Mapping the territory: A (digital) exploration of Hospitalet

This blog contains the preliminary research made by the students of the subject Systems of Representation in the third year of the academic programme of La Salle School of Architecture.  This work is part of the activities of the “A Weaved Place”, whose goal is to carry out a study of the sense of place and identity in the city of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, with the participation of citizens and artists, students and faculty of architecture, and the support of local administrations and cultural associations.

The work collected in this blog has been carried out during the period of confinement, from March thru May 2020, with no possibility to access public spaces and people. Therefore, the research materials have been obtained online, and the contacts with people conducted with digital communication tools.

The programme of activities has been designed by the staff of the faculty of the subject Systems of Representation (Leandro Madrazo, Ángel Martín Cojo, Mario Hernández, Adrià Sanchez Llorens) and the members of the Sitesize association (Joan Vila, Elvira Pujol).

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

The contents of this blog have been produced throughout two stages:

1. Mapping the territory. A  visual analysis of the city of L’Hospitalet in the areas around an assigned coordinate point, using digital media (Google Street View, Google Earth, reference images found in internet). The task is divided into two stages: 1. to gather documentation and information by navigating in Internet 2. to reflect on the collected materials and to present the outcomes as posts in  this blog.

2. Signifying the territory. To understand the meanings that people give to the places they live considering these four scenarios: the caring city, the diverse city, the metabolic city and the emergency city. The objective is to explore the social and cultural milieu, identifying key actors and organizations involved in activities aimed at fostering the sense of place in the city of L’Hospitalet. The collected materials (interviews made to key actors; online documentation including reports, images and videos) have been used to produce an audio-visual work that summarizes the findings.

METHODOLOGY

The works have been carried out by teams of 3 to 5 students, working distantly using a diversity of communication tools (teleconference, blogs, file sharing system). Each team has carried out a simultaneous investigation along four lines of work: contacts with local stakeholders, audio-visual narratives, social web, and documentation.

The work produced along these lines was shared with the whole class in the online learning environment ARCLASS, and discussed with the tutors in online sessions. A final editing of the posts have been carried out by faculty members.