The Update Series: Cities Connection Project before, during and after the lockdown.

We’re starting a series of posts updating the activity of Cities Connection Project just before and during the COVID lockdown. We have been actively searching for ways to keep triggering connections among European cities, featuring how architecture practices struggle to keep working in pandemic scenarios.

The result couldn’t be better, as we have witnessed how architecture is a driving agent in shaping cities and how much interest is between architects to learn by sharing experiences.

Re-Activate the city in COAC – September 2019, Tarragona.

The adventure wouldn’t be the same without the inestimable complicity of our colleagues of Wallonie-Bruxelles Architectures, the advise of dpr_barcelona in setting hybrid strategies for exhibitions and expanding our network, and the support of the institutions and sponsors featured below. You all make possible that Cities Connection keep opening and maintaining links between Barcelona and relevant cities shaping contemporary architecture repertoire.

Don’t miss the series and stay tuned for further connections coming soon!

Photographers featured in the series: Jerôme Van Belle, CCP, Arthur Pequin, Giedrius Akelis Photography

Exhibition Import WB_Export BCN. Re-Activate the city in le308. Bordeaux.

June 3rd 2021.

Opening in le 308_Maison de l’Architecture with architects from Bordeaux (Vincent Arné and Samira Ait Mehdi), Brussels (Thierry Decuypere and Gil Honoré) and Barcelona (Judith Leclerc, Jaime Coll, Pasqual Bendicho, Meritxell Inaraja and Oriol Cusidó), radio debat moderated by David Vernet and Sara Meunier and architecture guided visits to some representative projects.

MEZZANINE – RUMEURS17 – Cities Connection Project #10 – Rencontres. Listen here.

Le 308 – Rencontres européennes d’architecture. Read here

Photos: Artur Pequin + CCP

SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2019 _IMPORT WB_EXPORT BCN RE-ACTIVATE THE CITY. EXHIBITION AT COAC, TARRAGONA

After being staged in Brussels at ULB – Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta last October 2018 and Barcelona at Arts Santa Mònica last April 2019, the exhibition _IMPORT WB_EXPORT BCN RE-ACTIVATE THE CITY continues its itinerancy at Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC) in Tarragona. 

The exhibition, curated by Nicola Regusci and Xavier Bustos in collaboration with Wallonie-Bruxelles Architectures, will be on display from the 19th of September until 14th November

 19th September 2019

Opening conference, 7.30pm, Sala d’Exposicions de la Demarcació de Tarragona:  Lecture led by A229 (Import Wallonie-Bruxelles) + Taller 9s (Oriol Cusidó + Irene Marzo) (Export Bcn). The opening speech will be given by Xavier Bustos and Nicola Regusci (Cities Connection Project), curators of the exhibition.

17th October 2019

Intermediate conference, 7.30pm Sala d’Exposicions de la Demarcació de Tarragona:  Lecture led by AGWA architects (Import Wallonie-Bruxelles) + GATPA (Alex Gallego + Jordi Adell + Gerard Puig + David Tapias) (Export Bcn).

PHOTOS: IMPORT WB_EXPORT BCN RE-ACTIVATE THE CITY. BARCELONA

The “Import WB_Export BCN. Re-Activate The City” exhibition in Barcelona ended this week, marking the closing of this edition of the Cities Connection Project. We’d like to thank everyone involved in the project and everyone who attended the exhibitions!

The project starts with the connection between Barcelona and other cities in Europe by means of a double exhibition of architecture, which serves as a meeting place to ​​share knowledge, discuss the different city proposals and understand the architectural culture of each territory.

This fifth edition, which connects Barcelona with Wallonia-Brussels, works on the idea of ​​reactivating projects in the city, and examining the architecture of public facilities (cultural, educational, mixed use, public spaces…) with special emphasis on the improvement of social cohesion of the city, particularly in areas with a certain level of urban degradation.

Photos by J. Van Belle & Jordi Play.


APRIL 4-23 2019 _EXHIBITION_IMPORT WB_EXPORT BCN RE-ACTIVATE THE CITY. BARCELONA

From the 4th to the 23rd of April 2019, there will be an exhibition with plans, photos and models of the 40 projects to re-activate the city (20 from Barcelona + 20 from Wallonia-Brussels) at Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona. The opening event of the exhibition will take place on the 4th of April 2019.

4th of April

Opening conference, 19h, Auditorium Santa Mònica: Lecture led by Ferran Grau (Dipl. Arch, PhD. Department of Architectural Design ETSAB) and Audrey Contesse (Art historian, architect, critic and curator) who contextualized the selection of the 40 projects of the exhibition. Opening of the exhibition, 20h, First floor (level 1) and Sala Balcó.

5th of April

Round table, 17h, Fundació Mies van der Rohe: Roundtable between Catalan and Belgian architects, moderated by Ferran Grau and Audrey Contesse (authors of the critical texts of the Cities Connection Project catalog) on the projects and the urban, political and social context with which each study has worked. At 19h, once the debate is over, there will be music and drinks. See the event.

9th of April

Conference, 19h, Auditorium Santa Mònica: Lecture by the authors of two projects exposed in exhibition Import Wallonie-Bruxelles / Export Barcelona. RE-activate the city: Centro Cívico Baró de Viver by Territori 24; Guinardó Facilities Building by Bayona-Valero / Cantallops-Vicente. More information here.

The project starts with the connection between Barcelona and other cities in Europe by means of a double exhibition of architecture, which serves as a meeting place to ​​share knowledge, discuss the different city proposals and understand the architectural culture of each territory.

This fifth edition, which connects Barcelona with Wallonia-Brussels, works on the idea of ​​reactivating projects in the city, and examining the architecture of public facilities (cultural, educational, mixed use, public spaces…) with special emphasis on the improvement of social cohesion of the city, particularly in areas with a certain level of urban degradation.

OCTOBER 18th _EXHIBITION_IMPORT WB_EXPORT BCN RE-ACTIVATE THE CITY. BRUSSELS

On 18th October 2018 Nicola Regusci and Xavier Bustos opened the fifth edition of Cities Connection Project that took place in Brussels at the ULB – Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta in collaboration with Wallonie-Bruxelles Architectures.

The first part of the CCP double exhibition focuses on the re-use of existing spaces, mixed uses and reconstruction, beginning in Wallonia-Brussels, the second part will be in Barcelona in 2019.

The presentation of the 40 projects, all of which have been carried out in the last 10 years, serve to examine the architecture of public facilities, with special emphasis on the improvement of social cohesion in areas with a certain level of urban degradation.

Photos by Jérôme Van Belle – Wallonie-Bruxelles International.

MAY 3rd _EXHIBITION _IMPORT ZURICH ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI. MILANO

Last May 3rd Nicola Regusci and Xavier Bustos made the opening of the exhibition Import ZURICH in Ordine degli Architetti di Milano. Full house of architects from Milano that enjoyed the exhibition.
Throughout the 10 weeks of the exhibition, conferences and debates were organized with the participation of Philip Esch, Pascal Müller, Anna Kaestle and Dan Schürch, Mathias Heinz from Zurich, with great public succes.

photos by: Cities Connection Project