Sestao and Barcelona united by TAC! Urban Architecture Festival

By Beatriz Fabián

Helping to make public spaces “more dynamic, inclusive and sustainable” is part of the mission of TAC! Urban Architecture Festival, an annual event organised by Spain’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (MIVAU) and Fundación Arquia, now in its fifth edition. Through experimentation and reflection, TAC! explores how temporary architecture can improve life in cities. It also brings architectural practice closer to the people who live there, as previous editions in Granada, San Sebastián, Valencia, Vigo, San Fernando, Alicante and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have shown.

This year, the focus turns to Sestao in Bizkaia and Barcelona’s Centre de Cultura Contemporània (CCCB). The winning installations for this double edition, designed by young architects, are Ferrum, by Juan Mateos Corona, and Una sombra improbable, by Pablo Schmidt Kamp, Rodrigo Pérez Vásquez and Santiago Rodríguez Prada.

Ferrum, by Juan Mateos Corona, in Sestao, Bizkaia

The Sestao pavilion has opened the festival, which this year considers “the role of energy in shaping cities”. Made possible through the collaboration of MIVAU, Fundación Arquia and Sestao Town Council, Juan Mateos Corona’s installation Ferrum will remain in Labe Garaia park until 14 November.

The project pays tribute to the town’s industrial past and “explores energy as a driving force in the transformation of cities”. Its temporary steel construction uses materials that will return to the production cycle after dismantling, drawing on ideas of regeneration, material responsibility and new uses for existing resources.

Lightweight and fully demountable, the installation stands beside the former Blast Furnace No. 1. It engages with the town’s identity and history, as well as “the memories of the people who live there”, according to the TAC! organisers. It is both an exercise in remembrance and a commitment to materials that can be used again within a circular process.

Una sombra improbable, by Pablo Schmidt Kamp, Rodrigo Pérez Vásquez and Santiago Rodríguez Prada

Developed through the collaboration of MIVAU, Fundación Arquia, Barcelona’s Centre de Cultura Contemporània (CCCB) and Barcelona City Council, the winning pavilion by Pablo Schmidt Kamp, Rodrigo Pérez Vásquez and Santiago Rodríguez Prada has been installed in Plaça Joan Coromines, in front of the cultural institution, where it will remain until 1 December.

Here, shade takes the leading role in “an intervention that engages with Barcelona’s changing character”. For its designers, shade is a “metaphor for that continuous movement”. Light filtered through the structure draws patterns on the ground that change throughout the day. “Shade thus becomes a visible expression of transformation, reflecting, through its changing forms, the dynamism of a city that is constantly reinventing itself.”

The construction combines steel modules with a framework of timber beams anchored to concrete bases, which also provide seating for passers-by. This simple, versatile structure creates an “open space, conceived to be explored by the public”, according to TAC!