Guest Cities Exhibition (2021)

The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) is a dynamic and complex territory with strong local identities and a notable geography where different villages have developed into a city of cities: Metropolis Barcelona. The AMB, the public administration that manages this territory, is drafting the new Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDU), which defines the long-term vision for Metropolis Barcelona, while it continues planning and implementing actions, in the short and medium-term, adapted to the new post-Covid reality.  

The project involves the rehabilitation of a former industrial structure into the As Fabrik University Center for Technological Studies for the University of Mondragón. It is located on the island of Zorrozaurre in Bilbao, within the urban design developed by Zaha Hadid. The intervention embraces both internal and external spaces while respecting its pre-existing volume. 

The project involves the rehabilitation of a former industrial structure owned by the City of Bilbao and located on the island of Zorrozaurre, Bilbao. It will become the headquarters for the Independent Theater Company under the name of P6. The intervention integrates the internal spaces with the envelope while maintaining its spatial structure. In order to include all additional programmatic requirements, new construction is added adjacent to the existing structure under the premises of spatial and functional integration. The building is designed as a thermally and environmentally sustainable and efficient structure rooted in the use of natural materials and avantgarde mechanical and lighting systems.

Azkuna Zentroa - Alhóndiga Bilbao is the Center for Society and Contemporary Culture of Bilbao. This cultural project is a refurbished modernist building located on the site of an old wine and oil warehouse of the city. Its exterior classicism, designed in 1905 by Ricardo Bastida, contrasts with the contemporary interior spaces designed in the 21st century by French designer Philippe Starck. Alhóndiga Bilbao was inaugurated in 2010 as a Leisure and Culture Center. Since then it has evolved to become the benchmark for contemporary artistic creation: a place to experience culture as a practice, as a process, and as a space for experiences.

The aim is to develop sites and functional programs of interest for the city and its citizens and to share academic proposals with society in order to jointly address the growth of the city and the contemporary human habitat. The aim is to develop sites and functional programs of interest for the city and its citizens and to share academic proposals with society in order to jointly address the growth of the city and the contemporary human habitat.

The proposal reorients the museum towards the city by restoring the façade of the existing building and making it more permeable, while enhancing the institution’s unique identity. The guiding principle is to make the 1945 building the protagonist by restoring its original entrance and its internal sequence of spaces. The revitalisation turns Plaza Arriaga into the new heart along the museum’s spine, with light streaming in from the rooflight.

The implementation of the European Institute of Design Kunsthal-Bilbao, within the so-called Creative Island of Zorrozaurre, takes place in the industrial pavilion known as Papelera (Manuel Andonza, 1958). The building is one of seventeen industrial facilities that remain in the Zorrozaurre Special Plan, projected on the basis of Zaha Hadid's Masterplan. It is the only vaulted building on the island and one of the few existing buildings of this type in Bizkaia.

Bilbao has a continuous ring of districts that surround the more touristic center, many with evident needs for architectural intervention. Matiko is one of them. In this district the city has been provided with a disused industrial building to be converted into an entrepreneurship center. The most significant aspect of the project was the idea to design a façade that made the whole operation visible, with minimum cost and maximum expressivity.

The former Berlin-Tegel Airport is making room for Berlin. On its 500-hectare inner-city grounds, Berlin TXL – The Urban Tech Republic, a research and industrial park for urban technologies, Schumacher Quartier, a new residential district, as well as a 200-hectare landscape area will be developed. This redevelopment is Berlin’s most important infrastructural and economic project for the next 20 years.

The project anticipates the future evolution of the site, a school in a former o�ce building from the 1960s, and proposes a series of one-off independent interventions taking advantage of the existing spatial qualities and anticipating changes to come. The existing internal partition system as well as the technical equipment are directly reused on site. By considering what is already there without prejudices, the inflow of new materials and the production of grey energy are drastically reduced, while local skills are put forward.

 By connecting the existing cores of the two towers with a new volume of 14 double-height floors, the project creates a new condition for the development of a hybrid building mixing offices, housing, a hotel, sports and leisure spaces, retail, and a public greenhouse.

Zinneke is a socio-cultural non profit organization that organizes every two year an inclusive festive parade, created by a wide range of citizens and organizations who make up the diversity of Brussels. The project is a respectful renovation of a former printing workshop complex in the north of the city into a series of ateliers and workspaces, social meeting places, and green outdoor areas.

Amsterdam faces a major challenge in terms of the transition of public space driven by climate change, the switch to sustainable energy, scarcity of raw materials, and the digitalization of society. In addition, infrastructure below ground is growing, but space is running out. Prioritizing underground space and the multiple use of space, the Integral Design Method Public Space is geared to programming public areas in an integral manner.

Architecture concerns everyone, and at the same time, it is a matter of initiative. Cultural awareness of architecture is also of interest to all those involved: architects, elected representatives, building owners, both private and public, builders, residents – adults and children. However, architecture is most often absent from public debate, while the world of architecture is constantly debating – fighting – to defend it. 

The Great Rift Valley marks a global transect along geological fault lines. The tectonic plates underlying the Rift are pulling away from each other, and expanding socio-political fractures. In 2020, the Columbia Urban Design Studio explored how three cities along the Rift—Tel Aviv-Yafo, Addis Ababa, and Beira—might forge systems to span this divide amid rapid urbanization while grappling with the unique impacts of the climate crisis.

The Sensible Zone is a proposition to engage the contemporary challenges of environmental destruction and upheaval as a spatial reorganization. It is a proposition to transform how institutions, and cities engage their material spaces of operation.

The design aims to present a complete and continuous historical segment of the existing environment. Through a careful evaluation of local conditions, it sorts out the original urban texture and opens up pathways into the city circulation. The whole project is transformed into a pan-museum that not only shows the architectural remains, but also embraces the surrounding neighborhood with an open attitude. 

ALPHASEOUL 2086 is a graphic novel set in the years 2060 to 2087. It imagines how the world and the city would evolve. Seoul is a good place to start a science fiction story; the rapid succession of eras and the radical transformation of society and its urban landscape would make the present unbelievable for a Seoulite 100 years ago. The story is an adventure, with a background of history, urban space, and culture—a daydream about the city’s future.