The planet’s biodiversity is reduced year after year in such a way that up to a million species could disappear in the coming decades. Cities are the focus of this process mainly due to the concentration of CO2 emissions, the heat island effect, and the limited surface area of green areas, whose species are often selected simply for aesthetic or functional criteria, causing a homogenization of the species. urban areas and greater insecurity over ecosystems. Barcelona is a critical example of this phenomenon due to its warm summer weather conditions and high density. But Las Ramblas and the Gothic quarter, where Elisava is located, can be a laboratory to try to reverse this situation and stimulate the establishment of an ecosystem with greater biodiversity.
Until now, architecture has been understood as an exclusively human discipline for the search for comfort, but animals also build. In this context, the students of the Master in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Spaces have participated in a week-long workshop, led by TAKK Studio, in which those species that already inhabit Las Ramblas and others that could be attracted here have been studied. and explore their needs to devise new versions of architectures for animals.
During the workshop, the students have built several devices that have formed a dome that seeks to attract and house different species of animals, mainly birds and insects, to the school terrace. In this way, the public visibility of non-humans who inhabit cities and the need to operate with them in a collaborative way is vindicated.
The devices have been built assisted by CAD-CAM technologies and combined with natural materials. During the week that the workshop lasted, the students learned to design and build through digital manufacturing, from the drawing to the assembly details and the structural behavior of the whole, applying the learning by doing methodology and putting together a biodiversity hub.
