temporary installations transform barcelona’s urban spaces during MODEL festival

meetingS, INSTALLATIONS, AND activities in Model Barcelona 2023

 

The second edition of MODEL Barcelona Architectures Festival transforms Catalonia’s capital urban fabric into a laboratory for architectural experimentation from the 20th to the 30th of April 2023. Focusing on the reformulation of public spaces through the theme of ‘Radical Empathy’ and the significance of urban planning as a means for constructing a more sustainable, fraternal, and fair city, the festival hosts five temporary installations in the historically central area around Parc de les Glòries, a large part of which stands currently under construction.

 

designboom visits the opening of the ten-day festival, witnessing the city’s makeover into a hub of architectural experimentation. During the ten days, the festival will hold several meetings with associations, organizations, and groups in the city of Barcelona at the festival‘s foundation, and will offer a conceptual and practical platform for all the events enacted, including all the +MODEL activities and interactive installations, in the effort of carrying out transversal and cumulative dialogues around architecture and sustainability.

MODEL Barcelona Architectures Festival – 20-30 April 2023 | all images by Goroka

 

 

Nomadic Assembly by h3o Architects in Mercat dels Encants

 

Barcelona-based architecture studio h3o Architects (see more here) and DFMD take over the design of a vibrant installation produced with the market’s ‘Mercat dels Encants’ reused materials turning the public area into a space for debate, dancing, and leisure. Featuring a distinct fuchsia paint, fragmented stepped volumes, angular tables made from repurposed wooden legs, and metallic structures supporting bizarre objects reflecting various periods, economic classes, and styles compose ‘Nomadic Assembly’. The installation aims to produce ‘an egalitarian, accessible space and urban environment that favors dialogue among people, regardless of their origin or social background’. The formed shapes fracture, while the items of furniture from Encants interweave with the pink surfaces generating a ‘mixed identity’ to the project.

Nomadic Assembly turns Mercat dels Encants into a public open library and space for leisure

 

 

MAMÍFERA by Equal Saree in Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes

 

Designed by the Equal Saree team of architects and experts on gender and feminism (see more here), ‘Mamífera’ is a public installation attending to the need for and benefits of collective breastfeeding. A section of Gran Via is turned into a free-access space for breastfeeding or bottle-feeding babies, highlighting one of the feminist movement’s historic demands; life and the collectivization of care. Given that breastfeeding is a vital, key time in the development of life, yet, even today, holds a motive for conflict in public spaces, ‘Mamífera’ showcases the need for introducing a network of care spaces in the city through the construction of a visible, accessible, safe pavilion. The platform forms a permeable, open, and protected wooden frame, equipped and built for experiencing breastfeeding collectively, where gatherings, communal meals, and workshops are held.

the permeable wooden frame protects parents and children from the sun and forms a perimetrical seating

Mamífera stands on the intersection of Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes and Glòries

 

 

Feral Surfaces by Harrison Atelier on top of Ona Glòries car park

 

For MODEL Barcelona Architectures Festival, Harrison Atelier (see more here) composes a mycelium structure of fungal filaments that form panels in which pollinating insects can reside. Situated on the Roof of the Ona Glòries car park, the project revises urban planning providing a new perspective that reconciles the well-being of people along with other species in the city. The installation tackles the theme of ‘Radical Empathy’ from a multi-species perspective and reflects on the relationship between living beings and the urban environment. A total of 1,500 hemp mycelium panels form an interwoven net on a slightly elevated platform and provide a nest for solitary bees. 

the installation reflects on the relationship between living beings and the urban fabric