SHIFT x Barcelona

SHIFT in Barcelona means a shift to the urban scale. For centuries, Barcelona has been leading a global movement of urban transformation. It has been on many occasions a laboratory for urban innovation, and lately it is one of the inspiring cities on renaturing the public space.
The 2nd of July, the SHIFT meets in Barcelona to discuss, listen and debate on the 4th and the 5th failure of Modern Architecture: “Car-Centric Urbanism” and “Social Ignorance”. We will interchange ideas and vision by sharing best practises and making the right questions. Can we learn something from the global south? Where is Barcelona leading in the urban transformation? Do we notice a shift in the dominant presence of the car in our urban structures? Who is putting the human being in the centre of urban design and what are the consequences? What about urban poverty?
The event will build upon the exhibition commissioned by the AMB_Área Metropolitana de Barcelona and exposed in their pavilion at the old Drassanes Terminal de Balearia, in the harbour of Barcelona, the same place where we’ll held the event. The exhibition gives an answer to 7 challenges of contemporary urban space developments: the capacity to adapt, to reconnect, to move, to recuperate, to care, to equip, and to inhabit. Reflexions during the SHIFT event will be nourished by those challenges.
SHIFT will count on the leadership in debate of Illya Azaroff (President, American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2026), Christine Lemaitre (CEO German Sustainable Building Council), Bruno Sauer (CEO Green Building Council España), Martin Haas (Architect & Co-Founder of haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050) and Martin Despang (Professor University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Architecture).