How to turn suburban landscapes into quality public spaces is the main topic of the ETSAV architecture degree project workshop

The workshop, led by professors Pere Buill and Catarina Salvà, with Hans Ibelings as a guest lecturer, is addressed to 4th and 5th year students of the architecture degree at ETSAV.

The aim of the workshop is to improve low-density suburban spaces, which are often a mix of urban and rural elements. Although they are generally public from a legal standpoint, they lack the formal, programmatic, and social elements that characterize urban public spaces. The starting point of the workshop is the study of four notable projects from the European Prize for Urban Public Space Archive and the analysis of the strategies applied to promote their public use. It will then focus on four locations in the metropolitan area of Barcelona that were developed without coherent planning during the second half of the 20th century. The opportunities offered by each area will be explored, and solutions will be proposed to make them more attractive for coexistence, play, and participation, always taking into account forms of life beyond human.

The workshop, part of the collaboration between the CCCB and the ETSAV in the context of the Suburbia exhibition, began at the CCCB on February 12 and will culminate on June 11 with the presentation of final projects before the jury members Bet Capdeferro, Mercè Berengué, and Elena Albareda. A small installation featuring the presented works was then inaugurated in the lobby of the Suburbia exhibition at the CCCB, which will be open for visitors until mid-September, coinciding with the closing of the Suburbia exhibition.