The Palau Robert presents Somia la Ciutat, one of the season's major exhibitions that aims to provide a new vision of what the cities of the future can become, based on three main axes: digitalization, ecology, and identity. As they themselves say, it is an invitation to conscious optimism from architecture, technology, and urban design, but one that seeks to incite reflections on city models.
To this end, a good number of local, national, and international firms have joined forces with various companies in the industrial design sector, contributing urban and architectural projects, and prototypes that open innovative paths, all under the baton of curator and architect Roger Subirà, and with a clear Catalan accent.
Articulated in various rooms, Somia la Ciutat presents a section dedicated to theory where a collage of images, videos, and models coexist, along with projects that have recently been completed or are in the process of materialization, both in our country and abroad.
These proposals are not just theory; some of them are already being carried out both in our country and abroad.The exhibition exalts creativity from an optimistic perspective, highlighting those axes, synthesized into three revolutions, through which cities can reorganize and redesign themselves to face a positive future despite the serious crises we are going through: a green revolution, a digital revolution, and a revolution in identity.
Although at first glance it seems that all these concepts are difficult to transfer to urban planning, it is shown that, by changing the perspective from which the city is observed, towards the people who inhabit it, it is possible that these changes are more than feasible, are sustainable and considerably improve the quality of life of all those who still inhabit the city. And this is already demonstrated in the first room, where through an immersive audiovisual, we can see how this has already happened throughout history and how the values of the time have been the driving force for these changes, with the example of Cerdà's Barcelona as the closest to us.
By changing the perspective from which the city is observed, it is possible that the changes are more than feasible, are sustainable and considerably improve the quality of life of all those who still inhabit the cityIn the second room, we transit through a dark and unsettling environment that refers us to cities extracted from the world of cinema, series, and video games, with the grace that a sense not accustomed to working in exhibitions is set in motion, such as smell, through which we feel the stench of dirt. Antechamber to the rooms of revolutions, it fulfills the requirement that it be the darkest hour, the one before sunrise.
That is why the green we find when moving to the next space contrasts more, to make us realize how it is possible to carry out architectural transformation proposals linked to the environment and sustainability, to understand that it is not only an aesthetic issue, but that it is linked to health and the preservation of the environment.
For the digital revolution, its application is understood more as therapeutic environments or for learning, spaces to experiment with designs applicable to reality. Although there is also an approach where it is questioned whether AI can help us create a better space than the human mind. It is a room that interrogates, but from which we cannot leave without being aware that technology has come to stay.
Cities that contemplate all their inhabitants without distinction. And above all, where leisure space is not synonymous with consumption spaceIn the identity revolution room, an urbanism that promotes well-being is presented, which aims to recover those spaces where we feel good, and adapt them to all people, whether young or old, have some difficulty in mobility or are dependent. Cities that contemplate all their inhabitants without distinction. And above all, where leisure space is not synonymous with consumption space.
The post-pandemic brought with it a terrible bipolar discourse, in which everything seemed possible to achieve and could be better, only to then encounter a mediocre reality, in which, quite the contrary, many things have worsened and systemic problems whose root is still deeply entrenched have been aggravated. The gatopardismo in which we live is nothing more than the natural consequence of everything that has happened to us and is happening to us, and this also translates into how we live in cities, into what we want, what we can and what we need to do while we are linked to them.
That is why exhibitions like Somia la Ciutat presented by Palau Robert, restore our faith in the possibility of continuing to live in large cities in a healthy way, and, above all, revive the pandemic spirit of getting rid of what does not do us good and does not add up.
The exhibition 'Somia la Ciutat' can be visited until June 11 and admission is free for all audiences.