01 June 2023

La Salle-URL leads the exhibition 'Somia la Ciutat', which imagines the urban spaces of the future

The exhibition, based on urbanism and technology, presents innovative responses to the future challenges of cities

To dream of the future is to shape it. This is the premise of 'Somia la Ciutat' ['Dream the City'], an exhibition led by La Salle-URL that, from urban planning and technology, imagines innovative responses to the present and future challenges of cities. The exhibition, which can be visited between March 21 and June 11 at the Palau Robert in Barcelona, ​​is curated by Roger Subirà, architect and professor at the School of Building Engineering La Salle (ETSALS). In addition, one of the facilities is managed transversally by a group of students from the degrees in Multimedia Engineering, Computer Engineering and Animation & VFX, with the collaboration of the professor Guillem Villa.

"The exhibition talks about new paths and concepts for the future of cities, with a conscious but radically optimistic approach", explains Roger Subirà. In this sense, the exhibition proposes to flee from pessimistic perspectives and lacking in perspective; in fact, it seeks to refute the climate of discouragement and appeals, especially, to the younger generations to dream of urban futures based on three revolutions: the green and sustainable revolution, the digital revolution and the identity revolution.

La Salle-URL students participate by managing part of the exhibition

​'Somia la ciutat' presents urban and public space projects, technological innovations and industrial design prototypes that are linked to sustainability, digitization and identity inclusion. These contributions and projects, which come from around twenty architecture firms and local and international companies, are distributed in six thematic rooms.

The participating La Salle-URL students, all members of the campus Play and Roll club, assemble and manage an installation that serves as the final experience of the exhibition: the collective construction of a city through the Minecraft videogame. "Visitors will be able to design an island of an ideal city, taking ideas that they have seen in the more than 50 projects in the exhibition, and in the Palau itself, they will be able to see their progress", says Roger Subirà.

Transversal work between students of different grades

The transversal work between students from different areas of La Salle-URL is a constant in the day-to-day life of the campus, and results in all kinds of projects and initiatives that go beyond the classroom and are presented at major cultural events. This is the case of the 'Somia la Ciutat' exhibition and it was also the case at the recent Llum BCN, one of the great moments of the cultural scene in the city of Barcelona, ​​during which Architecture, Engineering and Digital Arts students set up an installation that claimed the role of nature as an essential part of the urban space, with a sustainable approach and respect for the environment.

The 'Somia la Ciutat' exhibition is also led by the Institute for Advanced Architecture and is commissioned by the Generalitat de Catalunya and can be visited at the Palau Robert. This space is a meeting point to reflect on current issues such as feminism, video games and sustainable food, among others, with exhibitions that have received 80,000 visitors.

Contest to create the city of the future with Minecraft

In relation to the experience that is managed from La Salle-URL, the 'Minecraf - Somia la Ciutat by La Salle' contest has been organized, which encourages everyone to submit their proposal for a city of the future built with Minecraft. Participation is done through this link, and participants aspire to get a 10% discount in the first year of some of the following degrees from La Salle-URL: