At the end of 2015, a group of students began reflecting on the usefulness of the final degree project. The 2008 economic crisis forced a reconsideration of architecture’s role in society, and from that context emerged initiatives such as the design workshop ‘Arquitectura i Complexitat’. This workshop aimed to explore the possibilities of an agreement between the school and a public institution—in this case, the Can Ruti hospital.

The following work is the result of a year-long research based on the needs communicated to us by the hospital .

Our attention was directed towards studying three possibilities.

Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Godfrey Reggio

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Reconsider the relationship between the building and its accessibility. Do hospitals promote sustainable urban mobility? What is the role of healthcare buildings in the post-car city?

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Investigate the possibilities of the relationship between the hospital and its surroundings—in this case, a natural park. Can we imagine the hospital and the park as a single place?

3.

Contribute to reducing the inherent obsolescence of healthcare construction by proposing open, uncertain, and constantly evolving processes. Is it possible to design buildings without envisioning an end?

These three are just some of the possibilities that help us reflect on our healthcare buildings. Health is understood here as a broad state of well-being, not merely the absence of illness. The title of the research, Presumed remedies, alludes to the potential of architecture as a tool to build this well-being.

Architecture, also as a presumed remedy.

︎︎︎Exhibited at:
Venice Biennale, May 2018
︎︎︎Published at:
Koozarch, 30 Mar 2020
Llobet, X.; Franquesa, J.; et al. (2019) “Can Ruti: Arquitectura i complexitat” Ed. UPC (ISBN: 978-8498807394)
Amann, Atxu (2018) “Becoming: pabellón español Biennale Architettura” Ed. Fund. Arquia (ISBN: 978-8409017485)

Presumed remedies

Presumed remedies

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