29. A Counter Plan for La Ribera, the Beginning of a Resolute Research Effort

The Urbanism Laboratory of Barcelona (LUB)¹ was founded in the academic year 1968/69 on the initiative of the new head of the urban planning department, Manuel de Solà-Morales (1939-2012). He dedicated his efforts to improving the teaching of urban planning at ETSAB, but soon also became involved in the lively debates taking place in Barcelona. The first major public impact involved taking a critical stance – alongside neighbourhood associations and professional associations – against a plan for the general restructuring of the coastal area, known as the Plan for La Ribera, which was being developed, spearheaded by industrialists who owned the former factories there. 

The official expert/political option explicitly ignored a huge district which, in addition to industrial buildings, was full of centuries-old urban fabric, including the Poble Nou neighbourhood. Given the risk of widespread demolition, the LUB drew up a Counter Plan (1971)² to show that there were multiple urban structures, often valuable ones, that did not deserve to be wiped out. 

The Counter Plan stated that in order to transform the coastal areas, (this goal was not called into question), what was required was not a single macro urban planning project. Instead, ad-hoc answers could be found, section by section, identifying the existing mosaic and proposing transformation processes. In a way, that is what is finally happening. Barcelona has seen a radical transformation of its seafront since the 1980s, but it has taken place through progressive actions of varying sizes responding to a diverse and fragmentary logic, which the LUB anticipated with the Counter Plan.

Since then and over the course of more than 50 years, scores of students have participated in the laboratory’s initiatives, and many professors have carried out their research there. Its continuity as a research group (2009), with over 100 publications, has contributed to making architects more aware of the urban impact of their work. The LUB gives the teaching at the School of Architecture its own personality on the international scene.

1. The LUB was founded at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) in the 1968/69 academic year, and since 2009 it has been a research group recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya.  www.lub.upc.edu

1. Manuel de Solà-Morales, Joan Busquets, Miquel Domingo, Antonio Font, José Luís Gómez Ordóñez are the authors of the book Barcelona. Remodelación Capitalista O Desarrollo Urbano En El Sector De La Ribera Oriental. Editorial Gustavo Gili. Barcelona 1974, in which the project was published. 

LUB 2022: Josep Parcerisa, Maria Rubert, Carles Crosas, Julián Galindo, Eulàlia Gómez, Àlvaro Clua