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2. In depth

“We must continue to create synergies with our surroundings because that’s how UPF has moved forward”

Jaume Guillamet, Campus and City adviser to the UPF

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Full name: Jaume Guillamet i Lloveras  (@jaumeguillamet)
Place and date of birth: Figueres, 1950
Position: Campus and City adviser to the Board of Management
Current link: Professor of Journalism in the Department of Communication
Academic positions held: Vice-Rector for Infrastructures and Foundations, Head of the Department of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication and Dean of the Studies of Journalism

Research: Coordinator of the Journalism Research Group (GRP). Expert in history of journalism in Catalonia, the role of journalism in the transition from the Franco regime and comparative history of journalism

Career path in journalism: Deputy editor of the daily newspapers Tele/eXprés and Avui and editor of the journal Annals del Periodisme Català; press officer for Barcelona City Council; member of the board of directors of Barcelona Press Association and of the first board of governors of the Journalists’ Association of Catalonia

Others: Member of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Section of the Institute of Catalan Studies and president of the Association of Communication Historians

Read more about him

Since 1990, UPF has helped to transform and regenerate the different areas and neighbourhoods of the city in which it has grown. Is this too a function of universities?

Historically universities have formed part of city centres and have contributed to the definition of their character. This changed in the 1970s, following a model that was more widespread in the United States, which also served to keep student protests out of the way. In the lead-up to the Olympics, Barcelona found itself in a period of urban reform that favoured the location of Pompeu Fabra University in the city centre; it regained that tradition, and so contributed to the improvement of the city.

Guillamet

  • Does the fact of being an urban university make the relationship with its surroundings especially important?

    • Of course. As the first public university to be set up by the Catalan Government, during the presidency of Jordi Pujol, UPF also received major support from Barcelona City Council, when Pasqual Maragall was mayor, at a time of sweeping reforms in which it was important to recover university life in the city centre.

  • In what ways has the presence of the University in Ciutat Vella, Poblenou and Sant Martí helped to improve the city?

    • The conversion of the former Jaume I and Roger de Llúria barracks provided the studies of Social Sciences and Humanities with a spacious, comfortable and well-connected campus in Barcelona’s new zone of urban expansion, between Ciutadella Park and the recently built Olympic Village.

      Regenerating Ciutat Vella was a priority goal of Mayor Maragall, and installing the studies of Communication and Linguistics at the bottom of the Rambla helped a lot in that respect. When those buildings became too small for the growing faculties and the newly created studies of Information and Communication Technologies, the City Council offered us new premises in Poblenou, in the technology district known as 22@, which was being started up at that time. After the move to what is now the Poblenou Campus, our contribution to the Rambla remains alive with the presence of the Elisava School of Design, which is an affiliated centre.

      The location of the studies of Health and Life Sciences in the university area of Hospital del Mar and our participation in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park completed this match – if you’ll pardon the expression – between the city and the University.

      Guillamet

      “The location of the UPF campuses has made for a good match with the city of Barcelona”

  • All the university buildings, whether built from scratch or refurbished, are unique and widely acclaimed. Could we call this a brand image of UPF?

    • Without a doubt. We could say, to quote the poet J.V. Foix, that we are exalted by the new and enamoured by the old!

  • Is there any room left for the University to carry on growing, in urban development terms, on its campuses?

    • Yes, there’s still a bit left, and it’s important to take advantage of the opportunity to complete this growth, at this stage mostly in the field of research. This opportunity arises on the Ciutadella Campus, where we have a margin for further construction that was halted by the financial crisis of 2008. On the other campuses we might also have possibilities to expand spaces, if necessary, but not so much with new buildings as with agreements to occupy existing premises in the neighbourhood.

       

      “It’s important to take advantage of the opportunity to complete this growth, especially in the field of research”

  • After the construction of the Mercè Rodoreda Buildings and the BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center, what actions have you got planned for the coming years on the Ciutadella Campus?

    • Our intention is to complete the construction of the Ciutadella Campus in the space still occupied by the second former military housing block and in the space available on the site of the Old Fish Market, now being used as a car park.

  • What prospects are there for the remaining former military housing on the Ciutadella Campus?

    • In principle, this future building could house activities derived from needs arising on this social sciences and humanities campus, whether for classrooms, services and spaces related to teaching and the university community, or possible new centres for research in these disciplines.

  • The area of the Old Fish Market, currently occupied by a public car park, has a strategic location, next to the Roger de Llúria Building. Is there any idea under consideration for this site?

    • We should see this space as an extension of the Ciutadella Campus, and at the same time a connecting element with the Mar Campus, from which it is only separated by the Coastal Ring Road. Opportunities are starting to arise that would make it possible to incorporate some top-level institutions and research centres into the sphere of UPF, in what could be a science cluster oriented primarily towards the field of biomedicine, in which Barcelona aspires to consolidate its position as an international benchmark. At the moment the University is engaged in exploring possible agreements in this direction.

      Guillamet

      “We have opportunities to incorporate top-level institutions and research centres to create a strong science cluster in the field of biomedicine”

  • To what extent is the wall of the Zoo along Carrer Wellington a hindrance to the urban development potential of the Ciutadella area as a place of teaching, research and culture?

    • The wall of the Zoo and the Catalan Parliament, next door to it, is a hindrance to free connectivity between UPF and the city. Just as it is for the unleashing of all the civic and scientific potential of the Ciutadella Park area. Yet again the interests of Barcelona and UPF coincide!

      “The wall of the Zoo and the Catalan Parliament is a hindrance to free connectivity between UPF and the city”

  • The strategic situation of the different campuses has always sought to cooperate with their surroundings, as regards companies, industries and research centres alike. How does this criterion take concrete form? Will it continue to leverage in future projects?

    • The aim is precisely to create these synergies with our surroundings. Because that’s how UPF has moved forward in the past, and it’s how things should be done in today’s society. And also because we couldn’t cope on our own with this project, in which UPF is due to complete its campus by 2025.