Academic

Construir Comunidades, ETSA Barcelona
Rehabilitation and reuse at the Prat Vermell industrial settlement
Intensive Elective Subject as part of the ETSAB academic assignment
1st-5th February 2021

Context
Elective Subject at ETSAB led by Professors Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats on rehabilitation and reuse. One-week intensive workshop, conducted at “La Marina del Prat Vermell” in Barcelona, inside the studio of painter Manuel Velasco.

Theme and objectives
The neighbourhood that is currently known as “Marina del Prat Vermell” has been undergoing a significant urban transformation for years, which advances by demolishing a large part of what has been built, proposing an urban fabric more or less coinciding with the current one but without the existing constructions.

The elective subject Construir Comunidades proposes to get to know the old Bertrand textile factory up-close, an industrial site with a characteristic triangular plan, the first industry in the area and one which gave the name of “El Prat Vermell” to the neighbourhood. In this old enclosure, today we find the activity of small mechanical workshops, recycling warehouses, logistics offices, artisans, artists, music and television production, and also some restaurants.

The urban plan envisaged by the Barcelona City Council for this area erases the presence of this settlement, leaving only a solitary industrial warehouse standing, which will have to find a new urban relationship with the future streets that will cross the area. While the developed urban plan does not know how to find a future for the existing constructions, in the elective subject Construir Comunidades we propose to get to know the site of the old Bertrand textile factory closely, drawing it to observe and know it, thinking about possible futures that these volumes could still have instead of being demolished.

The study will therefore focus on avoiding demolition, promoting the rehabilitation and reuse of the old factory fabric through the incorporation of new programs, which each student will decide on according to the observation of the physical and social fabric found in the place. The objective is to study the possibilities of transformation of the existing structures to reactivate them with a program that restores their utility and strength, allowing them to return to form part of the city around them.

Methodology
Students begin with a direct and close observation of the built reality of the industrial settlement. The work is developed in groups, and each group draws and chooses a fragment or fragments that interest them due to their quality, not only because of their scale or dimension, but also because of their texture, material, use… From this first decision, each group proposes a program that is closely related to the conditions and characteristics of the fragment that are worth preserving, amplifying this new use with the qualities found.

The workshop is developed entirely through hand drawing and model making. The working scale is very small (1:20) and provides very large documents which are able to incorporate the multiple observations and views from all the members of the group. From the 5 days of the workshop, 3 are dedicated to observation through drawing and 2 for proposals, understanding observation by hand drawing as project. As the workshop time is intense but short, the proposals are initial and fragmentary, suggesting the beginnings of projects to be developed further.