The project led by Pere Joan Ravetllat, Sara Vima, Jesús Quintana, Aleix Salazar, Còssima Cornadó, Marta Domènech i Isaac Colin (REARQ-UPC), Xavier Llopis, Agustina Etcheverry and Marta Yago (Sorigué), proposes an open regeneration system adaptable to different needs.
Using a series of self-supporting wooden structures attached to existing buildings, the proposal seeks to improve, protect and provide residential buildings with transitional and exterior spaces that provide greater flexibility.
These designs will be presented at the biennial, which seek to contribute to "improving the quality of housing, community spaces and urban spaces in residential estates, the regeneration of which remains a great challenge," explains Pere Joan Ravetllat, coordinator of the REARQ group and professor at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB).
Photograph of the semi-outdoor space of the prototype built on the Diagonal Besòs Campus, designed to be attached to existing multi-family buildings using the “Regenerar Barcelona” system. Photograph by José Navarrete, Coleccionistas de momentos.
An open regeneration system, adaptable to different needs and scalable
The concept of “open regeneration” is based on the extension of existing residential buildings with a self-supporting, modular and flexible system. The designs on display show multiple possibilities for applying this system to improve different urban situations in real and complex contexts, which allows us to understand its urban and territorial scope.
In addition to the different possibilities for improving the performance of the dwellings, the designs explore the improvement of the contact of the buildings on the ground floor, of the blind testers, the communal use of the roofs, the extension of the communal spaces and the improvement of the vertical accessibility and the accesses to the building. The applications can be incremental in phases, in such a way that they can be perfected over time according to the staggered availability of investments.
Urban visualization of the implementation of the “Regenerate Barcelona” system. Visualization by Recuerdo Studio.
The new extension and transition spaces also allow for improving the environmental and urban qualities of the surrounding area, and regenerating the image of the whole without necessarily hiding the historical finishes.
The proposals will be displayed through a board with models, the exhibition catalogue and large-format canvases that will show realistic visualizations. An audiovisual reproduction will jointly show the reality of different neighbourhoods in Barcelona and the Besòs Axis, their buildings and homes from the hands of local residents, as well as visualizations of their potential for improvement through open regeneration projects.
Rendering of the exhibition installation “Open Regeneration of Housing Estates in Barcelona”, to be built in the central pavilion of the Biennale di Architettura 2025 in Venice, curated by Carlo Ratti. Rendering by REARQ-UPC.
Exhibition installation
The exhibition includes an explanation and a full-scale reproduction of the "Regenerar Barcelona" system, developed by REARQ-UPC, Sorigué and GICITED-UPC, funded by the Municipal Institute of Urban Planning, the Urban Planning Department of Barcelona City Council and the BIT HABITAT Foundation.
The project has won the Urban Challenge for the regeneration of residential buildings with innovative sustainable systems in 2022, built in the prototype phase on the UPC's Besòs Campus, and has received several awards in the last two years, such as now: the European SOM Foundation research award from Chicago 2023; the Catalonia Construction award for Innovation in construction 2024; finalist in the 2024 Ibero-American Biennial held in Peru and finalist in the World Smart City Awards 2024.
Photograph of the construction process of the prototype “Regenerar Barcelona”, built on the Diagonal Besòs Campus from a dry-assembled and completely dismantled wooden frame structure. Photograph by José Navarrete, Coleccionistas de momentos.
It is a system that, starting from a self-supporting wooden structure, provides a modular support adaptable to different uses and needs on which different subsystems or "kits" can be mounted that respond to functionalities such as the expansion of interior spaces, the energy rehabilitation of the façade, the incorporation of photovoltaic panels, the storage and regeneration of water, renaturalization, the monitoring of environmental variables, among others.
The researchers point out that the system "wants to be exemplary from its ecological nature, both in its use and in its construction and implementation, thanks to the use of local, recyclable and reusable materials, as well as its dry assembly, which make up a fully removable system."
The system also incorporates dynamic systems and biodiversity elements, which make up an ecological infrastructure that must contribute to "regenerating an environmental and social microecosystem with benefits at different scales, for the resident community, the neighborhood, the biodiversity and the urbanity of the context where it is inserted."
