The exercise consisted of planning 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.

Architecture Students from the MSA worked on one specific project, a museum in the three-chimneyed building that is being incorporated into the ESARQ students’ urban waterfront. When the MSA students visited on Tuesday, 21 October 2014, the UIC students presented their projects. Students from both architecture schools then talked about their projects together.

Students from the TU Darmstadt worked on a project for a programme very similar to that of the ESARQ students: proposing urban planning based on the parameters held by the Barcelona City Council. On Tuesday, 4 November 2014, TU Darmstadt students visited the ESARQ School of Architecture and the director of their workshop, Annette Rudolph-Cleff, gave an interesting class on houses in German neighbourhoods. Afterwards, the UIC students presented their projects and students from both architecture schools talked about their projects together.

The goal of this workshop was for students to prepare a joint presentation involving students from three universities and, after the workshop was over, to potentially prepare an exhibition and publication with the best of these projects in order to show the fruit of this exchange.

This collaborative project between three universities is part of the ESARQ School of Architecture’s internationalization strategy, which plans workshops such as this one with prestigious universities from across the globe. This internationalization of content and exchange of knowledge is made possible, in part, thanks to visits and group work days in which different professors give lectures to students from other universities.