The Contact Territories workshop has concluded with the final presentation of projects related with Public Space Design and fruit of a joint initiative of ETSAV (Vallès School of Architecture) and the European Prize for Urban Public Space.

In the first quarter of this academic year, ETSAV has held its workshop on projects concerning public space as a mechanism for constructing civic values in the contemporary city. It was attended by 25 ETSAV studentsfrom fourth and fifth year and led by the architect and urban planner Paola Viganò (Milan / Brussels) and full professor in Urban Theory and Urban Design at the EPFL, together with the lecturers Pere Buil and Catalina Salvà from the UPC.

How urban space is activated, how it is adapted to climate change, how mobility—including the new means of transport—is managed, how the needs of the most disadvantaged citizens are met, and how spaces are adjusted for new ways of living, are some of the issues that have been addressed through the projects.

In a first phase, the transformative capacity of the five finalists for the 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space was analysed in depth. After close study of the five main project strategies of each of these works, these strategies were applied to seven urban settings of varying characteristics in the city of Sabadell with the aim of regenerating them.

The final session, held at the CCCB on 20 January 2023, consisted of a presentation of the seven analytical studies together with their corresponding projects, and a critical discussion with the members of the Workshop jury: the guest professor, Paola Viganò, Teresa Galí-Izard, presidentof the Jury of the 2022 European Prize for Urban Public Space, and Pere Fuertes, director of ETSAV.

The session included an exhibition of the projects in the vestibule of the CCCB Theatre.