Installation of ephemeral architecture in the Chapel of the Misericordia del Raval, Barcelona

Date: 2019
Design/direction: Eduardo Delgado Orusco and Àlex Martínez
Team: Daniele Azuolaite, Gabriel Fejzulla, Sofía Martínez Ocejo, Marcos Takano Contart, Anas Azzam, Lorenzo Bavelloni, Cristina Castilla Taverner, Dalyl Chaou Costa, Isabel Gómez Costa, Karen Lorena Lugo Velázquez, Almudena Martínez García, Nithia Mbonabuca Shamika, Alicia Rafael Mota Díez, Facundo Javier Pérez Santarelli, Valentina Risemberg, Paula Rodríguez Grau, Olivia Sarrá Gómez, Ana Tchumburidze, Ossama Said Mohamed Teaima, Daniel Isaac Villacís Jaramillo, María Gabriela Zambrano Muñoz

On the occasion of the XXIII edition of UIC Barcelona School of Architecture Vertical Workshop, which this year was organized under the title "Silent walls. Reusing the Capella de la Misericòrdia", from September 3 to 7, students from second to fifth course of architecture intervened the Capella de la Misericòrdia, located in the Raval neighborhood, to propose ephemeral architecture proposals that put in value the memory of the place for the neighbors of the neighborhood.

The installation "Llum on the Raval", directed by the professors Eduardo Delgado Orusco and Àlex Martínez, was the winning proposal of this edition chosen by the jury, integrated by the architects Ricardo Flores and Kathrin Golda-Pongratz and by the sculptor and photographer Javier Viver.

The installation takes as its central element the light, symbolically represented by steel tensioners that, like light beams, penetrate inside the temple through a new window located on the upper floor. That light ends on the floor of the central nave and reflects, also symbolically, the urban plot of the Raval.

Light, as an immaterial element, becomes a material element that enters through a new window that is created on the facade. The neighborhood penetrates into the interior space and the urban plot is embodied in the ground as if it were a leaded window. In this way, the light becomes the link between a neighborhood that seeks new spaces to cover new needs and the space that has been desacralized and that, with a new vigor, intends to respond to that new social demand.

The concept of the installation is based on emphasizing a social problem through a ray of light through a metaphorical, symbolic and transcendent expression, based on the nature of Raval's history. A ray of metaphorical light is captured that, in addition to representing the people of the neighborhood, explains the importance of public spaces as the essence of it. The light as an intangible, transcendent, heavenly and divine symbol is born of a yearning that lives up to people and at the same time responds to Raval's problems without forgetting their memory.