PLEGUEM I MARXEM

The planet is warming, sea levels are rising, the number of natural disasters keeps increasing… the planet is dying and it is time to act. It is not a question of beauty or of preserving natural parks, nor of the ethics of the world we want to leave behind — environmentalism moved past those stages long ago. It is now a situation of necessity: either we act or we go extinct. It is time to be critical of all the principles that have brought us here.

STOP MAKING: The current economic model is based on making, generating, consuming, building… Does it make sense to create a hub of activity disconnected from the region's main centres? To force facilities and housing into a peripheral location? To make an investment of such economic and environmental dimensions? It is not sustainable to turn all heritage into museums in order to maintain it, just as it is not viable to supply communities established in remote places. Sometimes the best we can do is accept that life cycles begin and end, to make way for others.

UNDO: Human action has been crucial in the transformation of river spaces, which have always been seen as great spaces of opportunity throughout time. From the first settlements seeking water to the passage of great infrastructures… At the end of the 19th century, industrial colonies were established along the river, taking advantage of its course to generate energy. This was not an isolated, anecdotal fact but a widespread and extensive production model. One could speak of a network of colonies, the product of the same context, the same composition and problems, and a shared misfortune. Their lack of connectivity, their dimensions and their socio-economic insolvency have led to an advanced state of decay compromising their structure, and to occupation by illicit and problematic activities.

REDO: The aim is to remake and reconvert this network of river-predating complexes into new enhancers of flora and fauna. To replace their hermeticism with connectivity with the surroundings and the natural environment. And to turn the riverside colonies into a constellation of green innovation points, nodes against the climate emergency, etc. Colonia Sedó will be the first catalyst, contributing to biodiversity, sustainability and local identity.