The Hampers of Arts & Crafts / Las Cestas del Arte

Las Cestas del Arte restores artisan activity in a dense, urban area, through programmatic reinterpretation of past typologies, providing interconnective spaces. The project encourages cultural exchange, coexistence, and value between locals and tourists, promoting economic prosperity through place-making and entrepreneurial activity.

Las Cestas del Arte proposes an intervention in El Raval, a neighborhood of the center of Barcelona, characterized by its dense, narrow streets and its interculturality that experiences a progressive loss of cultural heritage and identity embodied by the craftmanship.\r\nThe project impulses from the development of the urban morphology tracing traditional artisan trade that laid the economic, social and morphological structures. Its streets named after the guilds, were occupied by Casa Taller. The agricultural crisis culminated in the industrial revolution, resulting in the densification of the city and the architectural typology the Casa Fabrica, altered the city's urbanization as a model of production and living. \r\nOn the one hand the design focuses on proposing a programmatic reinterpretation of past typologies, introducing architectural elements for a porous intervention in the dense urban surrounding. On the other hand, an urban network to restore artisan activity and harness empty plots to return traditional activity to its place of birth. \r\nTo provide a gradual transition, activities extend from public to private spaces. The design formulates a vertical intervention using architectural elements to establish interconnectivity from the most inner to the most outer space, blurring boundaries. The integration of a series of users intends to provide a balance between local and tourist activity, encouraging a coexistence, cultural exchange and value. \r\nEmerging from the critical urban, social and cultural reality, the design highlights the importance of artisan activity. Paradigms are experiencing a transition, encouraging the rediscovery of the value of manual labor in our economy. A cultural, social and economic wealth generator that strengthens place-making, the exchange of skills and promotes entrepreneurial activity. \r\nThe design revives the lost tradition of the artisan culture as a space that re-engages with the world of creation, at hands of professional artisans, fostering a space of creative and social exchange through sustainable economic activity.