Organised by Barcelona City Council and managed by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, the second edition of the festival offers a ten-day programme with temporary installations, augmented reality experiences, debates, lectures, exhibitions, screenings, routes, workshops, visits to private libraries, music, performances, a book fair and many other activities.

The slogan for this year’s festival is “Radical empathy”, a concept promoting architecture capable of creating spaces which not only serve their practical purpose, but also have a positive impact for the community.

Travelling architecture to foster debate

In an effort to transform urban space into an experimental platform for architectural talent and up-and-coming design, the annual festival once again explores the potential of temporary architecture. The winners of the Model Award for Architectural Experimentation in the installations category, awarded in March, will be setting up their creations in public space to reflect on the functions and values of cities of the future.

• Assemblea nomàdica, more equal spaces
  The h3o studio has designed Assemblea nomàdica, an installation made from reused materials to transform the Mercat dels Encants into the scene for the festival’s book fair and a multi-purpose space with areas for debate, dancing and recreation. The installation explores how to produce more equal and accessible spaces.
• Mamífera, towards the collectivisation of care
  Created by the Equal Saree team of architects and located in Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes next to Glòries, Mamífera is an open-access space for breastfeeding or bottle-feeding babies, putting the collectivisation of care at the heart of the debate.
• Superfície salvatge, protecting biodiversity
  The rooftop of the BSM Ona Glòries car park is the site for an installation designed by Harrison Atelier, inviting people to rethink urban planning from the perspective of coexistence between species.
• Aire lliure, the importance of natural resources
  Designed by the architect Daryan Knoblauch, this installation is a structure for collecting NO₂ from the air through a reflective surface to promote the invisible qualities of air and understand the importance of this natural resource.
• Permanentment temporal, a second life for materials
  The Kosmos i Parabase studio has created an installation from materials found in various storage spaces and building sites in the city to reflect on the huge quantity of unused materials in urban space.

Imagining the impossible

The eruption of digital technologies has also transformed ways of representing architecture and urban planning. Because of this, Model will again be exploring the possibilities of augmented reality and new city models.

The winners of the Model Award for Architectural Experimentation in the digital architectures category have created four projects:

• City Suite IMS, materials and more materials
  Developed by the New Jersey studio Besler & Sons, City Suite IMS is an augmented reality app which enables users to redraw the city as if it was a materials store and allow visitors to explore its aisles.
• Paral·lelismes i perifèries, the protest archive
  Created by Farah Michel (Toronto/Dubai), this digital installation brings together the personal experiences and memories of political protests to build an alternative virtual account of the political narrative created by those in power.
• Ecologies connectades, experiencing the future
  The architects Mathilde Marengo and Iacopo Neri (IAAC) have conceived a digital initiative based on a soundscape and narrated with perspectives in the first person, projecting several possible futures for the city.
• Glòria al Castor, energy dependency
  Created by the Catalan visual artist Víctor Enrich, this augmented reality initiative puts the Castor offshore platform in the middle of the Parc de les Glòries to highlight cities’ dependency on energy resources.

A different 23 April with plenty of new developments

Books and writings on architectural thought also have their place at the festival. Coinciding with Sant Jordi on 23 April, the Mercat dels Encants is hosting the Model Architectural Book Fair with drinks and snacks, debates, book presentations and performances.

Another new aspect to this year’s event is Salons Model, a series of visits to private libraries belonging to figures such as Ferran Cuito, Oriol Bohigas, Beth Galí, Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue. Anybody wishing to take part must register using the website.

Also new this year is Camp Model, a ten-day experimental architecture course given by the city’s design and creation schools. Places can be reserved here.

This year’s festival also sees the return of Protocol Barcelona, where architects and thinkers from around the world make recommendations for drafting the Protocol 2023, a joint document on the future of cities.

In addition, and with the intention of enriching debate, this year’s event also includes +Model, a programme of activities promoted by organisations and institutions in different social, cultural and artistic disciplines and made up of 104 initiatives in different formats: 16 installations, 9 exhibitions, 22 debates and lectures, 2 audiovisuals, 51 routes, 2 parties and 15 workshops.