Waterfront Barcelona:
Give Us the Water Back! brings together 18 projects which set out to create a new entrance to Barcelona from the sea, including
a large port terminal, a hotel, a convention centre, a photography museum and a
residential development. The projects are based on the hypothetical proposal of
building a tunnel under the sea for the coastal ring road, thereby freeing up
space in the Port
of Barcelona.

With this
exhibition, which can be visited until 25 July 2012, the ESARQ shows its commitment to Barcelona and highlights the
relevant role architecture schools have in urban planning and how important it
is for these schools to do research, reflect on and share their ideas to solve
the problems that arise in the city.

Oriol Bohigas opened the roundtable
session by recalling the long and complicated relationship the city has had
with the sea. He congratulated the school for choosing to deal with the port,
an area of the city with a pressing problem in need of an immediate solution. Bohigas opted for interventions that place Montjuïc Hill in the iconic role it deserves by making it Barcelona’s
Central Park. Special guest architect Esteve
Bonell advocated the use of open space as an essential element in creating the
city to reconnect the hill and the sea and thus return Montjuïc to its rightful place of prominence.

Carles Llop defended the idea that the
growth of the city should not only be concerned with recovering public space,
but also with the search for a new production model. He recalled how the port
has always adapted to the city and insisted that now is the time for the city
to lay claim to the port and open itself up to the sea.

Mario Corea, a special guest
architect and an ESARQ professor of first-year projects, defended the idea that
schools of architecture must explore the problems created by the city in order
to stimulate debate in the profession and the city. Architect Jordi
Badia, the curator of the exhibition and an ESARQ professor of final projects,
insisted that the debate that took place at the opening was strictly
architectural and not political. He stressed that the works on display were
academic projects based on an area of the city where there is a latent need to
connect the city to the sea and the sea to the city. All
those who participated in the roundtable session and debate agreed on the
importance of the university’s initiative to work on its home city and move the
debate outside the academic setting.