Elisava x CMA26: Hi ha altres mons per venir? / Are there other worlds to come?

As part of Barcelona 2026 World Architecture Capital, Elisava becomes one of the academic partners of this Capital and is proposing a network of six temporary urban interventions in post-natural landscapes within the official program.

In a context of global ecological, social, and political crisis, the proposal “Hi ha altres mons per venir? / Are there other worlds to come?” asserts the need to imagine new forms of coexistence on a wounded planet.

Inspired by Danowski and Viveiros de Castro, it starts from the idea that there is not just one world, but multiple interconnected worlds. Developed from a transdisciplinary perspective, they question established binaries and activate spaces for debate, experimentation, and collective imagination around the question: are there other worlds to come?

Below, we detail the program of actions with the participation of Elisava:

A performative itinerary along the Besòs river, open to the public, activated by ephemeral microarchitectures and expanded cinema formats that connect body, audiovisual narrative, and post-natural territory. Through peripatetic tours, visitors explore political, material, species, and territorial issues within the framework of Barcelona 2026 World Capital of Architecture. 

Location: Along the Besòs river basin between Can Zam Park and the river mouth (Besòs V power station).

Date: Friday, April 10, 6:30-9:30 p.m. 

Credits:

Faculty: Coordinated by Saúl Baeza + Manuela Valtchanova
Merche Blasco, Gastón Lisak, Roger Arquer, Luigi Pensa, Ramon Faura, Mònica Molins, Roger Paez, Mar Gené, Cristina Sanuy
Students involved: With the participation of 160 third-year students from Elisava’s Bachelor in Innovation and Design.

A bus offers a special route to discover a hidden side of Montjuïc. Morrot is a forgotten space, an old quarry that houses a municipal warehouse for stone from demolition sites. Alongside the recovered stone, natural, human, and infrastructural elements coexist. Various devices and activities will accompany the tour to explore the tensions of this space, which is both marginal and latent, full of possibilities for reinventing the city.

Location: Former Rivière factory, Morrot, Montjuic 

Date: Saturday, May 23, 2026

Credits:

Coordination: Stella Rahola Matutes, Roger Paez
Faculty: Stella Rahola Matutes, Roger Paez, Manuela Valtchanova, Toni Montes
Students: 26 students from the Master in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Space Design at Elisava (2024-25 and 2025-26)

A public tour of latent imaginaries that uses AI to reinterpret an empty lot in Poblenou as a post-natural landscape of ruins and infrastructure remains. Through a fictional campaign on billboard-style panels, it displays possible, improbable, or impossible visions using real estate language to activate a critical view of urban transformation, with the entire device explicitly marked as speculative fiction. 
 
Location: Vacant lot on C/ Marruecos (Poblenou, Barcelona)   

Dates: May 18–24, 2026 

Credits:

Faculty: Juan Arizti Texido 
Students involved: Master in Artificial Intelligence Applied to Arts and Design

A performative intervention that, through sound, projections, and polyphonic readings, reveals hidden ecological, social, and political frictions, and provokes critical reflection on how these tensions shape urban life. During the performance, the audience will be invited to actively participate at specific moments, integrating themselves into the polyphonic structure of the event. 

Location: To be determined

Date: May 11, 2026

Credits:

Team: Directed by Cristina Goberna and Amaia Sánchez-Velasco and Jorge Valiente-Oriol (GRANDEZA STUDIO).
Students involved: Master of Critical and Contextual Design (MCCD)

Storytelling workshops at the Guineueta Market. The workshops will offer collaborative activities based on creative fiction, storytelling games, non-linear narratives, storytelling, speculation, and first-person action practices.

Location: Guineueta Market, abandoned stall

Calendar: October 2 and 9, 2026

Credits:

Directed by Julia Carrasco and Massimo Menichinelli (Elisava Research).
Developed with Roger Paez, Manuela Valtchanova, Claudia Zapella, and Alberto Imberti.

Final action of the curatorship, focused on documenting and publicly activating the results of the five previous interventions through an ephemeral architectural installation during Barcelona Design Week 2026. The proposal temporarily transforms the urban space into a place for meeting, reflection, and citizen participation, hosting screenings, debates, and open formats. The aim is to generate collective feedback, consolidate a body of critical thinking, and open up new lines of research to imagine fairer, more sustainable, and more desirable cities.   

Location: Dipòsit d’aigua Trinitat Nova   

Calendar: November 6 to 9, 2026 

Credits:

Faculty: Coordinated by Roger Paez and Manuela Valtchanova
Students involved: Alumni from Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Elisava Research programs