Resilient Rambleta was developed in Catarroja, València, as the second laboratory of the EPIC CYCLE, following the first activation in Manteigas and preceding the exhibition moment in Toulouse.
Organised by the Universitat Politècnica de València in partnership with the NEB goes South network, the workshop brought together students and tutors from Southern European schools to address the transformation of Rambleta Avenue into a resilient public space in the face of climate change.
The workshop focused on Catarroja, one of the municipalities severely affected by the 2024 DANA floods. Rambleta Avenue, one of the town’s main arteries, was inundated by almost four metres of water, revealing the vulnerability of a fully paved and impermeable urban section, dominated by car infrastructure and insufficiently adapted to extreme climate events.
Working from this condition, the laboratory explored how urban design can respond to the combined pressures of torrential rain, heat waves, mobility, habitability and environmental sustainability. The project was grounded in a sensitive understanding of place, climate and people, connecting local conditions with broader challenges shared by Southern European territories.
Through site visits, lectures, collaborative work and direct production on a collective 1:100 model, participants developed proposals for the redesign of Rambleta Avenue. Each group worked on a specific section of the street, addressing mobility, vegetation, pavement, public space, urban furniture, architectural typologies and nature-based solutions.
The workshop adopted a Km 0 approach, testing architectural and urban strategies based on local resources, low environmental impact and territorial specificity. In this sense, Catarroja became a field for rethinking resilience not as an abstract concept, but as a situated practice capable of connecting urban form, environmental adaptation and collective life.
As part of the EPIC CYCLE, Resilient Rambleta extended the questions opened in Manteigas into a different climatic, territorial and social condition. From the mountain landscape of Serra da Estrela to the flood-prone urban fabric of Horta Sud, the cycle continued to test how architectural education can operate through real territories, urgent challenges and collaborative design processes.
The results of the workshop were presented through digital posters and a collective physical model, forming part of the ongoing body of work later connected to the international dissemination of the cycle.
