Atelier Prats, Spring Semester 2023, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio
Second Hand – Rehabilitation and FoodCultura in Barcelona
Second Hand
A used suit carries the memory of its previous user; to start wearing it is an exercise that requires confidence and time until you begin to feel it is your own. Dressing “second hand” means introducing yourself into a discipline of adaptation, and as architects, when we work with existing buildings to adapt them to a new use, there is something similar to the process of adapting a garment that has been used previously by others: you have to unstitch and recognize the pattern used before, cut on one side to extend on another; maybe a new piece of fabric is needed, we may even have to add some pockets… and so on until it identifies with and responds to the new user.
Rehabilitation
The Atelier proposes to work in urban contexts in transformation, observing and identifying the valuable social and physical qualities embedded in the area, with the intention of discovering the physical and emotional reality contained in existing buildings and to test their ability to adapt to new conditions of occupation. This spring semester we will work in four different sites in the neighbourhood of Poblenou, in the city of Barcelona.
FoodCultura
A programme related with food and its social and cultural dimension will be the activity that will bring new life into the existing buildings. We will count with the collaboration of the Catalan artist Antoni Miralda, who has been working in the idea of a FoodCultura Centre in Barcelona for decades. Today @foodcultura is an online platform and this Atelier will define a physical space for its location.
Professor: Eva Prats
Assistants: Laura Martínez del Olmo and Maria Ave Romani
Adviser: Ricardo Flores
Guest Artist: Antoni Miralda