After nearly 14 weeks in which the need to protect Valldaura from COVID-19 required the sealing off of the campus, lockdown is finally ending this Sunday, June 21. Our technical coordinator and green fab lab manager have returned to work, and a new groundskeeper joined the team. Also, some students who chose to travel home for the confinement period are now resuming their residence.

This transition is, in some ways, bittersweet. The students who continued to live on site during lockdown enjoyed an unusually persistent tranquility, witnessed the Collserola Natural Park flourish in the absence of human traffic, and deepened community traditions of gardening together, cooking together, and sharing stories, laughs, films, songs, books and even haircuts!

On the other hand, the ability to travel to the city and beyond to see new faces and places has never been so well appreciated, as will the time for study regained by handing cooking and cleaning responsibilities back over to the respective staff. Similarly, the intellectual and fabrication activities at Valldaura will be reinvigorated by once again integrating the fresh skills, insights and perspectives of visitors and external partners.