Magali Sanz Casas

Harvesting collective perceptions

Over the past ten years, I have witnessed how Barcelona, my hometown, slowly lost its quality of life. The lack of connection with nature has been one of the main reasons, despite the city having two rivers, the sea and the coastal hills nearby. 

This project focuses on restoring the neglected Llobregat riverscape, one of the few natural spaces surrounding Barcelona. It used to be a dynamic, natural and beloved riverscape, but it has become an abandoned waterway that is no longer in people's minds.  

Given the continuous precariousness of the public sector and the lack of cultural connection with nature, I propose to create a slow project that works innovatively, going from the bottom up. It starts with small, low-cost, and strategic interventions in different parts of the river system that slowly engage people to restore the river biotopes and ecosystem, enhance the spatial quality and create a new natural structure beneficial for the entire metropolis while creating a new bond between them.   

The way to work together between landscape and community is through the landscape harvest process, a circular process where people can collect over time exceeding materials from the river and give them back in a transformed way. This harvesting process links to the already deep-rooted agricultural harvesting fests from the region.   

Within this Llobregat river, we propose to harvest three exceeding materials (clay, reed, and water) that, when applied to the four different parts of the river system (river Delta, the river islands, the river forest, and the river reeds), will start creating a new collective perception of this natural place and start to improve the spatial and ecological qualities of the river.  

Once this new mindset is established and the new concept of living with the river is embraced, these small interventions can grow in scale and complexity, becoming landscape projects that can continue to improve the entire river condition. 

Graduation date:: 31 May 2023 
Graduation committee: Saline Verhoeven (mentor), Remco van der Togt, Anna Fink
Additional members for the exam: Lodewijk van Nieuwenhuijze, Ziega van den Berk