“Connecting Margins, Regenerating Social Fabric. The Opportunity of Besòs Neighbourhoods as a Contemporary Urban Essay” is the title that describes the focus of the 2024 final degree projects of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture. In total, 32 coordinated proposals for the neighbourhoods of the metropolitan area of Barcelona bordering the mouth of the river Besòs were presented.

One of the main challenges of this area is its fragmentation due to infrastructure, which has accentuated the disconnection between these neighbourhoods, each with its own identity. The Besòs River has also historically acted as a barrier, rather than a connecting element.

The students’ projects focus on existing spaces and plots and propose solutions to overcome these barriers and connect the neighbourhoods with each other, creating a more permeable and liveable urban space. The TFGs explore how neighbourhood regeneration can have a positive multiplier effect in adjacent neighbourhoods, benefitting the entire area.

The projects of UIC Barcelona School of Architecture were coordinated by lecturers and architects Iñaki Baquero and Álvaro Cuéllar along with Alberto Burgos, María Barcina and Marta García Orte. During the exposition and presentation at the headquarters of the COAC, a multidisciplinary jury examined the future architects. The panel was formed by part of the teaching staff of the university, led by the director of the school, Víctor Echarri, and prestigious architects and urban planners such as Ignacio Vicens, Josep Bohigas and Josep Miàs.

Barcelona urban agenda

The final degree projects are aligned with the current focus of Barcelona’s urban agenda, such as the recovery of river spaces, the connection of peripheral neighbourhoods and the promotion of sustainability and social cohesion. The students’ projects demonstrate how urban reflection and architectural design can contribute to the construction of cities that are fairer, more resilient and more liveable.

“The course has addressed one of the most important challenges of urban regeneration in Barcelona, which is the development of regions bordering rivers and mountains. The projects propose to reflect on the type of programme most suitable for this type of region” explained Álvaro Cuéllar. “It is also interesting that the projects cover all levels of the city strategy, from an urban scale to construction detail. This is not common practice among architects, and less in the final degree projects in schools of architecture, he added.

Iñaki Baquero, meanwhile, emphasised that “the projects make up a complete journey of the architectural process, in which urbanism and architecture nourish each other. With this approach, students carry out a complete process and end up discovering the greatness of urbanism through architecture, and the greatness of architecture through urbanism”