Dual City Courses - London Barcelona

Vincenzo Di Maria and Cristina Lladó I Mor

The Olympic Games are a global event, with the political, economical and cultural power to transform cities and create memorable experiences. Radical changes at social, financial and cultural levels are expected, from architecture, urban planning, and logistic, but also at service level. The course will explore the role that different design disciplines play in this process, before, during and after the games. This unique dual session will give students the opportunity to compare two experiences from the current developments in London  to the legacy and consequences of Barcelona 1992. The course will help design professionals to better understand, plan and deliver large-scale events taking in account their long-term sustainability and design legacy.  

Who should attend?
The course is targeted at an interdisciplinary group of design professionals interested in the design, planning, management, production or organisation of big events and have interest in sustainability and cultural legacy. This could include: Architects, urban planners, curators, producers, service and experience designers, social agents, cultural advisors, graphic and media designers, communication and information designers, researchers and sociologists or other technical suppliers. Local authorities and department for the promotion and delivery of cultural and commercial events are also encouraged to join the course.

London (9 day course)

Monday 25 June to Thursday 5 July

London today, getting ready for the big show
Just before the event: preparation and moving forces.

This first part of the course aims to create a case study using London based on research, site visits and observation focusing on the different design aspects (from communication and media to infrastructure, architecture, products, services and experiences). The students will analyse and compare this phase, just before the inauguration ceremony, mapping the moving forces and people involved in planning and delivering the games.

Case study structure:
1.    Design research, analysis and comparison
2.    Stakeholders mapping and experience design
3.    Tangible & intangible: from infrastructure to services
4.    Field study: urban and social
5.    Legacy, sustainability, impact

Goals
The objective of the first week of the course is to get a wide and holistic view of the preliminary actions and resources necessary to make the games possible, identifying all the agents and design decisions involved in this process.

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Independent Travel (4 days)

Friday 6 July to Monday 9 July

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Barcelona (9 day course)

Tuesday 10 July to Friday 20 July

Barcelona today, memory and legacy of a unique experience
Two decades after the Olympic Games: what has changed.

This second part of the course is analysing the scenario of Barcelona, a city where the games occurred in 1992, deeply transforming the physiognomy and the life of the Catalan capital. This time the students will focus on the games celebration and on the period following the event, mapping the changes happened as consequence of the Olympics. Barcelona ’92 is remembered as one of the most successful Olympic Games in history not just for the unique experience but for it’s strong legacy and transformational function in the history of the city.

Case study structure:
1.    Design research, analysis and comparison
2.    Stakeholders mapping and experience design
3.    Tangible & intangible: from infrastructure to services
4.    Field study: urban and social legacy
5.    Legacy, sustainability, impact

Goals
The goal for this part of the course will consist in picking the data up from Barcelona’92 experience and legacy in order to project a net of hypothesis to try to predict London results:

1- London behaviour during the period of competitions celebration.
2- London attitude just after the end of the games, the early future.

Practical project
The practical project of the course will consist in elaborating a future city candidature hosting the Olympic games. The teams working to design the candidature have to be as multidisciplinary as possible in order to involve in the organisation staff all the profiles required in this kind of events design:

Architects, sociologists, urban planners, engineers, social agents, local administration personnel, cultural advisors, sport specialists, graphic designers, media, journalists… The different city candidates teams has to built the structure and the program for the hypothetic city hosting the event, doing as well an exercise of prediction of the results, behaviour and attitudes assuming that their city candidature, could be winner.

The teams would have to be ready to answer:
•    What is going to happen just after the games?
•    Which could be the state of the city physically and emotionally?
•    Which could be the level of the satisfaction or frustration of the citizens?
•    Which could be the pros and the cons of these possible and maybe ideal Olympic games?
•    How to communicate it?

In conclusion
Elements to design the hypothetic candidature city:

In order to introduce new and different elements to work on this hypothetic hosting city apart from London 2012 and Barcelona’92, two other Olympic cases will be analysed: Athens 2004 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Athens 2004 is offering strong tangible data about financial and organisation matters, even political affaires. The city is the capital, nowadays, of one of the main worldwide crisis sufferer country, Greece.

Rio de Janeiro 2016 is, on the other hand, offering and defending its position as one of the best possible city games in the Olympic history. Empowered by one of the most magnificent pool of attractions, astonishing potentiality and irresistible appeal. One of the capitals of the most powerful emergent markets, Brazil.

London - Vincenzo Di Maria is a service designer currently working on projects across Europe. His work focuses on socially responsive design & innovation (products-services-experiences). His approach to design is holistic, playful and people-centred. Currently based in Lisbon, Vincenzo is co-founder of commonground, the place where design meets positive social change. commonground is a socially responsive organisation that works with socially minded clients to deliver service innovation and user-driven experiences. Vincenzo trained as a designer at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London where he now runs the Service Design short course and collaborates with some other postgraduate courses. Vincenzo has also been working as design researcher at Design Against Crime Research Centre, CSM Innovation, University of the Arts London.

Barcelona - Cristina  Lladó I Mor has a  degree in Philosophy and Humanities and Education Sciences,  from  University of Barcelona and a Masters Degrees in Graphic Design from the   IDEP (Institute of Design and School of Image) Barcelona and Mediation  and  Conflict Management at the Ramon Llull University and Pere Tarrés  Foundation, Barcelona. She has experience in architecture and design  publishing whilst at ACTAR, gallery management from RAS Gallery, and academia.   She is currently Managing director of *ÇRISTINA developing cultural communication and relations  between Catalonia and Brazil, drawing on her professional experience  communications and PR.