2010 Vertical Workshop

The following is set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically, in Article 25: everyone has the right to a suitable level of life which ensures health and wellbeing for them and their family, especially in terms of food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. It has been estimated that around 1.800 million people do not have an acceptable and suitable home of their own. If the various types of catastrophes which are leading to the worst situations for humanity are added to this, as has recently been the case in Haiti and Chile, then the urgent need for a response from architects and urban planners becomes even more obvious.

This new role requiring architects and urban planners to resolve large-scale problems within such a small timeframe, involves rapid, immediate and mass responses to situations of chaos, and large management problems affected by the idiosynchracy of the same cultures in environments which have until now been unknown.

This new "usefulness" in the professions of both architects and urban planners opens up a wide range of opportunities in which to carry out actions based on their hippocratic principle: to create acceptable and suitable housing within habitable cities. Additionally, it involves incorporating two parametres which had until now not been dealt with in architectural studies: sustainability, and international cooperation. The response must be sustainable and bring together ideal solutions in social, economic and environmental fields, suited to each cultural environment.

The objective of the Workshop was the design and construction of 10 prototypes of emergency housing on a 1:1 scale for refugee camps, as well as designing packaging, creating a project presentation and also an instruction manual for the construction of the said housing.
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Directors: Vicenç Sarrablo, Jordi Roviras, Borja Ferrater and Judith Urbano
Deputy directors: Ivan Llach and Raquel Colacios

Teachers:

• Jorge Vidal + José Manuel Toral
• María Sisternas + Lluc Coma
• Ariadna Perich + Roger Such
• Maria Borrell + Sebastián Guerrico
• Giovanna Carnevalli + Giacomo Delbene
• Josep Ferrando + Sergi Serrat
• Eva Luque + Alejandro Pascual
• Jordi Ayala + Igor Urdampilleta
• Fernando Rodríguez + Mara Sánchez
• Estel Ortega + Sergi Pons

Directors of the Horizontal Workshop: Manel Arenas + Miquel Lacasta

Dates: From Wednesday 8 to Thursday 16 September 2010.