The Barcelona design cooperative discusses the La Borda housing project and its horizontal approach to architectural practice. The fall 2022 Lacol: Community Infrastructure Current Work series examines projects and firms enacting new modes of architectural practice, collaboration, and community engagement. 

Lacol: Community Infrastructure is an architectural cooperative established in 2009 in the Barcelona neighbourhood of Sants. The group works to generate community infrastructures through architecture, cooperativism, and user participation. Focused on improving the quality of urban life, Lacol encourages debate on the management of urban spaces and the recovery of local heritage. 

In the words of the RIBA Journal, Lacol’s work “is proof that another way is possible; where disempowered communities can be galvanized, that land deemed out of reach can be secured, and that cooperation by all at the most fundamental levels can—when guided by architects—realize great design.”

This lecture will be presented by two of Lacol’s 14 cofounders, Cristina Gamboa Masdevall and Eliseu Arrufat Grau. The program will be moderated by Anna Puigjaner. Puigjaner is a co-founder of MAIO, an architectural office in Barcelona developing new models of collective housing.