On Monday, 15 September 2014, Professor Emeritus at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Antonio Font gave the inaugural lecture for the subject Urbanism II. The lecture stressed the importance of the Rs of urbanism education: regenerating, remodelling and rehabilitating.
Following a brilliant theoretical introduction to the challenges facing the profession today, the talk delved into the methodological keys of the residential project understood as a necessarily transversal and interscholastic urban project that must be flexible in the face of contemporary cities’ changing dynamics.
Urbanism II started off with the major challenge of planning out the last phase in the transformation of the metropolitan area of Barcelona’s formerly industrial coast. Third-year architecture students carried out a project to transform the Sant Adrià de Besòs urban waterfront by integrating it into a setting that it has been gradually losing its remoteness and industrial past. The idea was to recover the outstanding natural beauty of the area’s river and beaches and to phase out its industrial uses in favour of residential, commercial and leisure facilities (for athletic activities and restoration).
Font ended his lecture by urging students to face these challenges head-on and to propose a new set-up for one of metropolitan Barcelona’s most singular and extraordinary pieces.
