Plug-Ins: Design for City Making in Barcelona

This book’s central argument is that plug-ins, situated design outcomes that aim to enrich the complex system of the city and expand its potentialities, are a solid yet supple conceptual framework for rethinking how design can be a key agent in city making.

This book showcases some of the projects developed by Elisava’s Design for City Making Research Lab, a research institute that investigates the role of design in the material and social construction of our habitats, focusing on spatiality, temporality, interactions, meaning, citizen engagement and social impact. Projects by students, professors and researchers, in collaboration with multiple partners including the public administration, NGOs, industry and academy, articulate the concept of design as plug-ins as the core idea of this book. This notion of plug-ins results from a renewed approach to how design can be a key agent in city making. Given that the city is a system of relationships, design for city making means understanding, reinforcing and articulating this network. We posit plug-ins as situated design outcomes that aim to enrich the complex system of the city and expand its potentialities. This book’s central argument is that plug-ins are a solid yet supple conceptual framework for rethinking design’s agency in the city – the main aim of Elisava’s Design for City Making Research Lab.

With Contributions of Ruedi Baur, Julia Benini, Josep Bohigas, David Bravo, Adrià Carbonell, Tomás Díez, Danae Esparza, Ramon Faura, Tona Monjo, Salvador Rueda, Oscar Tomico, Lluís Torrens, Manuela Valtchanova

Ezio Manzini has been working in the field of design for sustainability For over three decades. Most recently, his interests have focused on social innovation, considered as a major driver of sustainable changes. In this perspective he started DESIS: an international network of schools of design, active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability. Presently, he is President of DESIS Network and Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been guest professor in several design schools world-wide, as (in the past decade): Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), Jiangnan University (Wuxi), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape town), Parsons -The new School for Design (NYC) In addition to his continuous involvement in the design for sustainability arena, he has explored and promoted design potentialities in different fields, such as: Design of Materials, in the 80s; Strategic Design, in the 90s (starting a Master in Strategic Design); Service Design, in the last ten years (starting the specific courses in Service Design). Most recent books: “Design, When Everybody Designs. An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation”, MIT Press 2015 (translated until now in 7 languages); and Politics of the Everyday. Bloomsbury (February 2019)

Albert Fuster is an Architect and PhD in History of Art and Architecture by Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB-UPC, Barcelona). He is Academic Director at ELISAVA, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, since 2014- He has been professor on Art and Design History, and Space Design studio at BA and MA programs at ELISAVA since 2002. He is the Director of the Research Master on Design and Communication, since 2020. At ELISAVA he promotes an open understanding of design learning, strongly based on reflection and practice. The constant interaction with individuals, collectives, resources, and contexts becomes the backbone of the students’ learning experience, and a path to tacit and meaningful knowledge. He has lectured on art, design and architecture in international schools and conferences (New York, USA; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Beirut, Lebanon) focusing on the social and cultural dimension of the interaction between human beings and the environment. His research aims to question the boundaries between disciplines, by exploring the relations between architecture, design, visual culture, and literature. Assuming the capacity of design to reflect and build knowledge, in 2018 he launched with professor Ezio Manzini Design for City Making at Elisava, a platform for social innovation that fosters the role of students, faculty and design schools in transforming the material, social and cultural dimensions of the urban environment. As part of his work on creative skills and competencies, he was involved in the “Design Does*” exhibition at the Barcelona Design Museum in 2018; he has participated in EU funded research projects; he has been external advisor on education for the European Council of Interior Architects; and he has collaborated with chef Ferran Adrià and elBulli team since 2013 in the project for the new creative lab in elBulli restaurant in Cala Montjoi (Catalunya).

Roger Paez is an architect ETSAB, Barcelona (Hons.); MS AAD Columbia University, New York (GSAPP Honor Award for Excellence in Design); PhD UPC, (Excel·lent Cum Laude); Certified PhD (AQU, 2020); AAI 1st Sexennium (AQU, 2021). Following professional experience in the studios of Alison+Peter Smithson (London) and Enric Miralles (Barcelona), he founded A i B arquitectes (1999-2018). He has designed the Marine Zoo of Barcelona, the Hospital Clínic extension, and the Mas d'Enric Penitentiary, selected for the FAD Prize and finalist to Catalunya Construcció Award. He has maintained an intense commitment to research, academic and cultural pursuits. He served as a member of the editorial board of Quaderns d'arquitectura i urbanisme, awarded the Jean Tschumi Prize. He is full-time professor at ELISAVA (UVic-UCC), director of the Design for City Making Research Lab, a design-fuelled, urban-based research lab fostering social innovation, political experimentation, and radical imagination; and co-director of the Master in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Spaces (MEATS), a postgraduate programme focusing on projects with high social impact and low cost, harnessing temporality through design-built interventions. He serves as architectural design professor at ETSALS (URL), and has been visiting professor, guest lecturer and jury member in universities worldwide. He publishes regularly both peer-reviewed articles and books, notably Operative Mapping: Maps as Design Tools (Actar, 2019) and Plug-ins: Design for City Making in Barcelona (Actar, 2022). He regularly participates in research projects, both as leader and as partner, notably FURNISH (EIT 2020-2022) and Civic Placemaking (La Caixa, 2018-2022). He works at the intersection of design, architecture, and the city, focusing on temporality, experimentation, and social impact. His main research interests include temporary space design, public space, operative mapping, game-based formats, and the articulation between artistic and architectural practices.