Description: This book's central argument is that plug-ins, situated design outcomes that aim to enrich the complex system of the city and expand its potentialities, are a solid yet supple conceptual framework for rethinking how design can be a key agent in city making.
This book showcases some of the projects developed by Elisava's Design for City Making Research Lab, a research institute that investigates the role of design in the material and social construction of our habitats, focusing on spatiality, temporality, interactions, meaning, citizen engagement and social impact. Projects by students, professors and researchers, in collaboration with multiple partners including the public administration, NGOs, industry and academy, articulate the concept of design as plug-ins as the core idea of this book. This notion of plug-ins results from a renewed approach to how design can be a key agent in city making. Given that the city is a system of relationships, design for city making means understanding, reinforcing and articulating this network. We posit plug-ins as situated design outcomes that aim to enrich the complex system of the city and expand its potentialities. This book's central argument is that plug-ins are a solid yet supple conceptual framework for rethinking design's agency in the city - the main aim of Elisava's Design for City Making Research Lab.With Contributions of Ruedi Baur, Julia Benini, Josep Bohigas, David Bravo, Adrià Carbonell, Tomás Díez, Danae Esparza, Ramon Faura, Tona Monjo, Salvador Rueda, Oscar Tomico, Lluís Torrens, Manuela Valtchanova
Brief description:
Roger Paez is an architect ETSAB, Barcelona (Hons.); MS AAD Columbia University, New York (GSAPP Honor Award for Excellence in Design); PhD UPC, (Excel-lent Cum Laude); Certified PhD (AQU, 2020); AAI 1st Sexennium (AQU, 2021).
Following professional experience in the studios of Alison+Peter Smithson (London) and Enric Miralles (Barcelona), he founded A i B arquitectes (1999-2018). He has designed the Marine Zoo of Barcelona, the Hospital Clínic extension, and the Mas d'Enric Penitentiary, selected for the FAD Prize and finalist to Catalunya Construcció Award.
He has maintained an intense commitment to research, academic and cultural pursuits. He served as a member of the editorial board of Quaderns d'arquitectura i urbanisme, awarded the Jean Tschumi Prize. He is full-time professor at ELISAVA (UVic-UCC), director of the Design for City Making Research Lab, a design-fuelled, urban-based research lab fostering social innovation, political experimentation, and radical imagination; and co-director of the Master in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Spaces (MEATS), a postgraduate programme focusing on projects with high social impact and low cost, harnessing temporality through design-built interventions.
He serves as architectural design professor at ETSALS (URL), and has been visiting professor, guest lecturer and jury member in universities worldwide. He publishes regularly both peer-reviewed articles and books, notably Operative Mapping: Maps as Design Tools (Actar, 2019) and Plug-ins: Design for City Making in Barcelona (Actar, 2022). He regularly participates in research projects, both as leader and as partner, notably FURNISH (EIT 2020-2022) and Civic Placemaking (La Caixa, 2018-2022).
He works at the intersection of design, architecture, and the city, focusing on temporality, experimentation, and social impact. His main research interests include temporary space design, public space, operative mapping, game-based formats, and the articulation between artistic and architectural practices.