Around twenty students from the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture took part in the tenth Llum BCN Festival, organised by Barcelona City Council and held from 5 to 7 November in the Poblenou neighbourhood. Tutored by lecturer Inaki Baquero, the School’s students designed an installation they titled “.net”, which was available to view throughout the weekend in the Parc del Centre in Poblenou (Avenida Diagonal, 130). 

The project “.net” featured a light installation that evoked a previous, original installation designed and installed in February, but which could not be visited at that time due to the postponement of the festival due to the pandemic. The initial installation presented a critical reflection on the role media plays in society and the increasing manipulation of information. It featured a series of projections and shadows that used, as its centrepiece, an original structure by French architect Jean Nouvel, who designed the park that hosted the event. “The lockdowns and restrictions caused by COVID-19 forced us to work and communicate in new ways that we did not even know existed. This light installation aims to reflect on that context, using the originally-intended installation as a point of reference”, explained the students. 

The Llum BCN festival is one of the most important light festivals in Europe and is visited by hundreds of people each year. The festival’s organisers describe it as a great “laboratory of the nocturnal landscape”, which features renowned international artists as well as projects designed by the city's main schools of architecture and design. Students at UIC Barcelona School of Architecture have won the Llum BCN Awards twice so far. First in 2017, when a group of students won first prize with their proposal titled “Clarobscur”. Then again in 2019, students won first prize at the festival with their project called “Verd Botella”.