Embedded resilience in the built stock: lessons from socio-spatial interpretation: the case of Can Fugarolas (Mataró-Barcelona)

Abstract

The concept of resilience remains vague as it pertains to the buildings’ scale and the architectural dimension, particularly when dealing with the recovery and reuse of former industrial premises. This study advocates for socio-ecological (bounding-forward) resilience and the use of Panarchy heuristics to analyze the embedded resilience of building stock. This research is based on a case study of CanFugarolas, in Mataró (Barcelona), a former workshop converted into a socio-cultural centre. Here, the building becomes a repository for latent urban dynamism, where spatial transformation is the mechanism by which embedded resilience is released in the form of social dynamism. Adaptive spatial capability (potential) translates into social dynamism (performance) because of socio-spatial interactions. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the spatial and social parallel evolution of the case study reveals that a strong correlation exists between spatial transformation and social participation; spatio-functional tactics and spatial adaptive capabilities are social and formal complementary mechanisms for spatial appropriation during social progression; spatial diversification and hierarchization are evidence of spatial specialization, resulting from said socio-spatial interactions. Eventually, indications of thresholds appear in the form of spatial over-fragmentation and hyper-specialization, denoting spatial exhaustion and embedded resilience limitations.