Mixed-Use Urban Project in Design Studios. A Research by Design Pedagogical Experience at the Barcelona School of Architecture

Abstract

This article presents an innovative “research by design” experience in the framework on an on-going investigation on Urban Mixticity within the Barcelona Urbanism Laboratory-LUB. In parallel, during six consecutive academic years, the Design Studio "Urban Project. Ideas and Praxis" of the master's program "Contemporary Project" has applied the analysis methodology developed in the research while reviewing the evolution of the idea of Urban Project in recent decades. In accordance with the tradition started at the LUB in 1980s, Urban Projects are an instrument of mediation between the city and architecture, and at the same time, constitute a way of acting and doing research. A design tool that is different either from the conventional planning or the macro-architecture, and that is driven to conceiving projects for operative fragments of the city well delimited in space and time. The Urban Design Studio held on Spring 2020 researched on Urban Mixticity in one of the most paradigmatic transformation tissues in the South of Europe: 22@-District Barcelona, taking its northern part as main laboratory. The course participated in a recently launched municipal debate that seek to set up new urban conditions for the non-redeveloped areas, “Towards a Poblenou with a more inclusive and more sustainable 22@ district". The Studio depicted new scenarios for this area taking into consideration the new demands for more housing, social and innovation activities, the balance between heritage and new facilities, ecology and sustainability, among other factors. Analysis and proposals both at the block and superblock scale were tested, exploring quantities and qualities of urban mixticity over the layout of the Cerdà’s grid.