of the city, where there is a high percentage of people living on the streets according to the municipality’s data. However, and referring to the resources map, most of the space and facilities in this district are located in the Raval and Barceloneta areas, therefore, the project is located in a strategic place far from the “accumulation” of available resources. Secondly, the project is developed in a void within the urban fabric. If we previously analysed a project of a temporary nature (in space and not in time) filling in opportunities for empty plots in the city, such as APROP, in this case we have a project that does not seek to be a temporary solution to a void, but rather an opportunity to improve the space, create urban spaces as well as continuities and expansions in the outlines of the city, as well as increasing the green spaces within the city66, while also carrying out the project’s initial programme.

66. Pascual i Ferruso-

Globally, we have ceded to landlords, housing or land developers, financial capitalists and the state our own individual right to create a city according to our wishes. These are the main actors who, before us and instead of us, shape our cities and, through this, shape ourselves. We have surrendered our right to shape ourselves to the rights of capital to shape us.67

67. Quote from Harvey

la, E. 2021. “Barcelona desperta!: centre integral d’inclusió, d’emergència social i ambiental,” p. 5.

2006. “Notes pour une théorie du développement géographique inéga”,, Géographie et capital, Syllepse, 2010.

Fig.140

Section drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual) Redrawing&Layed

With this, entering fully into the project itself, an integration and social and environmental emergency centre is presented as a form of equipment on a neighbourhood and proximity scale that tries to adapt, according to degrees of privacy, to any user who needs to make use of it. As we saw earlier, the term homeless does not refer exclusively to the person

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Fig.141 Ground floor plan drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual) Redrawing&Layed by the author.

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who has nowhere to sleep, but to a much broader and crueler reality.68 Thus, and once again highlighting the academic framework of the action, a complete centre is achieved that tries to respond to all types of users affected by social exclusion within homelessness, in order to try to improve their living conditions accompanied, according to the author herself, by the intrinsic processes of social and labour integration in order to enhance the autonomy of each case.

68. Davis, S. 2004. Designing for the homeless: architecture that works, p.32

According to the planimetry of the project, we can see three main volumes that are attached to the pre-existing party walls to articulate both the private and public space, taking advantage of and adding value to a series of archaeological preexistences located on the site. We can highlight, therefore, a set dedicated to social housing that we will see later, and another formed by two volumes on the ground floor integrating gardens and open spaces for the programme that led us to carry out this study. The proposed programme is characterised by the fact that it offers not only accommodation and maintenance, but also a wide range of services aimed at responding to the problems associated with situations of discrimination and social marginalisation.69 On the upper levels, there is a shelter space that is divided into individual and collective stays, as well as a “0 conditions space” that offers overnight accommodation to people known to the centre, who have been living on the street for a long time and are not adapted to other resources, such as people with addictions or with animals. This is an interesting point, as later on, and in relation to the CdA project, a point is made that I understand as really important and that is the lack of space for homeless people with pets. The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces

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69. Pascual i Ferrusola, E. 2021. “Barcelona desperta!: centre integral d’inclusió, d’emergència social i ambiental,” p. 5.

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Fig.142 First floor plan drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual) Redrawing&Layed by the author.

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Taking a walk around the city, especially late at night, it is not uncommon to see people sleeping outdoors accompanied by animals, especially dogs, but also cats. At this point, and this is something that often escapes reasoning, is this person unable to find a suitable resource for their situation because they have pets? Even more problematic now in Spain with a new law that recognises dogs, cats and other pets as official family members and not objects.70

70. The “Law on Animal Protection and Welfare” presented by the Ministry of Social Rights, which was approved last February, could enter into force by the end of 2022.

Therefore, and being somewhat critical of shelter space as a solution for these people, since most people who refuse a roof over their heads in a shelter are because of the conditions of these understanding that the typology of the shelter is obsolete and anachronistic when compared to the standards of living today, these temporary shelters are minimal accommodation, to guarantee safe spaces for those people who need them, and represent an important innovation when it comes to accepting pets. In addition, there are a number of training spaces, adaptable according to the needs required in order to be didactic spaces and to help promote social and labour training services for users with the intention of creating long-term solutions beyond temporary help as is the case in many, if not most, cases. There is little or no point in offering a partial solution to the problems of marginalisation if the other aspects that negatively affect their situation are not covered.71 For this reason, the programme is not based on resolving the most basic and urgent needs of the cases attended to, but rather it is committed to an intervention that goes beyond this, trying to intervene, at the same time, in those other problems that hinder or prevent social integration. The complexity of the situation of these people The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces

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71.

Matulic Domandzic, M. V. 2016. “Procesos de inclusión social de las personas sin hogar en la ciudad de Barcelona,” p.195.

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Fig.143 Typical floor plan drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual) Redrawing&Layed by the author.

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requires the creation of response mechanisms of a community nature, which build autonomy and rebuild relationships. 72 In addition, the construction of a series of social housing is proposed, which may be the next logical step in the timeline of a homeless person after their integration process into society.73 Interestingly, they have a similar typology to those previously analysed in LaBalma, which integrates a central service bay in which the wet areas are located and a strict modulation in terms of having a free dividing line to complete, varying and adapting this typology to the break.

72. Pascual i Ferrusola, E. 2021. “Barcelona desperta!: centre integral d’inclusió, d’emergència social i ambiental” p. 21.

73. Matulic Domandzic, M. V. 2016. de inclusión las personas en la ciudad lona”, p.49

“Procesos social de sin hogar de Barce-

In the same way, access is via a gallery, with a width greater than the standard that allows it to be colonised by the user, as well as ensuring proper ventilation and lighting thanks to the courtyard facing the party wall, as well as the double height of the forgings at the entrance to the dwellings to safeguard their privacy. So to conclude with this analysis, this is why I highlighted this project in my own master’s thesis presentation, because (and always from the freedom of academic protection, bearing in mind that unfortunately it will not be realised) it tries to touch on all the situations that exist in the reality of homelessness in order to propose solutions, more or less effective but with a clear intention. The solution to this problem will not depend, nor can it be allowed to depend, on well-resolved concrete projects, but on urban strategies that combine architecture, space and laws.74 Nevertheless, I think it is important to highlight proposals that go along these lines, especially if they are created by architecture students, as they will be the future of the profession, and therefore, of our cities.

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74. McManus, D. et al 2010. “Breaking down the myths: Providing and managing housing services for homeless people A toolkit for housing practitioners”, p.8

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THE IMPOSSIBLE PATH OF SOCIAL INCLUSIÓN THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL SPACES Fig.144 The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces Made by the author

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4.3.6 Overview At the beginning of this section we showed an infographic of a possible path towards social inclusion through the spaces inhabited during this period by homeless people. This path, at first sight, may seem logical, as each step in some way leads to an improvement in the habitability of these people and, in the same way, progressively eliminates elements of risk. Thus, starting from a street situation with what we could understand as the most complete definition of homelessness, we move on to temporary accommodation in emergency shelters such as the Santa Anna church and many others in the city, both religious and secular, that have been set up for this cause. This is a temporary situation in the broad sense of the word, as assistance is provided during the night so as not to spend the night outdoors, as well as food, but the situation is unstable. The next step could be to live in a squat. This is perhaps a somewhat controversial typology, but in the sense of this study, we would be talking about inhabiting a place and having a roof over one’s head under which to sleep on a more or less fixed basis. From here, as we have seen, the person could begin to rebuild his or her life. 75.

Davis, S. (2004). Designing for the homeless: architecture that works, p.63

Following the progression, temporary housing appears, which is constituted as real housing and is generally governed by the municipality. In this sense, social inclusion is close at hand because of the real possibilities that having a home offers. 75 From this point on, the last step would be to live in a house that is a bridge to social housing. These are usually framed in the context of real social housing or cooperative housing (as we saw previously) with a different configuration from the rest within the same building and occupied under agreement with NGOs and financed with welfare, charity or even political funds. It would therefore be the last step before being fully included in the society. This line of progression seems logical and is clearly marked in a context of personal improvement, however, the evidence suggests that the process tends to go in reverse rather than forwards.

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Starting with the situation in the street, there are many factors that lead a person to live in the street. In any case, without going into the reasons, there are components that prevent a possible improvement of this situation, such as drug dependency. There is a certain level of drug and alcohol consumption among the homeless population and this situation increases the risk of falling into a situation of consumption falling into a recurrent cycle. 76

76.

Rico & Blázquez, 2015: “La intervención con población drogodependiente en situación de calle” p. 110

Similarly, there is a shortage of specific resources for this reality and the few that exist are unknown to the group. This is compounded by the emergence of mental illness. Existing resources are not always able to provide an adequate response to the social exclusion of homeless people with severe mental disorders.77 Mental disorders are also aggravated on the streets due to insecurity, lack of psychiatric treatment, social isolation and lack of economic and social resources.

77. Rochefort, D. A. 1993. “From poorhouses to homelessness: Policy analysis and mental health care”, p.10.

Thus, the combination of physical and mental health problems, as well as substance abuse, make people living on the streets more vulnerable and even condition their access to resources or housing solutions. However, moving on to the next step of living in shelters raises a number of problems. The first of these is, for logical reasons, the total dependence on charity or the allocation of funds that sustain these projects, which are often completely overwhelmed by the high demand they face. Paradoxically, clearing the homeless off our streets has a lot to do with confining them to spaces of control and overcrowding such as shelters, where individuals with religious beliefs are harassed, women are assaulted or forced to live together without privacy.78

78. Ramos, C.L, 2021. “No-habitar la ciuada ci¡ontemporánea. La ciuada que rechaza al sintecho”, p.62.

Many shelters are insecure, and as a result, these people fear for their safety as well as their material possessions. In addition, the shelters have rules and regulations about check-in and check-out times. Many people do not go to hostels because they are required to enter at specific times and perhaps do not have time because they are making a living, as they are not paid.79

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79. Op.cit. Told by the interviewed person

homeless

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This means that this step forward is not only hindered but also eliminated, returning to the starting position. 80. Attout, A., & Cirugeda, S. (2018). Usted está aquí: Recetas urbanas, p.36

The architect Santiago Cirugeda spoke of active and proactive squatters who break the status of private property, taking it towards that of a space for public use, but also of destructive squatter. 80 Therefore, habitability depends on the synergies that are formed, which in the long run end up being negative and toxic, making coexistence difficult and therefore making it possible to return to previous positions. As these activities are self-regulated and managed, they can lead to the breakdown of power roles within them, as well as physical or sexual aggression, as was reported in the Casa Cádiz squat.

81.

Reeve, K. 2011. “Squatting: a homeless issue. An evidence review”, p.21.

82.

Ibid. p.16.

83.

Ibid. p.14.

Moreover, the squatting of buildings by homeless people is mainly an opportunity in the face of worse realities rather than a preference for it. In the same way, it is necessary to recognise that squatting is a manifestation of the need for housing, and is a problem of homelessness and welfare. 81 Thus, according to Kesia Reeve, most homeless people who squat turn to local authorities for help, usually in the first phase of their homeless career, before squatting. We would therefore be taking the step towards the next point, temporary housing. In the face of these requests, most of them are recognised as homeless, but few are entitled to accommodation under the legislation, usually because they are not considered to be in “priority need”, or are considered to be “intentionally homeless”.82 This is particularly worrying given the multiple needs of many homeless people who squat, suggesting that vulnerable homeless people are left without adequate housing support. In the absence of other options, they resort to squatting. 83 We therefore take another step back on the road to social inclusion through architectural spaces. The problem of temporary housing is not about the housing itself, but about access to it. Bureaucratically, this is a very long process in which the applicant lives in practically or totally subhuman conditions. This can be extended by official paperwork or visa issues. It is necessary

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to remember the different situations of homeless people, and there are of course people who come from other countries in an irregular situation. In the same way, there are many requirements to opt for one of these dwellings due to the low supply of them, as well as many others to fulfil while living in them, leaving the homeless person with little autonomy. 84

84.

Ramos, C.L, 2021. “No-habitar la ciuada ci¡ontemporánea. La ciuada que rechaza al sintecho”, p.54

However, the psychological and physical cut-off point between precarious accommodation and stable, albeit temporary, accommodation has already been passed. Having keys, a toilet and shower, as well as a bed helps to preserve and advance in this situation. Even so, in order to take the next step, there are still several requirements to be fulfilled, temporary accommodation solves one problem but leaves other problems such as finding a job to maintain it or to be able to move on. Finding a job starting from a homeless situation is not easy, even if you have worked satisfactorily prior to being on the streets. In the same way, during this period of time, the person has focused on literally surviving and therefore has a lack of training that could allow him/her to opt for a stable job and at the same time, having a job can be the key to opt for access to housing, therefore, we could be going backwards again.85 The lives of many homeless people are marked by the economic crisis, long-term unemployment and precariousness. Faced with a labour market that is as competitive as it is precarious, with low wages and high unemployment rates, the likelihood of getting offers adapted to the needs of homeless people is very slim. However, having a job is the key to regaining an autonomous life. This is the last hurdle before finding housing that really bridges the gap with social housing in which to live with a certain degree of normality. This bridge housing, which is also in short supply, is usually provided by the municipality and therefore depends on the political agreements that are reached, or by NGOs which, once again, depend on charity and the financial contribution of third parties. In any case, only a failure to adapt to a situation of homelessness after a long time in the same situation having taken the necessary steps may not save you from social inclusion, and thus full empowerment as a citizen of the city that previously rejected you simply because you had nowhere else to go.

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85.

Matulic Domandzic, M. V. 2016. “Procesos de inclusión social de las personas sin hogar en la ciudad de Barcelona”, p.72

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

4.4. Relationship between research topic, Cd’A project and proposals Near the beginning of my proposal for the Cultures d’Avenir programme, I took the theme of homelessness as a cross-cutting theme for my Master’s thesis, so the relationship has flowed in both directions, feeding knowledge from one project to the other, feeding back retrospectively. In fact, I understood the development of the European project at all times as part of this work that I am presenting, and therefore the differentiation between one and the other seems to me to be somewhat blurred. The process that has led to the development of this project has been gradual, in line with the writing of the thesis. Thus, it started from a theoretical plane immersed in bibliography on homelessness and its relationship with architectural space. Fig.145

“Publicidad... es que da penita pena.” Avinguda Barcelona

Diagonal,

Photo taken by the author.

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However, the freedom provided by the unrestricted structure of Cd’A, as well as the relationship with colleagues from different artistic disciplines, has led me to take steps forward in aspects of the proposal that I would not have considered from the beginning. I understand that rethinking social problems from an artistic perspective is more complex than from an architectural one, as the aspects are broader and yet less restrictive. Thus, encouraged by the work of my colleagues, I began to investigate the subject that concerns us in first person: visiting charity spaces, voluntary work, hunger queues... In the search for this reality from a more human prism than the purely architectural one, I obtained the keys to the development of this thesis, paradoxically, through the study of architectural spaces as we have seen previously, which I have been able to get to know and analyse in detail thanks to my first-hand knowledge of them. But it is not only these that have led me to continue with the process, but also the testimony of people who frequent them through attending these places and where homeless people find and obtain some resources more or less directly related to their lifestyle. Their contribution, although anonymous, has helped me enormously to get to know the reality that these invisible faces hide, and with it, to build the theoretical line of argument in denouncing it. In fact, from the point of view of Cultures d’Avenir, the project gives rise to a vindictive vision of this reality, previously seen, through artistic practice in the form of quasi-political illustration and precise activism. But the mere idea of capturing the situation through illustrations that are easy to observe and understand, open even to interpretation, led me to redraw the architectural spaces previously exhibited, making them “mine”, and in a way, representing them in a more exquisite way than the original planimetry, generating a certain dissonance between the drawing shown and the reality that exists behind it. And as I said previously, the testimony of the people who live there or have lived there at some point have allowed me to make a more accurate

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critique of it and closer to reality than if I had limited myself to analysing plans and sections from my desk chair. 86.

Quote by Rem Koolhaas on at International Architecture Congress: Climate Change 2016

Rem Koolhass said that architecture has more to do with political action than with beauty.86 In this sense, I would add that political action has to be intrinsically related to social action, and with it, denounce and show by your means that which deserves attention, even more so if it is an issue that is practically in the eyes of society.

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Quote by Linda Lingle, American politician and former governor.

The study of this issue and the involvement in it that has allowed me to do so within the perspective of the international programme has made me realise how invisible homelessness is and how “we have come dangerously close to accepting the situation of the homeless as a problem that we cannot solve”.87 In view of this, as an architect and, perhaps, an artist, I felt the need to share my experience in the study of the relationship of homeless people in an architectural key as a visual vindication, bringing it closer to the political stance Koolhass spoke of, and with it, to show what we are dealing with. Thus, as I said at the beginning, I find the boundary between the two parts of the project too blurred to really differentiate between them, as I would not have conceived one without the other and vice versa, and that perhaps makes the joint relationship shown here make real sense. From this synergy between creative process and study of the subject, I have been able to find some keys to work on when implementing spaces frequented by homeless people, or to arrange for them as actions in the form of part of a global strategy to adopt to improve their living conditions. A series of architectural actions of different scopes and scales are proposed in favour of the adopted discourse summarising the knowledge acquired through this process.

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5.1 Hygienic facilities on temporary housing building The first of the proposals arises as a specific action to be considered as a general strategy. This consists of providing space in temporary residential tactical housing buildings (APROP) that Barcelona City Council is carrying out to improve the living conditions of society, especially the homeless. These could be either in these prototypical buildings that are being built with a structure of maritime containers (one is currently being built in the Glóries area) or in public social housing developments. If we as architects kindly accept that the private energy supply company has premises for its use on the plot on which we work, why not propose spaces for the community according to the needs of the neighbourhood in question?

Fig.146 Location of the project in the historic centre of Barcelona Made by the author.

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Therefore, this first proposal, which is located in the Gothic quarter, within the historic quarter, consists of the creation of a hygiene centre by modifying the ground floor of one of the existing APROP buildings on Carrer Nou de Sant Francesc street that was analysed in previous chapters. The choice of this building is due to the high demand for infrastructure for the homeless in this location in the city, as well as the modular structure with which it is constructed, on the understanding that it could be replicated in subsequent constructions without difficulty. Fig.147 Close location of the project in the Gothic quarter Made by the author.

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Thus, observing how the original proposal is modulated through two container modules, having one of them on the ground floor against the dividing wall and a solution of pillars below, I decide to make a series of modifications to it. The first, and easiest, is the installation of large lockers, modifying the façade solution. This is probably not the most aesthetic option, but if we are used to seeing Amazon and similar lockers in our streets, why not make use of them to make life easier for people at risk of exclusion?

Fig.148 Original plan Made by straddle3 architects.

Fig.149 Current state ground floor plan Drawn by the author

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88.

Taylor, M., & Walsh, E. 2018. “When Corporal Acts Are Labeled Criminal: Lack of Privacy among the Homeless.” Sociology Mind, 08, 130–142.

Many homeless people have to carry most or all of their belongings with them when carrying out any activity as the risk of them disappearing if they leave them somewhere is too high even if they are not too valuable88 so this is an optimal, convenient and cheap solution to make a better community.

Fig.150 Installation of lockers of different sizes on the new modified ground floor. Made by the author

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In the same way, a hygiene centre is created in the space of a container, with a flexible timetable, so that it is not restrictive for the people who use it and their living conditions. This is due to the double security door as well as the personal control. It is something that is feasible and that does not happen due to lack of money, therefore, it is an action that is both architecturally and politically vindicating. The architect has to be present in the politics of the city for its improvement as well as the improvement of the habitability of the inhabitants.

Fig.151 Existing building with modified ground floor with barber’s shop and space for volunteer management, as well as a vertical garden in the party wall of the new square. Made by the author.

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Intervention ground floor plan Made by the author

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As mentioned above, a series of toilets, seating space and washbasins are located in the space of a container, as well as a series of showers, both open and more private. In the same way, in the space connecting the two services, there is a passage and control area, hangers and an electric radiator for drying clothes, and a rear cupboard to store the elements necessary for the operation of it. In addition, natural lighting and cross ventilation is provided in this small complex as high elevation windows are located on each of the facades, making the space more pleasant and hygienic. Therefore, its application is easily replicable in future APROP buildings, even more so if they have more modules than this first prototype I am working on, being able to make a mix of uses for both private community space and for the local community, as well as for the most disadvantaged. Fig.153 Container capacity plus external services programme. Made by the author.

In the same way, it is proposed to open this space towards the inner courtyard, which has an access door for the inhabitants, making it easy to control the passage of the inhabitants without intruders gaining access to the upper floors. The ensemble would be completed with a modification of the original small room to create a social hairdressing space that could be associated with a

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local academy as a method of empowerment between the two parties, as well as a laundry area connected to the control room of the entire hygiene resource centre. In addition, it is proposed to act in the public space in front of the building, creating a vertical garden on the dividing wall that is currently covered with plaster and graffiti, as well as using different paving and planting trees to create shade on modular furniture that does not give rise to anti-homeless practices. Thus, a proposal is crystallised that combines the problems described above with local action as an example of a global strategy when it comes to creating more inclusive neighbourhoods and cities with all the inhabitants in them, proposing simple gestures such as placing lockers large enough for a homeless person to leave their belongings in safety, as well as the creation of a service in demand such as hygiene, which is restricted to timetables that are not very compatible with the reality of this group in all its diversity, the promotion of local trades such as hairdressing and the creation of an improvement in urban space for all those who pass through and inhabit it. Fig.154

Intervention axonometry Made by the author.

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Intervention Section AA’ Made by the author

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Intervention Section BB’ Made by the author

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5.2 Comprehensive centre for the homeless 5.2.1 Location+Action The second proposal is presented as a more complete and at the same time complex project than the previous one, as it attempts to bring together the maximum points dealt with in the study of the subject of this thesis and its crystallisation in the form of an architectural project. It is located in the Ciutat Vella district, one of the districts most affected by street homelessness, like the Gothic quarter and the Raval, in the vicinity of the church of Santa Anna, which, as we analysed in previous paragraphs, carries out a commendable humanitarian work by giving up and arranging spaces in the church for the homeless. Fig.157 Location of the project in the historic centre of Barcelona Made by the author.

The first of the points that we can understand as “action” itself is the location itself. As we reported in the overview, the demand for resources for these people is unfortunately much greater than the available supply, which means that the treatment cannot be comprehensive and therefore, these people return to the street. However, when they do get some kind of help, they stay in the vicinity of

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the centres, where the resources are concentrated, and for this reason, I understand that it is essential to create proximity facilities that implement the help and action provided. Moreover, this parish is close to Las Ramblas, Plaça de Catalunya and Portal de l’Àngel street, which have a large number of shops whose doors, once closed, are turned into improvised homeless camps until the next day’s opening time. Thus, in this location, two principles are combined: implementing assistance in places where it was already being carried out and creating proximity facilities that feed back into this first action. Fig.158

Location of the project in the historic centre of Barcelona (II) Made by the author.

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Fig.159 Homeless person sleeping rough at the doors of El Corte Inglés - Plaça Catalunya Photo taken by the author

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Homeless people sleeping at the doors of El Corte Inglés - Plaça Catalunya Photo taken by the author

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As we can see, the result of this location is not accidental, on the one hand these people find accommodation under large covered spaces that allow them to shelter from the rain, they do not find anti-homeless elements as they are places of passage with a large influx of people during the day, they are close to the places where resources are provided in the historic centre and it is also where they usually spend the day taking advantage of the opportunity to ask for a coin, logically where the largest number of tourists in the city accumulates. Moreover, by choosing this location, a respite is provided to the church, which even during visiting hours is in the following way and does not have the means or the space to accommodate as many people as it needs. Even the administrative work takes place in chapels inside the church, detracting from the architectural ensemble, which is trying to be solved in the same way. Fig.161 Interior of Santa Anna church during visiting hours With blankets and homeless people’s belongings Photo taken by the author

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Fig.162 Overall site plan. Made by Comprenhensive the centre for the homeless author 195

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Fig.163 Overall site plan with intervention Comprenhensive centre for the homeless Made by the author 197

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The choice of the plots on which to act is influenced by two basic factors. The first is a logical consequence of its proximity to the church, as well as the interior space in the form of a square after crossing the arch of the former house of the church canons. The second is their condition. Firstly, from Santa Anna street it can be seen how these buildings are in a high degree of deterioration, especially if we are talking about a central location in the city, and furthermore, the ground floor of these buildings is occupied by commercial premises for tourists, making it better to change them. In the same way, the building facing inland, the Plaçeta de Ramon Andreu, is a party wall with small openings that practically overlaps the church. The successive growth of the city has gradually cloistered the religious building until it is practically hidden among a series of buildings of great height in comparison with the parish church and of little architectural value. Fig.164 Carrer Santa Anna facade of choosen buildings Photo taken by the author

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Fig.165

Plaçeta Ramon Amadeu facade of choosen building Photo taken by the author

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Plaçeta Ramon Amadeu facade of choosen building (II) Photo taken by the author

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Fig.167

Intervened pre-existence plan Made by the author

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Fig.168 Ground floor plan of the intervention Made by the author

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Fig.169 First floor plan of the intervention Made by the author

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Fig.170 Upper floors plan of the intervention Made by the author

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As can be seen in the planimetry provided, the centre is crystallised in an integral manner in the buildings highlighted and the programmatic development is consolidated according to the theoretical and human approaches perceived and learnt during the study of the subject. We thus observe a ground floor that operates as a basic service space that, besides helping the work of the adjoining parish, implements its development, proposing a dining room and complete kitchen, relocating the existing one in the cloister of the church with the consequent climatic aggravation to which it is subjected, opening it up to the Plaçeta de Ramon Amadeu, thus improving this space from being a place of passage prior to the chapel to a nexus of union between the two spaces. In the same way, on the façade with Carrer de Santa Anna street, a vocational training classroom has been created in which the people from the centre can begin their inclusion in society by learning a trade that will allow them to earn an income that will in turn open the doors to a decent residence. The theme of the workshop will therefore be variable and can be linked to the workshop room if necessary. In addition, with the entrance through the Plaçeta, the programme development is complemented with services that I understand to be of basic necessity when dealing with this group. One of them, as previously shown, is the space for lockers and storage of belongings. 89.

Panadero-Herrero, S., & Muñoz-López, M. 2014. “Salud, calidad de vida y consumo de sustancias en función del tiempo en situación sin hogar”, p.2

Likewise, it is proposed to create space for psychological-behavioural therapy by social workers and public social-health staff, such as a room for group therapy to deal with addiction issues if the users so wish, as well as rooms for individualised attention.89 The ground floor is completed with an interior courtyard which, in addition to providing light and ventilation, serves as a relaxing space open to the outside but at the same time secluded, and at the same time, allows users who have a pet to have a place where they can leave it in the care and company of others. The ground floor is complemented with the upper floor where accommodation is provided in the form of a temporary shelter with different conditions to those that can be found inside the church during the night, thus opening up to the particular needs of each user with ample natural light, as well as a communal space linked to an outdoor

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terrace connected to the lower courtyard, creating a large space in which to spend time in company in a pleasant way away from the exposure of the public thoroughfare. In the same way, the creation of a space of bathrooms that improve the performance of the existing ones in the parish by means of portable toilets for the homeless, as well as the creation of a series of single or double rooms that can be used indistinctly by users who meet the requirements for the same according to their profile and needs, or for workers of the centre. On the upper floors, housing is created following the Housing First model, which offers permanent housing with support and socio-educational monitoring for homeless people and those in a situation of severe social exclusion. The programme is aimed at people in a situation of chronic homelessness, with a long history of living on the street or occasionally in residential resources, who have not established ties and have serious mental health problems or addictions. Housing First is an alternative to a system of emergency shelter/transitional housing progressions. Rather than moving homeless individuals through different “levels” of housing, whereby each level moves them closer to “independent housing” (for example: from the streets to a public shelter, and from a public shelter to a transitional housing program, and from there to their own apartment in the community). Housing First model moves the homeless individual or household immediately from the streets or homeless shelters into their own accommodation. The aim is to contribute to the Barcelona City Council’s plan, “Primer la llar”, as a model of intervention with the city’s homeless, which essentially proposes to support the work of social educators and mental health staff by providing homeless people with what they need first: a home. So the goal here is to initiate a process of recovery and improvement of the person’s quality of life so that they can remain in the home with no other support than the normalised network of services, to achieve personal and economic autonomy, the recovery of personal self-care skills, the reestablishment of social and family relationships, and an improvement in their relationship with their environment.

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Fig.171 Current facade

5.2.3 Elevation&Sections

Drawn by the author

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Fig.172 Façade during renovation works Made by the author

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Fig.173

Intervention. Front elevation facade plan Made by the author

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Fig.174

Intervention. Lateral elevation plan Made by the author

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Fig.175 Rear elevation. Section 00’. Made by the author Implementation of spaces for homeless people

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Fig.176 Rehabilitated and new facades generation. Made by the author

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Fig.177 Front elevation variations. process

Working

Made by the author

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Fig.178 Section of the existing building. Made by the author Implementation of spaces for homeless people

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Fig.179 Section AA’. Made by the author Implementation of spaces for homeless people

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Fig.180 Section BB’. Made by the author Implementation of spaces for homeless people

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Fig.181 Section CC’. Made by the author Implementation of spaces for homeless people

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Fig.182 Section DD’. Made by the author Implementation of spaces for homeless people

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5.2.3 Explanation+Images As shown in the main elevation, the project is framed to the right of “L’antiga casa dels canonges de Santa Anna”, an original 15th-century building protected by the law on the architectural heritage of Catalonia that precedes the church of Santa Anna and is accessed through an opening situated in the right-hand corner of the building with a large door that leads to the Plaçeta de Ramon Amadeu. Extracted from Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic.

With a ground floor plus five floors, the openings follow a regular rhythm

Direcció General del Patrimoni Cultural de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

openings and the spaces between them with motifs such as garlands,

90.

combining doors with windows, all of which are lintelled. Furthermore, as a distinctive element, the facade is decorated with sgraffiti framing the medallions or plant elements.90 The other adjoining building is of more recent creation, with a nineteenthcentury appearance and a large ground floor with commercial premises and four upper floors in which the rhythm of openings is symmetrical and has a broad formal and material presence, as it links up with the street Portal de l’Angel. As a catalyst of both styles, it has been decided to maintain and restore the current facades, matching the tone of the stucco with which the walls are covered, with slight modifications in the openings and replacement of the carpentry to obtain better energy efficiency, in addition to a homogenization of the whole project without losing the essence of the existing ones. In addition, the first floor of the blocks on which work is being done is unified, adapting to the planned program, presenting a materiality of wood and glass sheets combined in a non-symmetrical way. In the rear elevation the proposal is presented as a body composed of prefabricated sandwich panels of polished concrete in which the openings maintain a constant rhythm in which there are large balcony windows that reach from floor to ceiling and in which, although there is no balcony, the interior space is set back a few centimeters to give them presence, preceded by slatted wooden doors (repeating the model of the first floor on the facade). In addition, despite the classical composition, some of the openings are replaced by a horizontally openwork concrete panel (resembling the

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wooden doors), breaking with the layout of the upper volume. Looking at the AA’ section through the soup kitchen space, it can be seen that it is fully connected to the inner plaza, being a semi-public place belonging to the church that is shown as a safe space in the middle of the city centre for the homeless. Fig.183 Soup kitchen interior design (I) Made by the author

Fig.184 Soup kitchen interior design (II) Made by the author

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In addition, the first floors come into contact with the church itself as they are at present, showing an appropriate façade instead of a rear appearance; however, the upper dwellings that follow the Housing First model are set back in height, giving air space, and thus light, to the church, which is currently embedded among a multitude of buildings. This in turn allows the creation of an inner courtyard for the integral centre for homeless people, following in some way the simile with the cloister of the church, as well as the creation of a terrace on the upper floor for the same purpose as can be seen in sections BB’ and CC’.

Fig.185 Inner courtyard (I) Made by the author

Fig.186 Inner courtyard (II) Made by the author

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It also makes it possible to fully illuminate the lower floors, including the ground floor by means of skylights as shown in section DD’, creating cross ventilation and lighting throughout the project, improving the hygienic conditions and thus the quality of life of the users. As shown in all this planimetry, and as previously highlighted in the explanation of the opening rhythms, the upper floors acquire different configurations typical of a versatile complex capable of adapting to the requirements of the users and not the other way round, as is usually the case

interspersing functional spaces with other uses according to the

90.

Garnier, J. 2011. “Del derecho a la vivienda al derecho a la ciudad: ¿De qué derechos hablamos... y con qué derecho?”. P.6

requirements demanded. Under Housing First, housing is provided as a basic human right, not as a

91. Pleace, N. (2016).

reward for sobriety or psychiatric treatment. People do not have to earn

“The Housing First Guide - Europe.”P.7.

housing or prove that they are ready for housing and deserve it, offering users immediate access to housing as a matter of rights: addressing the injustice of poverty, giving the most unfortunate people a chance, and alleviating the immediate suffering of homeless people immediate relief for the homeless.91

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“Housing First” housing bedroom Made by the author

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VI. CONCLUSIONS The participation in the Cultures d’Avenir project and its development has been truly stimulating for me in the contact around different themes with people of different ages, backgrounds and cultures that, despite the density of the workshops, I understand as the general feeling of satisfaction with the work done during the duration of the project. In addition, addressing the problem of homelessness through Cultures d’Avenir from an artistic perspective has allowed me to understand art, or artistic practice, as a methodology or tool through which thought takes shape, is spun and exposed, and not as a finished product. And likewise, if it had not been for the perspective gained through the practice of my colleagues, both in their projects and in their previous work, mine would not have developed in the way it has been exposed. Thus, it has been easy for me to link my “artistic” practice with the architectural work present in this work, as one could not really understand the proposals made without the conception of this problematic from a more open and abstract point of view through which to explore different perspectives and solutions. In this sense, and being something that I formulated in the introduction to this thesis, I have felt a bit of an artist, not only during the duration of Cultures d’Avenir, but in the whole process after it in which the architectural proposals were crystallising, as they could not have reached such a point, both conceptual and formal, without the previous digression that the European programme has allowed me to carry out. Nevertheless, all this development has led me to understand in a more accurate way the difficulty of facing homelessness, as it derives from many variables and conditions, both proper and foreign, that unite to form a great (and silent) social problem. The paradoxical thing is, in my perception, that homelessness is not the problem, but one of the many realities of our society, and that the real problem lies in the lack of an overall strategy to tackle it.

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There are multiple reasons why a person can end up on the street, and yet they end up being the same or directly correlated. Thus, the main causes are the loss of employment, the seizure of bank accounts and housing, problems in personal relationships and others such as drug addiction.92 From this point, it is logical to think that if a person loses their job they will end up with their home repossessed, which can lead to problems with their partner, or become dependent on certain substances, and at the same time, the process could be the reverse and the final situation would still be the same: homelessness. The study of this subject during the whole process of carrying out this work, as well as direct contact with these people has allowed me to observe how each case is unique and special, and, nevertheless, I understand that the answers have to be general, structural and transversal. This is where I understand that the architect’s work as a servant of society comes in. Nowadays, and this is a phenomenon that is growing all the time, we live in cities where the poor are rejected and ignored, and even the homeless are punished, not only with the whip of indifference, but with anti-homeless practices to remove them from the places where the rest of the (non-stigmatised) citizens go about their public life, not to mention how bad they look to the tourists who visit us. Faced with the response of expulsion that manifests itself in our neighbourhoods, what these people need is help and quality care, which in many cases does not happen, and this is one of the points on which I have worked through my proposals. In this sense, I believe it is important to focus on creating services of real proximity to the existing situation on the streets. In other words, looking at the map of available resources, a large number of homeless people are found on the outskirts of the city, while the majority of homeless people live in the historic centre.

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Matulic Domandzic, M. V. 2016. “Procesos de inclusión social de las personas sin hogar en la ciudad de Barcelona”, p.310

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Therefore, the solution can never be to send them to the outskirts of the city, trying to remove the problem and eliminate a nuisance in the “props” of our streets, while in this same space there are a whole series of activities that are far removed from the reality of the city itself and the citizen. Far from the local action of associations, NGOs and foundations in spaces of opportunity arranged for the cause, city administrators, town councils and political powers have to put on the table suitable places in which architects can intervene to create space where they can satisfactorily attend to these people, and other professionals can carry out their work with them, in the form of integral cooperation in the design in accordance with the real needs and demands. In this sense, we should have a say in the real decisions of city design, being closer to the policies and positions of government to propose what city we want and for whom. To this end, it would be interesting to create a criterion in relation to land for the development of new social housing or VPO’s in which, in agreement with the municipality, a reserve of space is set aside for the creation and implementation of services of interest to the citizen. At the moment we are talking about services for the homeless people, as has been dealt with in the modification of the APROP project, but in the future it could correspond to any other noble cause for which it may be necessary. This brings us unequivocally to the second point I have been working on: housing policy. It is clear, however difficult it may seem, that the structural solution to homelessness is housing, but there are two scenarios; the first is that of the ladder, or what I have called the impossible path to social inclusion, in which the person in question makes merits in order to climb the ladder and finally gain access to housing. However, this is visibly a failed method because, as we have seen during this work, the conditions are favourable for this ladder to be

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infinite93, not to mention the lack of housing to choose from, despite the fact that there are many empty houses in our geography in the hands of banks and speculators. The second is to follow the Housing First model, that is to place people in housing, and only if they are not able to support themselves, to evict them. This is a tried and tested method in countries with a high rate of homelessness such as the USA, as well as in the Nordic European countries where the welfare state is much more efficient. 94 However, if reaching the end of the first scenario proves to be complicated, access to housing at the outset would seem completely unthinkable. This is where architects have to influence the administrations, keeping in touch with real needs, and proposing spaces that, once built, are as versatile as possible to adapt to the multiple situations that can lead a person to be homeless. Thus, the process must be gradual, thinking about what city we want and for whom we want it, making vulnerable groups visible and working to build and adapt quality spaces for satisfactory initial care or the optimal use of resources, bearing in mind that the structural policy must be that of housing, following the examples that have been shown to be effective.

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93. Pleace, N. (2016). “The Housing First Guide - Europe.”P.14.

94.

Fernàndez Evangelista, G. 2016. “El acceso a la vivienda social de las personas sin hogar. Estudio de casos: Alemania, España, Finlandia y Reino Unido.”

Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture - Master’s thesis

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY. TABLE OF FIGURES · Books -Attout, Alice and Cirugeda, Santiago. 2018. Usted está aquí: Recetas urbanas 2018 (A. Attout & S. Cirugeda, Eds.) Editorial Musac. - Davis, Sam. 2004. Designing for the homeless:architecture that works. University of California Press, CA - Joseph, Isaac. 1988. Le Passant considérable. Essai sur la dispersion de l’espace public. Jeunes urbains ès qualités. Les Annales de la Recherche Urbaine - Kotnik, Jure. 2008. Container architecture. Barcelona Editorial Links Books. - Lefebre, Henri. 1969. El derecho a la ciudad. Barcelona. Editorial Península. - Lis, Catharina and Soly, Hugo. 1985. Pobreza y capitalismo en la Europa preindustrial (1350-1850) (Vol. 66). Madrid: Ediciones AKAL. - Maza Zorrilla, Elena . 1987. Pobreza y asistencia social en España. Siglos XVI al XX. Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid. - Padgett, Deborah K., Henwood, Benjamin F., and Tsemberis, Sam J. 2015. Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Transforming Systems, and Changing Lives. Oxford University Press. - Pallasmaa, Juhani. 2016. Habitar. Barcelona. Editorial Gustavo Gili. - Preiser, Wolfgang. F. E., Vischer, Jacqueline, & White, Edward. 2015. Design intervention : toward a more humane architecture (W. F. E. Preiser, J. Vischer, & E. T. White, Eds.). Routledge. - Rochefort, David. A. 1993. From poorhouses to homelessness: Policy analysis and mental health care. Auburn House/Greenwood Publishing Group. - Siza, Álvaro. 2004. Álvaro Siza:Casas 1954-2004 (A. Cianchetta & E. Molteni, Eds.) Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili. - Vidal, Pau. 2003. Homeless. Barcelona. Editorial Empúries. · Journal Article -Brodaski, Mark, Campanelli, Ralph and Zabinski, Kevin. 2010. “Shipping Container Emergency Shelters A Major Qualifying Project Report”. WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE PROJECT NUMBER RP-0109 - Fortea Busquets, Carme, and Herruz Pamies, Lourdes. 2017. Primer la Llar: aplicación del modelo Housing First en la ciudad de Barcelona. Primeras reflexiones. ZERBITZUAN, 64, 239–253. https://doi.org/10.5569/1134-7147.64.17

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- Garnier, Jean Pierre. 2011. “Del derecho a la vivienda al derecho a la ciudad: ¿De qué derechos hablamos… y con qué derecho?”. Biblio3W. Revista Bibliográfica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad de Barcelona, Vol. XVI, nº 909, 5 de febrero 2011. <http:// www.ub.es/geocrit/b3w-909.htm>. [ISSN 1138-9796]. - Mantecón, Tomás Antonio. 1997. “Los pobres y sus actitudes en la temprana Edad Moderna” en Debats, 60. Barcelona: Alfons El Magnanim, pp.91-106. - Panadero-Herrero, Sonia, & Muñoz-López, Manuel. 2014. “Salud, calidad de vida y consumo de sustancias en función del tiempo en situación sin hogar. Anales de Psicología, 30(1), 70–77. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.30.1.137911 - Pleace, Nicholas. 2016. “The Housing First Guide - Europe.” FEANTSA. New York University. https://housingfirsteurope.eu/assets/files/2016/11/Gui%CC%81a-HousingFirst-Europa.pdf - Reeve, Kesia and Coward, Sarah. 2004 . “Hidden homelessness: life on the margins the experiences of homeless people living in squats.” Crisis. Sheffield Hallam University http://shura.shu.ac.uk/27274/ - Reeve, Kesia. 2011. “Squatting: a homeless issue. An evidence review.” Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research. Sheffield Hallam University. https://www.crisis. org.uk/media/236930/squatting_a_homelessness_issue_2011.pdf - Rico, Susana G. and Blázquez, David Arévalo. 2015 . “La intervención con población drogodependiente en situación de calle.” Documentos de trabajo social: Revista de trabajo y acción social, (56), 94-112. ISSN 1133-6552 - Rubio Martin, José, Cabrera Cabrera, Pedro, and Velasco Fernández, Elena. 2007. “Las personas sin hogar en la Comunidad de Madrid: hacia la invisibilidad de la exclusión social extrema más allá de las fronteras de las grandes metrópolis.” Universitas:Revista de Filosofía, Derecho y Política, ISSN 1698-7950, No. 6, 2007, Pags. 107-126. http://hdl. handle.net/10016/8813 - Smith, Naomi, and Walters, Peter. 2018. “Desire lines and defensive architecture in modern urban environments”. Urban Studies, 55(13), 2980–2995. https://doi. org/10.1177/0042098017732690 - Taylor, Matthew R., and Walsh, Ellen. 2018. When Corporal Acts Are Labeled Criminal: Lack of Privacy among the Homeless. Sociology Mind, 08, 130–142. https://doi.org/10.4236/ sm.2018.82011 - Zieleniec, Andrezej. 2018. “Lefebvre’s politics of space: Planning the urban as oeuvre” Urban Planning, 3(3), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v3i3.1343 · Academic Works - Fernàndez Evangelista, Guillem. 2016. “El acceso a la vivienda social de las personas sin hogar. Estudio de casos: Alemania, España, Finlandia y Reino Unido.” PhD thesis diss., TDX (Tesis Doctorals En Xarxa). http://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/368566 - Matulic Domandzic, María Virginia. V. 2016. “Procesos de inclusión social de las personas sin hogar en la ciudad de Barcelona: relatos de vida y acompañamiento social”. PhD thesis diss., Universitat de Barcelona. http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/102104/

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- Pascual i Ferrusola, Eira. 2021. “Barcelona desperta!: centre integral d’inclusió, d’emergència social i ambiental.” Máster’s thesis (PFC) diss., Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. http://hdl.handle.net/2117/353091 - Chamorro Ramos, Carmen Lucía. 2021. “No-habitar en la ciudad contemporánea. La ciudad que rechaza al sintecho.” Bachelor’s thesis (TFG) diss., Universidad Politécnica de Madrid https://oa.upm.es/67122/ · Newspaper Article - Blanchar, Clara. “APROP: Barcelona estrena los primeros pisos sociales fabricados con contenedores de barco” EL PAÍS Catalunña. Decembre 16, 2019 https://elpais.com/ ccaa/2019/12/16/catalunya/1576490911_461954.html - Bosch, Rosa María. “La parroquia de Santa Anna ofrece alojamiento a los sintecho durante el temporal”. LaVanguardia. January 21, 2020 https://www.lavanguardia. com/local/20200121/473029060131/gloria-temporal-sintecho-parroquia-santa-annabarcelona.html - Editorial. “La parroquia de Santa Anna abre de noche para acoger a indigentes”. El Periódico. January 19, 2017 https://www.elperiodico.com/es/barcelona/20170118/laparroquia-de-santa-anna-abre-de-noche-para-acoger-a-indigentes-5750960 - Collel, Elisenda “Santa Anna, l’església sense fronteres de Barcelona”. El Periódico. July 21, 2021 https://www.elperiodico.cat/ca/barcelona/20210721/santa-anna-esglesiafronteres-barcelona-11927734 - EUROPA PRESS “Dos mujeres denuncian abusos sexuales de otro residente de Okupa Casa Cádiz de Barcelona.” EuropaPress/Catalunya. June 4, 2020 https://www.europapress. es/catalunya/noticia-dos-mujeres-denuncian-abusos-sexuales-otro-residente-okupacasa-cadiz-barcelona-20200604131146.html - Herández, Nacho “La pandemia de los invisibles”. Ethic. March 12, 2021 https://ethic. es/2021/03/la-pandemia-de-los-invisibles/ - Farré, Natàlia. “La pequeña gran historia de Santa Anna.” El Periódico. January 5, 2021 https://www.elperiodico.com/es/barcelona/20210105/exposicion-maria-contreras-collhospital-capmanya-santa-anna-11436497 - Merino, Olga. “Una república gaditana y a su aire en Barcelona.” El Periódico. November 8, 2019 https://www.elperiodico.com/es/barcelona/20190111/barceloneando-olgamerino-casa-cadiz-barcelona-7240878 - Rocasalva, Anna “Casa Cádiz, de hogar ‘okupa’ a culebrón dantesco.” Metropoli Abierta l Barcelona. September 9, 2020 https://www.metropoliabierta.com/el-pulso-de-laciudad/casa-cadiz-hogar-okupa-culebron-dantesco_30730_102.html · Websites - APROP | straddle3. https://straddle3.net - Arrels Fundació - https://www.arrelsfundacio.org/es/

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- Hospital de Campanya a Barcelona | Església Santa Anna. https://www.santaanna.org/ - Museum of Homelessness. https://museumofhomelessness.org/ - Podrías ser tú | XAPSLL | https://www.sensellarisme.cat/es/ - Premis FAD http://arquinfad.org - Sostre Cívic: el cooperativisme comença a casa! https://sostrecivic.coop/ · Reports - FEANTSA. 2010. “Ending Homelessness: A Handbook for Policy Makers European Year”. European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless https://www. feantsa.org/download/feantsa_handbook_en_final-2-15169925525089897430.pdf - FEANTSA. 2005. “ETHOS - European Typology of Homelessness and housing exclusion” European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless https://www. feantsa.org/download/en-16822651433655843804.pdf - Fortea, Carme. 2005: “Programa Municipal d’Atenció a Persones sense sostre.” Barcelona, . http://www.bcn.cat/barcelonainclusiva/docs/cat/atencio_persones_sense_sostre.pdf - McManus, Donald, Malone, Andrew, Ruszova Petra, François Carriou,, John Evans, Maria-José Aldanas, and Pascal De Decker. 2010. “Breaking down the myths: Providing and managing housing services for homeless people A toolkit for housing practitioners” European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless https://www. feantsa.org/download/final_housing_toolkit_en-34218477480056062890.pdf - XAPSLL. 2016. “El recuento de 2016”, Barcelona, Xarxa d’Atenció a Persones Sense Llar http://sensellarisme.cat/es/el-recuento-de-2016/

. About the bibliography Addressing homelessness theoretically from an architectural perspective has not been an easy task. As we have been able to see throughout the work, and in this bibliography as a summary of it, there are multiple factors that lead to this situation or exacerbate it. In this sense, reviewing the literature written on the subject from the prism I was most interested in, the relationship between homeless people and the space they inhabit, is certainly scarce. There are hardly any books written about it per se, apart from Sam Davis’s, which happens to be a compendium of projects carried out in the USA where the overall situation is most desperate. However, it has been really interesting and stimulating to create a global vision through reading and study from different points such as the history of this phenomenon, the social and human factor that surrounds it, the narration of the situation through the press, the problems that accentuate the inequality or the policies used and to be used to alleviate it, among other issues. In this sense, I believe that a bibliography nourished by many different aspects of a problem has been generated, which has led me to develop the work to this point, and which, I hope, can be of use to other architects in their study of this subject.

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· Imputs In addition to the bibliography contained in this chapter, there have been a number of annexes to the chapter in the form of inputs that are worth noting. - Interview with Teo Klug who is engaged in the “Initiative Sommerpaket” being a collective of workers in the context of homelessness - Interview with Albert ********, homeless person from Barcelona who inspired me to take an artistic approach to the subject. - Monthly meeting of students at the Arrels Foundation (March 30,2022) and subsequent visit to its facilities. - Two visits to the squat house “Casa Cádiz” to draw its spaces and to talk with some of the residents about that place. - Visit and talk with volunteers from the Sant Joan de Déu Serveis Socials social services centre in Barcelona. - Talks with the people who receive help from the “Reina de la Paz” soup kitchen. - Visits and talks with the volunteers who help young people under guardianship in the parish of Santa Anna. - Help provided by the managers of the “Hospital de Campanya” in Santa Anna to understand the situation and the action they are taking. - Testimony of homeless people on the day of my visit (Feb.22) to the Associació Can Roger - The opening of the doors of Projecte Sostre to learn about its project for people who have decided to take a first step towards leaving street life, as well as the testimonies of residents.

· TABLE OF FIGURES Fig.1. Fig.2 Fig.3 Fig.4 Fig.5 Fig.6 Fig.7 Fig.8 Fig.9 Fig.10 Fig.11 Fig.12 Fig.13. Fig.14 Fig.15 Fig.16 Fig.17 Fig.18 Fig.19 Fig.20 Fig.21

Cultures d’Avenir mapping. Made by the author. Resources extracted from ShutterStock. (Oct.2021) QR code containing the file with detailed mentor information. (Oct.2021) Mentors: Leila Haghighat .Extracted from the official presentation file of the programme. (Oct.2021) Mentors: Caroline Delboy. Extracted from the official presentation file of the programme. (Oct.2021) Mentors: Bani Brusadin.Extracted from the official presentation file of the programme. (Oct.2021) QR code containing the file with detailed list and participant information.(Oct.2021) Group photography made in Paris. Extracted from CCCB Twitter account @cececebe.(Nov.2021) QR code of the official programme (París) PDF.(Oct.2021) Hostel Les MIJE Fourcy Paris where we were hosted. Extracted from Association MIJE.(Sep.2019) Centre Georges Pompidou principal facade, centre of the activities. Photo taken by the author.(Nov.2021) Centre Georges Pompidou 4th floor corridor. Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier. (Nov.2021) Carolina Arantes’ videoconference online.Photo taken by CCCB Twitter account. @cececebe. (Nov.2021) Lucy+Orta conference at Centre Pompidou.Photo taken by “OFAJ- DFJW Twitter account.(Nov.2021) Link to the official video by OFAJ - DFJW of Paris workshops. (Jan.2022) Thematic visit of the museum on gender&parity. Photo taken by the author. (Nov.2021) Participants during a break on the 5th floor’s terrace. Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier. (Nov.2021) Participants attending a conference. Photo taken by “OFAJ- DFJW. @ofaj_dfjw.(Nov.2021) Jon de la Rica and Elena Carillo’s workshop. Photo taken by “OFAJ- DFJW Twitter account.(Nov.2021) I. Mercier & L. Brzezowska-Dudek’s conference.Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier.(Nov.2021) Mal - Enbriaguez Divina. Photo taken by the author.(Nov.2021) Participants (author included) having a beer. Photo taken by Patrick Pollmeier.(Nov.2021)

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Fig.22 Fig.23 Fig.24 Fig.25 Fig.26 Fig.27 Fig.28 Fig.29 Fig.30 Fig.31 Fig.32 Fig.33 Fig.34. Fig.35 Fig.36 Fig.37 Fig.38 Fig.39. Fig.40 Fig.41 Fig.42 Fig.43 Fig.44 Fig.45 Fig.46 Fig.47 Fig.48 Fig.49 Fig.50 Fig.51 Fig.52 Fig.53 Fig.54 Fig.55 Fig. 56 Fig.57 Fig.58 Fig.59 Fig.60 Fig.61 Fig.62 Fig.63 Fig.64 Fig.65 Fig.66 Fig.67 Fig.68 Fig.69 Fig.70 Fig.71 Fig.72 Fig.73 Fig.74 Fig.75 Fig.76 Fig.77

Last day meeting when choosing the topics to work on. Unknown author. (Nov.2021) Welcoming cocktail at Centre Pompiduo. Photo taken by “OFAJ- DFJW Twitter account. (Nov.2021) QR code of the official programme (Berlin) PDF. (Dic.2021) Miro’s display created to work on the projects. Screenshot taken by author. (Dic.2021) Online platform created to develop the workshop from Berlin. Screenshot taken by author. (Jan.2022) Gudrun Lintzel’s interview. Extracted from Archive of Refuge’s archive in HKW.(Jan.2022) Bernd Scherer’s (HKW director) presentation. Screenshot taken by author. (Jan.2022) Hester Dibbets’ workshop on emotional networking. Screenshot taken by author. (Jan.2022) Melting spaces: Whrn restrictions became options by Gila Kolb. (Jan.2022) Image from Teo’s Initiative Sommerpaket with homeless people. Extracted by own Teo’s blog. (Jan.2022) Miro’s platform display. Screened by the author, resources in common. (Jan.2022) QR code of the official programme (Barcelona) PDF. (Feb.2022) #3 Season Finale. Extracted by official progamme, edited by the author. (Mar.2022) Welcome by CCCB team and Anna Moreno at CCCB building. Photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) Meeting with Berta Gutiérrez at Barcelona seaside. Photo taken by Eman Badir. (Mar.2022) Final of the activity with architect Berta Gutiérrez. Photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) Max Herzogenrath and the author presenting. Photo taken by Claudia García de Val. (Mar.2022) Participants carrying out the exercise proposed. Photo taken by Eman Badir. (Mar.2022) Sickness of Time projection on mental health topic. Photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) What is nature? projection on enviromental issues Teatre CCCB. Photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) Carrying out the exercise proposed on nature and enviroment.Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) Tanit Planas’ warm exercise at Sala Raval. Photo taken by CCCB Twitter account. @cececebe (Mar.2022) Martin Kaulen presenting during CCCB workshop. Photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) “To the salted soul I speak” on mental illness topic. Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) Fast Fashion exercise on enviromental issues at Teatre CCCB. Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) Roundtable with intitutions’ directors. Photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) Participants reading the manifesto with the centres directors.Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) Rotation! manifestom about artist issues. Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) “Between melodies” projection. Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) Meeting with the philosopher Marina Gracés at Sala Raval. Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) Farewell activity of Cultures d’Avenir at Barcelona. Photo taken by Eman Badir.(Mar.2022) Cultures d’Avenir group farewelling picture (I). Unknown author.(Mar.2022) Cultures d’Avenir group farewelling picture (II). Unknown author.(Mar.2022) Own production on Nikolái Suetin’s russian suprematism composition. Made by the author.(Mar.2022) HOPE(HOME) LESS. Made by the author. (May 2022) Extraction of the mentioned projection. Made by the author. (Feb.2022) “Inhabiting in inhumane conditions”.Made by the author. Photo taken by the author. (Feb.2022) “What Is Homelessness?” by Steph Evans in 1978. (Feb.2022) “This is my blanket”. Made by the author. (Feb.2022) “The Glowing Homeless” artwork by Fanny Allié, 2011. Public art instalation.(2021) “He’s a real nowhere man”. Made by the author. Photo taken by the author in Barcelona. (Feb.2022) “Have you ever felt invisible before?”. Made by the author. Photo taken by Arrels Fundació. (Feb.2022) Photo taken by the author, Barcelona. (Feb.2022) “I had the chance”. Made by the author. Drawings made by the author. (Feb.2022) Temporary homeless shelters in Las Vegas, USA. Photo extracted from the New York Times. (Mar.2020) “Sometimes I feel like I’m left over in my own place”. Made by the author. (Feb.2022) “What is a house?” Made by the author.Photo taken by the author in Barcelona. (Feb.2022) A door. Made by the author. Photo taken by the author in Barcelona.(Feb.2022) Collage on an advertising poster in MACBA’s square. Made by the author. (Mar.2022) Poster of “Have you ever felt invisible before?” left at UB. Made by the author. (Mar.2022) STREET FIGHTERS. Poster made by the author, photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) ¿Qué esperás? Poster made by the author, photo taken by the author (Mar.2022) From digital to the streets I. Collage and pictures made by the author (May.2022) From digital to the streets II. Collage and pictures made by the author(May.2022) BCN own presentation at Teatre CCCB. Photo taken by Claudia García de Val. (Mar.2022) Posters and copies places around the room. Photo taken by CCCB Twitter account. (Mar.2022)

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Fig.78 Fig.79 Fig.80 Fig.81 Fig.82 Fig.83 Fig.84 Fig.85 Fig.86 Fig.87 Fig.88 Fig.89 Fig.90 Fig.91 Fig.92 Fig.93 Fig.94 Fig.95 Fig.96 Fig.97 Fig.98 Fig.99 Fig.100 Fig.101 Fig.102 Fig.103 Fig.104 Fig 105. Fig.106 Fig.107 Fig.108 Fig.109 Fig.110 Fig.111 Fig.112 Fig.113 Fig.114 Fig.115 Fig.116 Fig.117 Fig.118 Fig.119 Fig.120 Fig.121 Fig.122 Fig.123 Fig.124 Fig.125 Fig.126 Fig.127 Fig.128 Fig.129 Fig.130 Fig.131 Fig.132 Fig.133

Participants carrying out the exercise I proposed at CCCB. Photo taken by Eman Badir. (Mar.2022) Participants feed back. (May.2022) Video screened Made by the author. (Mar.2022) Projection of the video (I) at CCCB. Photo taken by Claudia García de Val. (Mar.2022) Projection of the video (II) at CCCB. Photo taken by Claudia García de Val. (Mar.2022) Cd’A BCN Speech. Written by the author.(Feb.2022) Max’s presentation with their topics behind. Photo taken from CCCB Twitter account. (Mar.2022) Debate with illustration in the background. Photo taken by Eman Badir. (Mar.2022) Homeless description and definition according to ETHOS. Table made by the author. (May.2022) Poor person in front of Parròquia Mare de Déu de Betlem, Barcelona. Photo taken by the author. (Apr.2022) Homeless person sitting in front of Parròquia de Sant Agustí. Photo taken by the author.(Apr.2022) This could be you. Made by XAPSLL and layed out by the author. (Apr.2022) This could be you. Made by XAPSLL and layed out by the author. (Apr.2022) #NINGU DORMINT AL CARRER by Fundació Arrels. Photo providen by the organization (Nov2020) Current situation of homeleness in Barcelona.Made by the author. (Nov. 2021) Existing resources for homeless people. Made by the author. (Nov. 2021) Young migrant people attended at Sta. Anna church.Photo extracted from Betevé.cat. (Jul. 2019) Temporary shelter by Arrels Fundació. Photo taken by the author.(May.2022) Homeless person shaving in the Rubió i Lluch gardens. Photo taken by the author.(Mar.2022) Hunger queue in Comedor Social Reina de la Paz. Photo taken by the author. (Mar.2022) NEWS! Made by the author. (May.2022) Homeless person cosuming alcohol and tobacco at Passeig S.Joan.Photo taken by the author. (May.2022) SIN TECHO? ¡CON DERECHO!. Extracted from Rocasalva, Anna (Nov.2020) The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces. Made by the author. (Mar.2022) Architectural spaces location.Made by the author (Jun.2022) Architectural spaces close location. Made by the author (Jun.2022) Santa Anna Church. Photo taken by the author. (Dec.2021) Homeless people and volunteers at the church outdoor space. Extracted from HdC.StaAnna (Apr.2020) Santa Anna Church during the day.Drawn by the author. (Jan.2022) Santa Anna Church hosting homeless people.Drawn by the author. (Jan.2022) Santa Anna Church during drawing. Drawn by the author. (Jun.2022) Santa Anna Church hosting homeless people drawing. Drawn by the author. (Jun.2022) Homeless person reading the newspaper. Photo provided by the foundation. (Jan. 2017) Church at night time. Photo provided by the foundation. (Jan. 2017) Cloister used as a soup kitchen. Photo provided by the foundation. (Jan. 2017) Homeless people and volunteers inside the church. Photo provided by the foundation. Children sleep on the church pews. Photo by Ferran Nadeu. (Jul.2019) The author in the “Book Store Dominicanen” in Maastrich, Netherlands. (Ago.2016) Examples of “Champing”. Photos taken by Glyn Kirk for AFP Press. (Sep.2019) Casa Cádiz facade. Photo taken by the author. (Jan.2022) Squatt house_ Casa Cádiz plans. Drawn by the author after several visits to the site. (Apr.2022) Ground floor main space. Photo by Sense Sostre BCN Twiter account. @sensesostreBCN (Dec.2019) Art work facing entrance curtain wall. Photo taken by the author. (Jan.2022) Entrance view. Photo extracted from “ElPeriodico” newspaper. (Jan. 2019) Ground floor “bedroom-shelter”. Photo by Sense Sostre BCN Twitter account (Nov. 2019) Upper floor “bedroom-shelter”. Photo by Sense Sostre BCN Twitter account (Nov. 2019) Ground floor plan, drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3. (Mar. 2022) Upper floors plan, drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3. (Mar. 2022) On-site modules. Photo by Adrià Goula for ArchDaily. (May 2020) QR code with link to a video for a virtual tour of the project. (Jan 2020) Section AA’ drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3. (Mar. 2022) Section BB’ drawn by the author from the original project by Straddle3. (Mar. 2022) Inside spaces of sigle appartment (I). Photos by Adrià Goula for straddle3. (May 2020) Inside spaces of sigle appartment (II). Photos by Adrià Goula for straddle3. (May 2020) QR code with link to a video interviewing a owner for beteve.cat. (Sep. 2019) Exterior facade. Photo made by the author. (Mar. 2022)

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Homelessness in Barcelona: An ar(ch)tistic rethinking of social issues

Fig.134 Common gallery for the homeless picture.Photo provided by the organisation. (Jul. 2021) Fig.135 Ground flor plan. Drawn by the author from the original project by Lacol. (Apr. 2022) Fig.136 Floor dedicated to homeless people. Drawn by the author from the original project by Lacol. (Apr. 2022) Fig.137 Standard floor plan. Drawn by the author from the original project by Lacol. (Apr. 2022) Fig.138 Ex-custodian person entering in his home. Photo provided by the organisation. (Sep 2021) Fig.139 Axonometry drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual). Redrawing&Layed out by the author. (Apr 2022) Fig.140 Section drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual).Redrawing&Layed out by the author. (Apr 2022) Fig.141 Ground floor plan drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual). Redrawing&Layed out by the author. (Apr 2022) Fig.142 First floor plan drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual).Redrawing&Layed out by the author. Fig.143 Typical floor plan drawing by the project’s author (Eira Pascual).Redrawing&Layed out by the author (Apr 2022). Fig.144 The impossible path of social inclusion through architectural spaces. Made by the author. (May 2022) Fig.145 “Publicidad... es que da penita pena.” Avinguda Diagonal, Barcelona. Photo taken by the author.(May 2022) Fig.146 Location of the project in the historic centre of Barcelona. Made by the author.(May 2022) Fig.147 Close location of the project in the Gothic quarter. Made by the author.(May 2022) Fig.148 Original plan Made by straddle3 architects. (May 2020) Fig.149 Current state ground floor plan. Drawn by the author. (Mar. 2022) Fig.150 Installation of lockers of different sizes on the new modified ground floor. Made by the author. (May 2022) Fig.151 Existing building with modified ground floor na vertical garden. Made by the author. (May 2022) Fig.152 Intervention ground floor plan.Made by the author. (Apr. 2022) Fig.153 Container capacity plus external services programme. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.154 Intervention axonometry. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.155 Intervention Section AA’. Made by the author. (Apr. 2022) Fig.156 Intervention Section BB’. Made by the author. (Apr. 2022) Fig.157 Location of the project in the historic centre of Barcelona. Made by the author. (May 2022) Fig.158 Location of the project in the historic centre of Barcelona (II). Made by the author. (May 2022) Fig.159 Homeless person sleeping rough at Plaça Catalunya. Photo taken by the author. (Mar. 2022) Fig.160 Homeless people sleeping at Plaça Catalunya. Photo taken by the author. (Mar. 2022) Fig.161 Interior of Santa Anna church during visiting hours. Photo taken by the author.(Apr. 2022) Fig.162 Overall site plan. Made by the author. (May. 2022) Fig.163 Overall site plan with intervention. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.164 Carrer Santa Anna facade of choosen buildings. Photo taken by the author. (Apr. 2022) Fig.165 Plaçeta Ramon Amadeu facade of choosen building. Photo taken by the author. (Apr. 2022) Fig.166 Plaçeta Ramon Amadeu facade of choosen building (II). Photo taken by the author. (Apr. 2022) Fig.167 Intervened pre-existence plan.Made by the author. (Apr. 2022) Fig.168 Ground floor plan of the intervention. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.169 First floor plan of the intervention. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.170 Upper floors plan of the intervention. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.171 Current facade Drawn by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.172 Façade during renovation works. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.173 Intervention. Front elevation facade plan. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.174 Intervention. Lateral elevation plan. Made by the author. Fig.175 Rear elevation. Section 00’. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.176 Rehabilitated and new facades generation. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.177 Front elevation variations. Working process. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.178 Section of the existing building. Made by the author. (May. 2022) Fig.179 Section AA’. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.180 Section BB’. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.181 Section CC’. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.182 Section DD’. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.183 Soup kitchen interior design (I). Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.184 Soup kitchen interior design (II). Made by the author. (May 2022) Fig.185 Inner courtyard (I). Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.186 Inner courtyard (II). Made by the author. (Jun. 2022) Fig.187 “Housing First” housing bedroom. Made by the author. (Jun. 2022)

Bibliography and table of figures

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