END-OF-DEGREE PROJECT

This is the most important project on the degree course, given that you must demonstrate everything that you have learned during your studies, with high demands needing to be met to be awarded your degree certificate.

The idea revolves around finding a solution for a clear and real problem that occurs in one of the neighbourhoods in the city of Seville. Said problem is the conflict created between the university students who live in the area intermittently and the neighbourhood’s permanent residents – who live there day in, day out.

A lack of communal living space between these two communities creates conflict, with the main idea behind the project being to take this conflictive situation and turn it into a positive solution – creating spaces for both sides to relate and relax with other, via the rehabilitation of an industrial unit that was previously abandoned and in disuse. The project’s programme aims to include areas for both teaching and recreation, where both students and residents can interact productively and enjoyably via workshops and other situations which encourage friendly relations between the communities.

With these spaces in mind, a historic site which was created for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and which had fallen into complete disuse was chosen, thus the name of the project: “Making a disused space habitable”.

The project involves the recovery of the warehouses where the old stands were stored, which were being used by the industrial port as warehouses for storing animal feed and construction materials. The architectural solution aimed to make those spaces habitable while still preserving their authentic exteriors, generating ‘life’ inside by creating the aforementioned areas for people to relate with each other – at the same time as giving a new use to part of Seville’s industrial heritage, creating a connection on an urban level with the rest of the city – adding continuity to the walkway along the banks of the Guadalquivir River. The proposed architecture is respectful of the existing structures, by creating a system of hanging platforms which, via a route which links the various units – taking advantage of the shade lent by the roofing to create recreational areas as well as closed-off spaces to be used for studio spaces and workshops.

The project was awarded the highest available mark by the European University of Madrid.