Senior Studio: Architectural Design and Development (Barcelona)

Alejandro Lapunzina and Carles Marcos, Spring 2020

At the IASAP-BV (the School’s study abroad program in Barcelona), ARCH 475 is offered in the spring semester as the culmination of the undergraduate sequence of architectural design courses.

In the Spring 2020 semester, students were asked to design a Culinary Institute located in Barcelona.  The assignment focused on reaffirming the exploration of a creative design process based on the search of architectural concepts and strategies of design deriving from the critical understanding of site and program.

To engage in the design of a building presupposes a clear and thorough understanding of what the building’s purpose and nature are.  This project was undertaken with the understanding that the Barcelona Culinary Institute, a fictive institution, is a new private facility dedicated to the organization of cooking workshops of varying length (from day-long intensive workshops to one-full year program of studies and training) for a potentially wide audience ranging from highly experienced chefs to the general public.

The site was located on a partially occupied plot facing Plaça Margarida Xirgu, just north of Barcelona’s emblematic Montjuic.  The other boundaries of the site are defined by Carrer de la Concòrdia and Carrer de la Puríssima Concepció.  These two streets are at a significantly lower elevation level than Plaça Margarida Xirgu.  The site was chosen both because of its physical characteristics (elongated footprint, open on three sides, between two streets at different elevation levels) and because of the civic/institutional urban environment that Plaça Margarida Xirgu provides.