SOM Foundation announces the winner of the 2023 European Research Prize

The SOM Foundation has announced the winner of the 2023 European Research Prize. A team from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya will carry out research that contributes to this year's theme, «Adaptation of housing strategies to respond to new realities».

Within the framework of the project "Open system for the urban regeneration of housing estates: a case study in Barcelona'', the REARQ research group and ETSAB students will design and play with adaptations of an open system created for the rehabilitation of multifamily homes in the Besòs neighborhood in the southwest of Barcelona. The main researchers of the project are Pere Joan Ravetllat, Còssima Cornadó, Marta Domènech and Sara Vima-Grau.

"The main objective of this research is to design different adaptations of an open system for rehabilitating existing multifamily buildings in large modern residential complexes and to test them in the field. Convinced that the most sustainable approach is the rehabilitation and improvement of existing housing, the city of Barcelona has been exploring more comprehensive, large-scale interventions in a built environment where, so far, only scattered buildings have been improved.

The research group REARQ has a strong line of investigation and teaching focused on rehabilitating large modern residential complexes. Recently, thanks to an award from the Barcelona City Council, REARQ designed a full-scale prototype of an “abstract” or open system for improving habitability and energy efficiency in existing buildings. With this foundation, the group will design adapted versions for residential buildings in the Southwest Besòs neighborhood and test their impact and potential for improvement. The main hypothesis is that, with adaptations, this system can provide a strategy that takes into account the collective, environmental, and social dimensions of multifamily housing while also improving specific features.

You can find more information about the project in these links:

https://somfoundation.com/awards/european-research-prize/

https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/som-foundation-announces-winner-2023-european-research-prize