23/09/2014

UIC Barcelona ESARQ Students Create Life-Sized Hygienic Solutions for Moroccan Primary Schools

Around 200 students from the UIC Barcelona’s ESARQ School of Architecture worked intensely during the first week of the academic year to kick-start the 2014 Vertical Workshop. For this 17th edition of the workshop, which went by the title of “Washitecture: Emergency Water Architecture for Moroccan Schools”, the students had to create life-sized scale models proposing hygienic solutions for primary schools in Zagora, the largest province in the Moroccan region of Souss-Massa-Drâa. The workshop was sponsored by the companies Roca and Gabarró and organized in collaboration with the We Are Water Foundation.

The Vertical Workshop is a consolidated cross-cutting workshop in which students in the second to fourth years of Architecture at the ESARQ School of Architecture work in teams on a practical exercise (including the creation of a 1:1 scale model) with the help of renowned architects. The 2014 Vertical Workshop took place from 3 to 10 September 2014 and was based on the collaboration project that the We Are Water Foundation is implementing in Moroccan primary schools in partnership with UNICEF. The aim of the project is to improve water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and to help create a safe environment for children. 

For the workshop, students had to develop individual hygienic solutions that would resolve the issue of access to water in schools. They had to show how good design could help achieve ambitious goals, such as the eradication of disease, increased attendance at school, greater awareness of the value of water as a scarce resource and the acquisition of hygienic habits that could be passed on to the children's families. The students built their life-sized models using wood provided by Gabarró. 

Each year the ESARQ School of Architecture aims to make its students reflect on a specific topic proposed by the school’s director. The 2014 edition of the workshop was directed by the lecturers Estel Ortega and Tomeu Ramis and coordinated by ESARQ alumni Adrián Jurado and Jaime Fernández, who underlined the value of the event’s cross-cutting nature. “The students have to design the object itself as well as the set of elements that make up a particular place. They have to move from industrial design to architecture, and for this reason the groups have been directed on a multidisciplinary basis”, the coordinators remarked. 

“Throughout the week, the ESARQ School of Architecture is transformed into an experimental laboratory where teams compete with one another to produce results, which are then presented before a final panel of judges. The ESARQ School of Architecture’s consolidated Vertical Workshop not only fosters internal reflection, but also aims to be a forum for external debate where the University and the business world come together to develop solutions for society while exploring new, strategic and cross-cutting phenomena in the world of architecture”, added Pere Vall, the Director of the ESARQ School of Architecture.  

The Vertical Workshop has been held every year since the ESARQ School of Architecture was founded 17 years ago. Since then, it has enjoyed input from renowned international architects such as Carlos Ferrater, Carme Pinós, Emilio Tuñón, Luis Moreno Mansilla, Winy Maas, Karl Chu, Bernard Cache, Mike Weinstock and Dennis Dollens. 

VERTICAL WORKSHOP CALENDAR OF EVENTS 

- Wednesday, 3 September 2014, 9 a.m.: Introduction to the 2014 Vertical Workshop. Noon: Opening talk on the Vertical Workshop given by the architect Martín Azúa and Carlos Garriga, the Project Manager at the We Are Water Foundation. 

- Sunday, 7 September 2014: The architect Curro Claret takes a tour of the facilities and offers a critique of the students’ work. 

- Wednesday, 10 September: In the morning, the projects are placed on display in the UIC’s Passeig de la Fontana (C/ Immaculada, 22, Barcelona). The panel of judges deliberates behind closed doors in the afternoon. 

The Panel of Judges is made up of the architects Martín Azúa, Curro Claret, Javier García Germán and Borja Ferrater, plus Xavier Torras, the Director of the We Are Water Foundation. 

- Thursday, 18 September 2014, 7 p.m.: Official prize-giving ceremony and opening of the exhibition organized by Roca (in collaboration with the ESARQ School of Architecture with the support of the We Are Water Foundation) at the Roca Barcelona Gallery, where the students’ work can be visited for one month free of charge.