A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Matter and energy: architectural affections to the obsolete. Re-inhabiting vacant workspace in Barcelona
Focusing on reuse, this thesis explores the viability of implementing a mixed-use housing and workspace program to repurpose obsolete buildings. Both the fundamentals of the program and the analyzed building stock are deconstructed into their constituent elements, seeking compatibility that allows for new forms of appropriation. In this process, not only are their physical characteristics assessed, but also their social, cultural, and environmental value. The research reflects on the concept of inhabiting, dividing the theoretical exploration into two dimensions: the material construction of spaces and their immaterial appropriation, as well as the relation of these two spheres to the concept of matter and energy. Understanding the life of buildings as a process that doesn’t end with their construction but rather depends on their capacity for repair, maintenance, and continuous inhabitation. The hypothesis suggests that office buildings present optimal configurations to be repurposed for collective living and workspaces, providing a new opportunity for occupation that reflects on the relationship between life and work. It examines how this dichotomy has shaped the evolution of domestic space by questioning traditional social and family structures and their impact on the conception of both private and public realms. Barcelona serves as a case study, framed by two parallel crises: a historical shortage of affordable housing and an oversupply of office space in the process of becoming vacant. A general analysis of the city as a field of action results in a collection of buildings as potential intervention opportunities. After constituting an atlas that focuses on understanding the physical characteristics of the buildings through a typological analysis, a selection of a few of them serves as an opportunity to explore, through project essays, different ways to inhabit them. ; Award-winning
Matter and energy: architectural affections to the obsolete. Re-inhabiting vacant workspace in Barcelona
Focusing on reuse, this thesis explores the viability of implementing a mixed-use housing and workspace program to repurpose obsolete buildings. Both the fundamentals of the program and the analyzed building stock are deconstructed into their constituent elements, seeking compatibility that allows for new forms of appropriation. In this process, not only are their physical characteristics assessed, but also their social, cultural, and environmental value. The research reflects on the concept of inhabiting, dividing the theoretical exploration into two dimensions: the material construction of spaces and their immaterial appropriation, as well as the relation of these two spheres to the concept of matter and energy. Understanding the life of buildings as a process that doesn’t end with their construction but rather depends on their capacity for repair, maintenance, and continuous inhabitation. The hypothesis suggests that office buildings present optimal configurations to be repurposed for collective living and workspaces, providing a new opportunity for occupation that reflects on the relationship between life and work. It examines how this dichotomy has shaped the evolution of domestic space by questioning traditional social and family structures and their impact on the conception of both private and public realms. Barcelona serves as a case study, framed by two parallel crises: a historical shortage of affordable housing and an oversupply of office space in the process of becoming vacant. A general analysis of the city as a field of action results in a collection of buildings as potential intervention opportunities. After constituting an atlas that focuses on understanding the physical characteristics of the buildings through a typological analysis, a selection of a few of them serves as an opportunity to explore, through project essays, different ways to inhabit them. ; Award-winning
Matter and energy: architectural affections to the obsolete. Re-inhabiting vacant workspace in Barcelona
2024-10-23
Theses
Electronic Resource
English
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Arquitectura::Restauració arquitectònica , Office buildings -- Remodeling for other use -- Spain -- Barcelona , Dwellings -- Spain -- Barcelona , Inhabit , Reuse , Collective , Living , Working , Edifcis d'oficines -- Reconversió -- Catalunya -- Barcelona , Habitatges -- Catalunya -- Barcelona
DDC:
720