BIArch Journal

• Share:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Mail

Workshop: Registering Landscapes of Uncertainty

MBIArch Notes

This seven-day workshop consisted of recording and producing cartographic material in an effort to reveal realities underlying within the urban routine. The work was based on the experiences of a three-day journey walking along the course of a river, moving towards the sea, with four days left to analyze and reproduce the collected material in the studio.

Assistant Professor Carles Enrich provides a log of the participants experience.

Days 1, 2, & 3: Traveling with uncertainty
Tagamanent – La Garriga, View photos from the workshop here

A group of travelers formed by 25 students, professors Toni Gironés, Carles Enrich and photographer and visiting lecturer Xavier Ribas, begin the expedition with the uncertainty of not knowing the specific mission and charge of the workshop. Congost-Besós River is the thread that guides us through landscapes of uncertainty. In its path towards the sea we pass through forests, rural areas, outlying areas, urban gardens and small towns that have stood the test of time.

Granollers – Montmeló, View photos from the workshop here

The only information we have are the routes that will be taken on the three consecutive days, and our means of transportation (walking 4 to 5 hours each day). In the first stage, we walk through a rural area from Tagamanent to La Garriga; in the second stage we move into industrial-agricultural areas from Granollers to Montmeló; and in the third stage we arrive at the urban area from Montcada i Reixach to the Delta and Badalona beach.

Montcada i Reixach – Besòs Delta, View photos from the workshop here

This uncertainty turns the trip into a personal experience, without pretenses and aiding in making fair assessments.

Registering landscapes of uncertainty, View photos from the workshop here

In these three days of travel we try to pinpoint constants that allow us to abstract the architectural conditions of these places. In this sense, we focus our interest on three situations that develop around the river: crossing points (when the river is crossed by other infrastructures), dwellings at borders (a look at the domesticity at the rivers edge) and associated places (places found some distance from the river).

The trip presents an analytical view of the various examples that we will find along the way and their capacity as pre-existing architecture.

Days 4, 5 & 6: Working with uncertainty
Back in the BIArch Workspace, View photos from the workshop here

Returning to the BIArch workspace we face the uncertainty of the next three working days…
Students do not know exactly what work will be done, so their experience and memory will be essential in reconstructing the whole journey. In this regard, there will be quick practice based on the reinterpretation of the mental maps of the 3 days without any cartographic help.

Categorizing the Material, View photos from the workshop here

We produce and work as a team of 25+1 travelers. The first and most important thing that we do is organize and share all of the material registered during the first three days. This operation generates a debate about the categorization of the different situations that we found to finally establish a general base which will serve as a starting point for the exercise. It should be noted that the intervention is the point of view, and in no way intends to be anything more than the reading and abstraction of the architectural conditions of these landscapes.

BIArch Workspace, View photos from the workshop here

In the end, the project undertaken by the 25+1 students who have participated in the experience was to produce a catalog of the architectural conditions of 69 landscapes of uncertainty. The number of landscapes is a condition defined by the physical attendance of students during the three day trip (each of the 22 students who were in the three stages make 3 different files while the 3 students who did a partial trip are working only on the day they have attended and are responsible for a general map of this day). Gauri could not attend any day, so she has helped us with an external vision of the trip and has been commissioned to make a chronicle of all the travelers. In this sense, each participant is crucial to the group and we establish cooperative working systems to optimize the limited time available.

Day 7: Presenting our Findings
'El Molinet' (Santa Coloma), View photos from the workshop here

We present our project in the ‘El Molinet’ restaurant in Santa Coloma- a place that meets all three of the workshop's  themes: crossing points, dwellings at borders, and associated places.  The expectant audience is made up of members of BIArch and invited guests including architects, anthropologists and graphic designers who are working on various aspects related to this practice. The final catalog is defined as a team, but every traveler also presents their own view of the trip through personal material that has been collected throughout the whole workshop and could be the start of 26 personal projects...

-Carles Enrich, Assistant Professor
Workshop: Registering Landscapes of Uncertainty

• Tags:

• Architectural Design,
• Urban Design,
• Territorial Design,
• Faculty