ETSAB Workshop I Barcelona I 2017

Architectural Innovation – Inverted Urbanism Summer Architectural Workshop, Barcelona

The International Summer Architectural Workshop was organized with collaboration of MoNa Architecture Design and Planning office, College of Architecture at IIT in Chicago and Architecture Department at ETSAB, in Barcelona. It was focused on rethinking a small region of Catalonia, La Terra Alta, struggling today with the lack of a diverse economy which drains the population through people migrating to the larger Metropolitan centers of Barcelona and Madrid. offering an innovative approach to urbanism, and working on micro and macro scale projects and planning, suggesting solutions allowing the area to grow, throughout architectural, planning and programming interventions. It provided opportunity of exchanging experience between US and European students,offering participants an unrivaled international learning experience within Barcelona’s city and regions. The objective of the workshop was to propose a new narrative for this region to leverage its natural beauty and history with a diverse economy and culture that will allow for sustainable growth and provide a prototype of process, critical thinking and innovation that can be applied to the issues facing the world today, a world in economic, environmental and political distress. Students developed new programs and architectural and urban interventions that allow bring new interest in the area for tourism as well as residents both local and international that will be a stage for the development of culture in the arts, the sciences and perhaps healthcare with the focus on the spiritual and the physical connection between the nature and knowledge and cultural growth. Final work of students was presented in Barcelona Pavilion.