A group of 4th-year students, directed by professors Carmen Mendoza and Jaime Batlle, attended this summer a 10-days workshop entitled “Focusing on the Reality”, in Shanghai, China. The UIC Barcelona group was invited by the Shanghai Bambuspace Design firm to work together with Urban Micro Space Revival Plan (UBSRP) Research Team on redesign the lost spaces in Music Valley, Hongkou district, Shanghai. The focus of the workshop was to create a brainstorm of ideas which build on the existing urban relationships and potentialities of the Music Valley neighborhood in Shanghai.

This are the results obtained from the “Focusing on the Reality” workshop. During this workshop, our students created a proposal of redesigning the “lost spaces” in the Music Valley of Shanghai.

Conceptual proposal

The proposal follows three basic objectives. The first one is to create platforms as bridges which allow to link two neighbourhoods that nowadays are separated by the river, and also for connecting the Linongs with the facilities of the Music Valley. As well, the platforms are used as a stage for the Music Valley and as a place for the neighbours to make different activities.

The second objective is to create some medium scale buildings as an intermediate front between the big scale of the skyscrapers and the small scale of the Linongs. These new buildings are based on the existing Linongs while placing them from horizontal to vertical position.

The third objective consists in creating some doors in the main entrances of the Linongs where we make the intervention as some reference points for the citizens. Linongs are very warm because of the sun, so we protect the streets with some pergolas that give shadow while they allow people to hang their clothes on to them.

The whole intervention connects the ground floors while creating pedestrian routes and is extended until the Park.

To activate a sustainable urban fabric, it is necessary to find a linkage between the existing urban forms and the open spaces, activities and public facilities.

The objective is to create a ‘civic network’ capable of acting as a catalyst for the urban improvement of the whole neighborhood. The focus of the 10-days workshop was to create a brainstorm of ideas which build on the existing urban relationships and potentialities of the Music Valley neighborhood in Shanghai.

At the end of August 2016, the Urban Micro Space Revival Plan (UBSRP) group organized the “UBSRP-2016 Shanghai and Barcelona Workshop Achievement” presentation during the Shanghai Design Week to present the results obtained from the “Focusing on the Reality” workshop.

Professors: PhD. Carmen Mendoza Arroyo, Arch. Jaime Batlle Cañelllas and Arch. Tong Lingfeng.
Students: Oriol Anglada, Xavier Altimira, Albert Jové, Alexandre Llapart, Sandro Mistrali, Monica Rovira, Juan F Torres and Laura Vall.

Alexandre Llapart, UIC Barcelona School of Architecture.