IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section A
Abstract
Emergencies as the COVID 19 demonstrate the capacity of cities to adapt to the needs of their inhabitants. We present the research on the impact of the pandemic in the school environment, carried out by three research groups from the ETSAB-UPC and the ETSAL-URL. We explain how schools in Barcelona spontaneously have extended classrooms to other spaces within, but also outside their limits, to civic centres, libraries, museums, streets, gardens or beaches; and in opposite direction, how schools have opened their doors to the city hosting many neighbourhoods’ activities. The research launches a series of ideas about these experiences of ‘discontinuous school’, collected in the form of maps and patterns. The maps show the magnitude of the phenomenon within the city, and the patterns are samples of typological solutions, which reveal the possibilities of expanding the educational scope. Some of these solutions affect the space, and others the organisation. They are classified into three categories: actions within the schools in “the school is transformed”; the experiences of schools in open spaces of the city in “streets, squares, gardens and beaches”; and the exchange of uses between schools and other facilities in “in other buildings”. The research also brings to the present some pedagogical dynamics that are part of the history of Barcelona and, at the same time, questions the spatial organisations imposed by the functional programmes of schools. This health crisis scenario has dissolved the boundaries: Barcelona has become a large classroom, and the schools have opened their doors to the city.
Isabela de Rentería is bachelors in architecture (1979), Universidad de Navarra. Master of Architecture in Urban Design (1982), GSD-Harvard University. PhD. 2013, ETSA La Salle Barcelona – Universitat Ramon Llull, with extraordinary award. Vice principal for academic affairs from 1998 to 2016, at the School of Architecture La Salle, Universitat Ramon LLull, Design Studio faculty from 1998 to present and member of the IAM (Mediterranean Architecture) research team, integrated in the HER (Human Environment Research). Architect with private practice, with work exhibited in “The new generation of Spanish architects”, AA Gallery, Londres, 1994; CIAB6 Congress, UPV, 2014, or at the rehabilitation exhibit at the COAC, Architectural Congress, 2016.
Anna Martínez Duran is architect (1989) and PhD (2008), with “The architect’s house”, from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), where she has taught in the graduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs. Since 1998 she has been teaching at the School of Architecture La Salle, Ramon Llull University (URL) in some courses in the Architectural Composition area. She has been co-founder of the research group IAM (Mediterranean Architecture) since 2008, now integrated in the HER (Human Environment Research). The work of the research focuses on the restoration of architectural and landscape
Magda Mària is architect (1987) and Ph.D. Architect (1995) by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC-BarcelonaTech). Professor of Architectural Design at the UPC-Barcelona Tech. Faculty at the MBArch-Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture-Barcelona’, and the Master’s degree in Sustainable Intervention in the Built Environment (UPC). Director of HABITAR/ INHABITING Research Group in charge of developing recognized research programs (www.habitar.upc.edu). Among others, the set of exhibitions Rehabitar, Madrid (2010-2012); Atlas Reuse of Barcelona, Ministry of Economy of Spain (2014-2017); Food and urban public space. Barcelona as a case study. RecerCaixa (2017-2019). She has published books and articles on architectural heritage in Catalonia, on reuse strategies and on growth systems in art and architecture. Founder associated of metamorfosi studio (www.metamorfosiarquitectes.cat).
2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Wednesday 16th July, 2025