María Buhigas
Adjunct professor
Marc Montlleó
Adjunct Professor
MBIArch Notes: PLP
MBIArch Notes
09/02/2011The Productive Land Program (PLP) was a two-week seminar and site-specific workshop dedicated to analyzing and developing the productive capacities of land in a semi-rural context.
Directed by Joan Roig— Principal of Batlle i Roig Arquitects—and with the support of architects Anna Viader and María Buhigas, as well as biologist Marc Montilleó, MBIArch students reviewed specific planning frameworks and methodologies and where presented with relevant case studies before setting out for their workshop/excursion, in which they had to propose a specific working hypothesis and intervention.
Students and faculty visited greenhouses, irrigation systems, landfills, timber farms, vineyards and wineries, rice paddies, rural co-ops, and agrotourism facilities; recording and analyzing the productive infrastructures that support the dynamic landscapes of the Catalan countryside. They toured the very distinct settings of the Delta de l’Ebre, Priorat, Montsant, and the Franja de Ponent. The Parc the la Mitjana, a natural reserve on the outskirts of Lleida (a city located about 150 km west from Barcelona) was the site chosen for the project proposals.
Students had to take into account actual site considerations and constraints, but also tailor their designs to specific economic and productive scenarios, in which strategies for sustainable development are drawn from and in response to a specific “logic of place”. The workshop emphasized that, beyond contemplation, landscape is meaningful as an active resource, that “production is the germ and the reason for the existence of any new place.”
All photos by Andrés Flajszer
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Productive Land Program
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