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9th edition, 7th to 18th July, 2025

- Fundacio Catalunya La Pedrera - BIYSC
Inhabiting Gaudí: an architecture and engineering approach to human comfort and buildings of the future. - I1A6098 - BIYSC

Engineering Gaudí: Inhabiting sound, light, and space (from Lab to La Pedrera)

The Engineering Gaudí  project harnesses the cutting-edge technological infrastructure of the IASlab at La Salle-URL to explore the architectural comfort in Gaudí’s works. Equipped with unique facilities – the anechoic chamber, the reverberation chamber, and the immersive room – the IASlab enables a holistic and integrated approach that combines sound and image to analyze and recreate Gaudí’s spaces. This technological privilege allows not only detailed analysis under controlled conditions but also transforms these findings into experiential and interactive studies.

The anechoic and reverberation chamber will allow us to explore the acoustics of spaces under extreme conditions.  In the immersive room, acoustic comfort will converge with architectural recreations with natural light, creating a multisensory representation of the spaces. Simultaneously, the Design Studio will allow us to focus on Gaudí’s pioneering vision of comfort in architecture: spaces designed to achieve harmony between people and their environment, emphasizing sound, light, and temperature efficiency.

Data will be collected in situ at La Pedrera throughout the project, allowing students and researchers to validate the research hypothesis using the IASlab facilities. This approach transforms the technological experience into an immersive study of Gaudí’s architectural comfort. This project bridges technology, science, and architecture to offer a groundbreaking reinterpretation of Gaudí’s legacy.

Learning objectives

  • Use of Advanced Research Facilities for Engineering Analysis: Conduct experiments using the IASlab’s anechoic and reverberation chambers, immersive room, and design studio to study Gaudí’s architectural comfort.
  • Apply Several Engineering Concepts to Architectural Comfort: Analyze data from La Pedrera to evaluate the role of sound, light, and environmental harmony in Gaudí’s architectural design.
  • Bridge Engineering and Architecture in Research: Integrate engineering methods with architectural analysis to reinterpret Gaudí’s legacy through innovative experimentation.

Matching profiles

This project is addressed to students interested in Engineering and Architecture.

Required materials

  • Smartphone
  • Laptop

Coordinators of the project

Rosa Maria Alsina-Pagès - Rosa Maria Alsina - BIYSC

Rosa Maria Alsina-Pagès

  • Her research topics are signal processing and machine learning applied to communications and acoustics, soundscape, citizen science.
  • Has published 45 JCR-WOS impact journals, 22 in Q1 journals, in acoustics and sensing, and its impact in health, in the last 10 years.
  • +85 participations in conferences and workshops of acoustics and health impact
  • + than 35 projects (16 led by herself) funded from public calls or private companies.
  • Research collaborations with ISGlobal (Barcelona) in terms of noise and health; with UCL – Barlett Institute (UK) in terms of Soundscape; with TUBerlin (Germany) in terms of Citizen Science; with CNR (Italy) in terms of noise and perception.
Josep Ferrando - Josep Ferrando - BIYSC

Josep Ferrando

  • Director of the School of Architecture of La Salle Barcelona (ETSALS).
  • Director of the Open Center for Architecture in Barcelona.
  • Director of the Department of Culture of the College of Architects of Catalonia – period awarded with the National Prize of Culture.
  • Curator of the Barcelona Biennial of Thought.
  • International recognitions: FAD awards; 15th Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial Award; Buenos Aires International Architecture Biennal BIABA’15 Award; European Union Award nominee for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.
  • Monographic exhibitions in Biennale di Architettura di Venezia, at Architekturforum Aedes (Berlin), Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile and the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) of Rio de Janeiro. In 2016 was part of the ‘Unfinished’ exhibition in the Spanish pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, awarded with the Golden Lion.
  • Lectured at GSD Harvard, MIT Masachussetts, Cornell University, Cooper Union, and at International Conferences as UIA’11 in Tokyo and BIAU’19 Asunción.

Associated researchers

Marc Arnela - Marc Arnela - BIYSC

Marc Arnela

  • He researches in the field of acoustics, performing computer simulations and experiments to study the human voice, duct acoustics, parametric arrays (ultrasounds), and room acoustics. 
  • +17 articles in first rank international scientific journals and +45 participations in international conferences.  
  • +16 R&D projects (10 led by himself) funded from European, Spanish, and Catalan agencies in public calls and from private companies. 
  • Awarded with the best PhD thesis in Iberspeech 2016 (Lisbon, Portugal) and the EAA best paper in Forum Acusticum 2014 (Krakow, Poland).
  • Collaborations with research groups in Catalonia (CINME, Eurecat), France (Gipsa-lab, LAUM), Germany (TU-Dresden), Sweden (KTH), and Canada (UBC).
Marc Freixes - Marc Freixes - BIYSC

Marc Freixes

  • He researches in the field of signal processing of audio and speech with particular emphasis on their perception.
  • 4 articles in international scientific journals and +16 participations in international conferences.
  • +7 R&D projects funded from European, Spanish, and Catalan agencies in public calls and from private companies.
  • Collaborations with ISGlobal (Barcelona) in terms of noise and health, with UCL – Barlett Institute (UK) in terms of Soundscape and with TUBerlin (Germany) in terms of Citizen Science.
Marta Bugés - Marta Bugés - BIYSC

Marta Bugés

  • Research topics: urban mobility; innovation in architecture and urban disciplines; expanded urban environments; integrated architecture and design.
  • Has collaborated with research groups at TU Wien, UPC Barcelona, Tsinghua University, Keio University and La Salle Barcelona.
  • Producer of several audiovisual reports and podcasts series on architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture research.
  • Editor, writer, curator and consultant for dissemination projects.
Ricardo Devesa - Ricardo Devesa - BIYSC

Ricardo Devesa

  • Research topics: relationships between architecture and nature; mass-media & architecture; expanded architecture & urban environments; innovation on architectural pedagogies.
  • Has published 14 articles on impact journals.
  • +20 participations in conferences and workshops.
  • Has was member of the research group Theory and Criticism of City, Architecture and Art (TICA), and co-founder of the Group for the Innovation and Teaching Logistics in Arquitecture, both at the Barcelona Tech University (UPC).
  • Research projects collaborations: Knowledge Alliance for Advanced Urbanism (KAAU), co-funding by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union; and the Artificial Intelligence in Architecture Design (AIAD) on Public Housing, at UPC.

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Organized by

- Fundacio Catalunya La Pedrera - BIYSC

In collaboration with:

La Salle R&D – URL - Logolasalle 2 - BIYSC

More info