Beyond Besòs: Inhabiting the Seafront

The seafront is a frontier territory, a public space where constant transformations are occurring and inviting constant reflection. This is an environment that is especially vulnerable to climate change, economic fluctuations, and new social challenges in such a way that it has become a laboratory of opportunities for rethinking the ways in which we inhabit the city.

“Beyond Besòs: Inhabiting the Seafront” is a joint initiative of the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona and the Department of Architectural Projects of the Vallès School of Architecture of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). The workshop will bring together the students at the school for one week in a theoretical and practical exercise which, using the tools of architecture, aims at a radical rethinking of ways of inhabiting Barcelona’s seafront.

The aim of the workshop is to intensify the experience of occupying a space, taking as its context the public space of Barcelona’s seafront, in the area of the Sant Adrià thermal power station. In this space of collective use, we aim to reconnect with the basic actions that are the drivers of our coexistence.

The workshop will include the special participation of Associate Professor María Langarita who will guide the students in their research throughout the week. The workshop will open on Monday 4 September at 10 a.m. with presentations by the architects María Langarita and Carme Ribas, manager of the Besòs Consortium. The closing ceremony will take place on Friday 8 September at 4 p.m. with a display of the students’ proposals.

The workshop is exclusively designed for ETSAV students.