Around twenty students from UIC Barcelona School of Architecture took part in the eleventh Llum BCN Festival, organised by Barcelona City Council and held from 4 to 6 February in the Poblenou district. Under the supervision of lecturer Iñaki Baquero, the School’s students designed an installation they titled “Nedant en plàstic” (Swimming in plastic) which was visited by hundreds of people across the weekend in the Parc del Centre del Poblenou (Avenida Diagonal, 130).

The installation depicted the conceptual materialisation of a large wave of plastic made from almost 2,000 recycled bottles and the sequential illumination of 30 sets of reused Christmas lights that were assembled using four wooden profiles, on one of the pre-existing sculptural structures in the park, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. 

“Nedant en plàstic” sought to criticise the serious issue of ocean pollution that is leading to the collapse of marine fauna and flora. “The effect generated by the different heights and shapes of the symbolic wave forced visitors to feel enveloped by the installation, something they will remember. The purpose of the installation was ultimately to raise public awareness of the warning our oceans are giving us”, explains lecturer Iñaki Baquero.

The Llum BCN festival is one of the most important light festivals in Europe and is visited by hundreds of people each year. The organisers describe it as a great “laboratory of the nocturnal landscape”, which features artists with consolidated international careers. The festival sets itself apart from others with a section dedicated to promoting proposals designed by the city's 16 main schools of architecture and design. Students at UIC Barcelona School of Architecture have won the Llum BCN Awards twice to date. In 2017, our students won joint first prize with their proposal titled “Clarobscur”. Then, in 2019, they won first prize again with their proposal “Verd Botella”.