BRIEF

The planet is warming, from the North Pole to the South Pole. The weather has become more drastic as natural disasters have been more common in recent years. Barcelona’s commitment to innovation and its firm undertaking in the fight to halt climate change demonstrates the understanding for urgent action.

But how would your lifestyle affect our future if everyone lived just like you?

STORY BEHIND

The goal is to create a VR installation which enables spectators to experience the effects of climate change in Barcelona first-hand. The project works based on the idea that there’s only one way to halt climate change, and that’s by experiencing it. The story behind the installation is showing a narrative of the three possible futures of Barcelona:

  • committed scenario: meeting the Paris Agreement goals and mitigating the effects of climate change
  • predicted scenario: showing where the climate is heading according to current estimates
  • passive scenario: what Barcelona would look like in the year 2100 if nothing was done to halt the global warming

 

BARCELONA TODAY

  • Area: 101.9 sq.km
  • Population: 1,608,7464,703 m of beaches
  • Average annual temperature: 17.6?
  • Average annual rainfall: 600 mm

 

BIGGEST CHALLENGES

SHRINKING BEACH

  • Determined by three parameters: Sea level rise, the tide and changes in wind pressures, swell effect
  • Reduction of 30%-46%
  • Committed Scenario:+46cm/+ 115cm
  • Passive Scenario: +64cm/+ 133cm

INCREASED FLOODING

  • Lack of drainage
  • High impermeability surface area
  • Artificial natural water courses
  • At the moment the drainage system can cope with the current level of impermeability
  • Measure that are being taken: 15 retention tanks, promoting sustainable urban drainage systems, increasing city green surfaces

RISING TEMPERATURES

  • Current temperature 17.6?
  • Predicted temperature in 2100 according to different scenarios
  • Committed Scenario : +1.7? (19.3?)
  • Passive Scenarios:  +3? (20.6?)

REDUCTION OF RAINFALL

  • Each year there will be less and less rainfall, causing disruption in the food production and natural environments.
  • Current rain amount 600mm
  • Predicted rainfall in 2100 according to different scenarios
  • Committed Scenario : -14%  (516mm)
  • Passive Scenarios : -26% (444mm)

POSSIBLE SCENARIOS

USER JOURNEY

The project takes the visitor on a journey to the future of Barcelona. Each spectator is first asked a set of questions to assess their environmental impact, after which they are shown what the future of Barcelona would look like in the year 2100 if every person on Earth had the same carbon footprint as them. The goal is to make the spectator experience how their personal choices can affect the future of our planet.

The journey focuses on the port of Barcelona and is represented by a 360° VR experience where the spectator can look around their environment and learn how the city and its climate have changed over 80 years.

VR EXPERIENCE SET-UP

QUIZ FORM

These questions were formulated to understand the user more and for the user to  understand how their current lifestyle can impact the future of Barcelona.

A point system was created to calculate the results and break them down into three categories: committed, predicted and passive, which then lead the user to the VR experience of Barcelona’s predicted future based on their current lifestyle.

POINT BREAKDOWN

9-20_ Committed Scenario

21-33_ Predicted Scenario

34-46_ Passive Scenario

QUIZ QR CODE

VR ENVIRONMENTS

VR EXPERIENCE

 

2100: Every Decision Counts is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at Master in Advanced Architecture in 2020/21 by

Students: Tsvetelina Bogdanova, Rosamary Machado, Elena Petruzzi  & Aqeel Sourjah

Faculty: Mery Glez & Gus Zúniga

Faculty Assistant: Daniil Koshelyuk & Eve Nnaji