Vicente Guallart (founder of IAAC and recently chief Architect of Urban Habitat at Barcelona City Hall), last week started tutoring the 1st term Master Sessions of the MAA master.
Master sessions have the character of lectures and debates around the subject of contemporary and future cities. The debates are mainly driven by subjects of social, economical, cultural, informational and energetical impact on the planning and the function of modern cities as we are experiencing them now and how we vision them for the future.
The first session was devoted to the city of Barcelona, its urban history and its near future which is closely linked with the work that Vicente Guallart is currently developing at the Barcelona city Hall. What is a city? What is and always was the main factor of the cities function system constant change? What will be the pivotal point for the change of the cities as we know them now? Where should we architects look in order to find the answers needed for the planning of a sustainable environment in the ongoing expanding cities? These were some of the main questions that Vicente Guallart made to the students using a rather Socratic Method for the examination of his key concepts for the matter of the urban life and evolution.
