MAEBB Students worked with Escola Entença to install a multi-use play space they had designed over the course of the fall semester

An immersive co-design process with students, parents and teachers

After designing and prototyping furiously during the first weeks of the fall semester, MAEBB 2022 finally arrived at a workable design for their final project. The Collaborative Design Studio is the cornerstone of the first semester of MAEBB, giving students a chance to put their newly learned skills of digital fabrication to the test at full scale. This year, with the help of a grant from EIT Urban Mobility, the New European Bauhaus and CARNET, this year students were able to fabricate and install their design on site at the Escola Entença in Barcelona.

Benches, playful boxes, and an intricate wooden nest floating above the entrance to the jail-turned-school

The design was intended to showcase the connection between the natural environment at Valldaura Labs within the Collserola Park and the city below. By using primarily wood grown in Collserola, the students brought the lessons of the forest to the children and parents of Escola Entença. The final installation included 5 custom made outdoor benches constructed from whole logs cut in half and fixed with rebar legs. Students also created two playful box structures in the shape of a heart and a leaf, to add to the sense of playfulness and connection to nature. Finally, an enormous wooden nest was constructed from over 1.200 wooden elements attached together and assembled with the help of students and family members of Escola Entença.

Assembled with the help of almost 100 students, families

On the day of the installation, a huge gathering of students, teachers, parents and friends from the school came together to help the MAEBB students assemble their final project in the street in front of the school. By working together, the process went quickly and efficiently, resulting in a dramatic nest hanging between the two walls of the school’s main entrance. 

VIEW TRAILER TO DOCUMENTARY ABOUT PROJECT HERE

This project couldn’t have happened without the support of our sponsors: EIT and the New European Bauhaus, CARNET, Escola Entença, The City of Barcelona, Tallfusta, Alberch and Belloch Forestal.

MAEBB Students: Prachi Agarwal, Pongpol Punjawaytegul, Suwapat Rodprasert, Roshni Shah, Shagun Modi, Iletutu Awosika, Prasidh Choudhary, Romain Russe, Kshitij Sarote, Zani Gichuki, Agnieszka Szklarczyk, Lillian Beauttah, Andrea Rubio, Pablo Herraiz García de Guadiana, Rachael Verdugo, Mónica Irene Pérez Rivera, Leif Riksheim and Anton Hofstadt.

MAEBB Directors: Vicente Guallart, Daniel Ibañez

MAEBB Staff: Bruno Ganem, Alex Hadley, Laia Piffare, Kya Kerner