ABSTRACT
Since 2015 Spanish schools of architecture have converted the former Final Degree Project into a one-year enabling master’s degree. In this context, the Vallès School of Architecture has proposed a pedagogical model focused on the concept of responsibility, a commitment to the evident social and ecological global challenges affecting the outskirts of Barcelona city. Barcelona’s demographic pressure, its difficult access to housing, the increase in air pollution, and the restrictions of the recent Covid-19 lockdown have caused a “back-to-the-land” movement to other peripheral territories. According to this reality, this contribution explores how the course transfers responsibility to the students to come up with an executable design result thanks to three main goals: open process, social return, and physical experimentation. Finally, the chapter presents how this pedagogical structure takes form through the most common topics that emerged. Future challenges and internal contradictions serve to conclude as a critical approach.
