YOUNG ARCHITECTS FROM “PONENT”

On Thursday, June 13, the Lleida Branch is organizing the conference “Young Architects from Ponent” led by architects Aleix Salazar and Alba Terés, which will take place at 7:30 PM in the Assembly Hall of the Branch.

PUBLIC HOUSING IN POST-WAR LLEIDA. INDIVIDUALITIES, REPETITIONS, AND OPPORTUNITIES

There are certain areas in cities that are not frequently traversed. These are usually neighborhoods, almost always disadvantaged and humble, that people generally avoid, either due to difficult access or an invisible barrier in the form of stigma separating them from the rest of the city. It is assumed that whatever can be found within has no value. However, these areas occupy large spaces in our cities, and their potential qualities and possibilities have not been studied. All city dwellers know them, but few could describe them accurately.

In a somewhat trivial manner, one could say that public housing blocks scattered across the territory are variations of the type already established in large metropolitan cities. However, this is not entirely the case. While typological repetition, with its corresponding peculiarities, is present in these works, another aspect makes them specific to the new place they are creating, particularly their intent to “organize” what they presumed to call public space. It is important to understand which spaces should truly assume this role, and especially, which ones should connect this space with the more domestic ones.

The conference highlights the repetition and specificity of the housing developments in Lleida built in the post-war era. A representative sample of minor architecture in terms of interest, but significant due to the circumstances surrounding it and its reasons for being.

Aleix Salazar Aloy, architect from ETSAB-UPC (2019) with a Master’s in Advanced Studies of Architecture, specializing in projects and rehabilitation. Thesis “Public Housing in Post-War Lleida. Repetition and Specificity of the Type, 8 Cases.” Directed by Pere Joan Ravetllat and Eduard Callís. Currently developing it as a doctoral thesis in architectural projects at ETSAB.

WATER: STRATEGIES FOR A NEW PARADIGM. FROM THE LLEIDA PLAIN TO THE CITY

In the Ponent of Catalonia, there is a territory where water rules: The Lleida Plain.

200,000 hectares constructed by water, which over time has consolidated a network of rivers, clamors, ditches, and canals that activate and connect natural, agricultural, and livestock habitats and a constellation-like habitability orbiting around the referential hill where the city of Lleida is situated.

The contact area between the Plain and the city forms the unique space of the Lleida Orchard: 15,000 hectares between Orchard and City form the project’s working scale.

The transformation of the Orchard’s uses, the city’s expansion, and its urbanizing dynamics following imposed logics on the territory are creating discontinuities between natural, rural, and urban ecosystems that do not meet current global requirements.

A paradigm shift based on our territory’s potential is needed to overcome dichotomies between the countryside and the city and address the major crises of climate emergency, biodiversity, and the exhaustion of a finite territory.

Alba Terés Ros, architect from ETSAR-URV (2022)

Final Degree Project and Master’s Thesis (Director: Toni Gironès) with honors and awarded at the XVI Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism Medio Pla-zo (2023) and nominated for the EUmies Young Talent (2023).