The group of architecture students from La Salle-URL created an installation for the Llum BCN Festival 2019 in Poblenou, with the title “Threads of History”, and which can be seen from 15 to 17 February on the street Ciutat de Granada, number 109. The idea behind the project is to remember the industrial history of the Poblenou district, outlining the façade of an old warehouse with threads, making a nexus between the textile past and the technological present of the neighbourhood. The team is made up of 10 fifth-year students from the La Salle-URL School of Architecture, and is made up of Jaume Trullà, Carlos de Felipe, Judit Bertocchi, Meritxell Padullés, Joan Martín, Veronika Motorina, Júlia Marbà, Pablo Linares, Tomás Feliu and Andrea Berruezo.
Poblenou has always been a neighbourhood with a great industrial and manufacturing influence. As we walk around, we can get a feel for what life was like decades ago, as we walk between factories, imagine the hustle and bustle, the noises of cars and the machinery, the smoke... All this is precisely what the "Thread of History" project aims to elude to. They aim to remember this past, by outlining the building's profile -an old industrial warehouse where Ducati motorcycles were repaired- and creating a transparent cover, made of threads, so that people feel like they are inside the factory. These threads will light up with black light that will create a special atmosphere and really involve people as part of the intervention as they walk around. The project also takes into account the technological present of the neighbourhood, which is why they have created this visual union between the historic façade of the factory and the modern T-Systems building.
Both during the day and night, people will be able to cross the alleyway and recreate the scene of that Poblenou full to the brim with people as it might have been years ago. By day, people will give the site a burst of colour, and by night, the clothes and fabrics will be lit up thanks to the black light that will fill the area.
The light festival of Barcelona is now in its eighth consecutive year, and for the second year, Llum BCN is transforming the streets of Poblenou into a large laboratory of outdoor experimentation, using light as a creative medium, with entries from artists, designers and architects from all over the world who are exploring the possibilities of using new techniques such as dynamic lighting, large-scale projection and interactive environments. In total, there are about twenty participants and a particular highlight is the experimentation and innovation brought by students from the various Schools of Art, Design, Lighting and Architecture in Barcelona, including La Salle-URL, taking part in fifteen different lighting installations.
The installations can be visited on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 February from 7 pm to midnight, and Sunday 17 February from 7 pm to 10 pm.