El Gòtic Plays Itself | Barcelona, Spain | Unit 21 | 2024

yufei.cheng.21@ucl.ac.uk

Situated within the historic core of Barcelona, this project conceptualizes a center for Catalan theatre and craftsmanship, drawing on the Spanish proclivity for festivals and theatrical expressions that transmute quotidian street life into elaborate stage settings.   The methodology involves documenting and translating the cyclical patterns of seasonal changes, theatrical productions, street festivals, and parades into digitally manipulated stages. This process set up the idea of the building becoming all about a series of moments taken from experiences within the city, frozen in particular time, stitched together with a carefully designed grasshopper script that is inspired by the periodical nature of Barcelona’s festival and theatricality. These moments of experiences along Barcelona’s street festival walks became a direct design tool that is folded back on site, generating a series of physical, material junctions which resembles a continuous change in spatial geometries, the design proposal is manifested in the carefully composed material transition or joints along surface, constructing and reassemblying memories out of fragments of experiences. These stages inform the architectural transformation of the Gothic Quarter into a “neo-gothic” iteration that is responsive to the site’s narrative rhythm.   The integration of natural and artificial lighting is pivotal to the building’s performative aspect, with the incremental shifts in light angles sequentially illuminating the architectural forms. This processional illumination imbues the structure with a dynamic quality, suggesting a metaphorical progression of the building itself.

Traces of Time in Manufacture

A document of sequence and recurrence

Designing with Notations: an iterative process
Guided by a methodology that blends and stitches sequences at multiple scales, a notation system is created indicating the spine structure, material allocation and spatial qualities across the whole scheme.

Spatial Arrangement
A masterplan arise directly from the modified script generations, including building scheme, pavement, garden and playscape.

Performing the Processional Space