︎ a ritual of air & water.pdf

    In the middle of Barcelona lies the Vila de Gràcia, a neighbourhood drawn together by a scattered system of plazas and narrow pedestrian ways. Its configuration differs somewhat from the continuous systematic grid that extends along the city, following the traces of what had been the property division lines of croplands and the many streams that watered them. Each plaza marks the place where the irrigation wells of agricultural plots were placed. Plaça de la Vila stands in the middle of the neighbourhood. A thirtythree-meter-high bell tower faces the historical town hall of the village, surrounded on the three remaining faces by restaurant terraces and other urban elements all shadowed by a dense roof of trees. The quarter-hourly ringing of the central bell marks the daily rhythm that rises up from amidst of environmental sounds. The relative acoustic isolation encourages social encounters of many kinds, thus foregrounding a sense of community and locality that echoes its rural origins.

    Our vision of 2068 encompasses a parsimonious attitude, grounded in resource sharing, respect for the environment, and a strong sense of community. Public space will have to make compromises for climate change and pollution: atmospheric, visual, and sonic. Therefore, the place is designed around water, which we take from the air and we offer back in a ritual-like gesture. Mesh-made water collectors take the humidity of the air through condensation and drawn it to a well. Overshadowing this well, a dislocated tectonic platform, covered by an ever-flowing membrane of the cold water underneath, cools the surrounding air. When people walk on the surface, their footsteps resonate as if echoes from the bell tower. The reflection of the bell is seen on the surface of the platform. The pillars that support the water collectors are joined by cables from which all kinds of wind chimes made by the community will hang. The public space thus becomes a shared playground that emphasises a collective sense of belonging as well as a sort of animism in the symbolic natural sounds of water and wind flow.