Mexico City. Singapore. Barcelona. Three cities with iconic architecture and rich cultural tapestries will each host a different workshop as part of Rice Architecture’s Global Workshop series. The workshops aim to “bring together research with planetary engagement…immerse participants in diverse local contexts and cultures…and expand research collaborations beyond the inherited borders and boundaries, nurturing global citizenship.”
Rice’s interdisciplinary spirit shines through as architecture and civil and environmental engineering students embark on the trip to Barcelona. Dr. Juan José Castellón, an assistant professor in Rice Architecture, and Dr. Kalil Erazo, an assistant teaching professor in Rice’s Civil and Environmental Engineering department, will lead the group abroad in the three-week workshop, “Building Ecologies: The Five Elements.” Situated in the La Salle School of Architecture in Barcelona, the workshop examines how architects and engineers can collaboratively address the challenges of the climate crisis through more sustainable design and infrastructure. Students will be brought together with local architects, designers, engineers, and material fabricators through talks, workshops, and site visits around Barcelona. There are also hands-on activities, culminating in students fashioning a large-scale modular prototype with guidance from local experts and faculty.
Dr. Erazo is excited for students to experience firsthand how fruitful the collaboration across the engineering, architecture, and manufacturing worlds can be as the need for more sustainable and resilient infrastructure grows. He is also one of the guest speakers for the workshop, delivering a talk on infrastructure resiliency in the age of climate change.
“Another topic that I lectured on is the importance of functionality and aesthetics in the design of new infrastructure systems, and how art, architecture, and engineering can work together to provide new discoveries in structure, form, and materiality. The art and architecture of Barcelona provided the perfect laboratory for this discussion, with infrastructure such as the Sagrada Familia and Casa Batlló by Gaudí serving as examples of how infrastructure can be much more than just a functional and resilient building,” says Erazo.
Engaging activities, such as talks like “Permaculture and Bioclimatic Architecture” and site visits to places around Barcelona like Park La Ciutadella and Sagrada Familia, fill the students' days. In their free time, they are encouraged to explore the city with each other to learn more about the culture they now find themselves immersed in.
“I had heard that going abroad enriches the learning experience, but having never been to Europe, I had never been able to experience this firsthand. This trip really changed my perspective on a lot of things. For example, the public transit and walkability of Barcelona was like no other place I have ever been. Walkability is something that I look for in an urban environment, so in the US, especially in Houston, I am often discouraged by the layouts of cities and the planning that goes into them. Being in a place with such a high emphasis on mobility made me realize that a walkable city is possible on a large scale,” says CEE senior, Connor Bird.
One afternoon, students venture to Nest City Lab, an airy, bright, plant-filled building that is a “culture lab for sustainability.” The hum of conversation fills the air as students enjoy a delicious lunch before participating in a hands-on workshop.
“My favorite visit that we did was to Nest, where we learned about climate change, rammed earth as a structural material, were treated to a vegan lunch, and even got to create our own rammed earth bench! Attending the workshop broadened my knowledge of different structural materials like rammed earth and ceramics that I had not been exposed to previously. Through the workshop, I can also recognize some of the different architectural considerations in structural design, which will be beneficial later in my career as a structural engineer,” says recent CEE graduate, Sabrina Talghader.
For Connor Bird, the workshop brings a new perspective and deeper understanding of collaboration’s role in engineering.
“I would like to build on the relationships I made throughout the trip and try to be more understanding to architects as I continue into my professional life. Additionally, a big part of this workshop focused on the combination of ecology and structures. I have always wanted to try to design environmentally sustainable buildings, so this aspect of the trip was incredible for me. The workshop reinvigorated my passion for green infrastructure,” says Bird.
During their interactive workshops and excursions around the stunning and vibrant city, CEE students intermingle with architects in insightful ways that reveal more about the city around them.
“I am very glad that architects were accompanying us on this trip because they were able to view the landscape in a completely different way than me and opened my mind to the beauty of structures. Sometimes, things don't have to be the most efficient or the cheapest. Aesthetic value adds beauty to the built environment. Creating a relationship with the architecture students allowed me to understand the importance of collaboration and make this a goal in my future endeavors,” says Bird.
Collaboration, especially across disciplines, creates insights that could not come otherwise. It is one thing to hear how useful working with others can be and quite another to experience it firsthand–a unique opportunity this trip continuously provided to students during their three-week stay.
“My experience in the Barcelona workshop was very eye-opening. It was fascinating to see how architecture students approach design and how their thought processes in observation of a structure may differ from the typical engineering student's perspective,” says Talghader.
Three weeks pass swiftly, and it is time for the Rice cohort to return to Houston. The fall semester will begin in a few weeks, and the architecture and civil and environmental engineering students will resume their learning on different parts of campus. However, because of their time in Barcelona, they return with a better understanding of how they can bridge the engineering and architecture worlds and one day, as professionals, work together to create more resilient and sustainable communities.
Dr. Erazo recognizes this as the mark of a successful trip. “I was more impacted by how receptive the students were to working with one another, particularly the collaboration between architecture and engineering students. Students now better understand that to solve some of the pressing challenges of their generations, they need to work with people from different backgrounds since most of these challenges are multidisciplinary in nature. The students understood this very well. I was pleasantly surprised by how well they actually understood this.”
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Dr. Kalil Erazo would like to thank several people who made this opportunity happen. “Given that this was a multidisciplinary workshop, it required a tremendous amount of support from both architecture and engineering to make it possible. I would like to thank Professor Juan José Castellón from Architecture, who came up with the initiative and had the vision for the workshop; he worked really hard to make this possible using some of his grant funds to cover part of the expenses of the engineering students. From the Architecture side, there was significant support from the School of Architecture. I would also like to thank the chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Jamie Padgett, and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Engineering, Dr. Renata Ramos. Without the support from the CEVE Department and the School of Engineering, we wouldn’t have been able to integrate the CEVE students into this experience. CEVE and SOE helped to cover part of the expenses of the engineering students.”
Read more about the “Building Ecologies” Barcelona Workshop.
Read more about CEE students studying abroad: “Instead of Reading About Them From Far Away”: Civil and Environmental Engineering Students Deepen Learning and Build Community in Mexico
CCE’s SSPEED Center has a Summer 2025 trip to Amsterdam and London. Please email Dr. Phil Bedient for more information.
