Pompeu Fabra is a public and modern university with three campuses, all located in the centre of the city of Barcelona. The strong drive of the first rector, Enric Argullol, to create an urban institution implied returning to a more traditional university model, in line with that of continental Europe, and locating the university in the middle of the city.

The University’s commitment to the city is clearly reflected in its influence on its urban context. The campuses have favoured the rehabilitation of different neighbourhoods and spaces in Barcelona, with carefully studied interventions that give particular focus to the existing architecture, ensuring the preservation of the city’s heritage.

UPF’s pledge to be “an urban university, focused on the challenges faced by Barcelona and its urban environment, which uses the modernity and creativity of a city that is open to the world as a source of inspiration to influence its transformation”

This founding aim also looks into the future, as reflected in the 2016-2025 Pompeu Fabra University Strategic Plan, which reaffirms UPF’s pledge to be “an urban university, focused on the challenges faced by Barcelona and its urban environment, which uses the modernity and creativity of a city that is open to the world as a source of inspiration to influence its transformation”. And this includes local urban development, an area we have always aimed to work with in full collaboration with the governments of Barcelona and Catalonia to help transform those areas of the city that need regeneration.

We would like UPF to serve as an attractive landmark within its surroundings, through the strengthening of its connections with Barcelona, thereby drawing people into the area. And this all needs to be done in consideration of the major changes the city has to face and the multiple dimensions of the urban phenomenon. In this regard, we believe that the Ciutadella Park and its surroundings should constitute, as they did a century ago, a nexus which connects the urban environment and projects an image of the city. This is a space that is necessarily connected with the concepts of research, teaching and culture.

There are many projects and initiatives carried out within the University in the areas of teaching and research, and which exemplify the use of the city as a laboratory, as an urban stage that serves to develop knowledge in more diverse subjects and disciplines, and which at the same time contributes to the progress of the institution.

The Ciutadella Park and its surroundings should constitute a nexus which connects the urban environment and projects. This is a space that is necessarily connected with the concepts of research, teaching and culture.

Barcelona, in many cases, is the aim itself of the research projects, the focus of case studies that, beyond the local scale, shed light on the phenomenon of globalisation and the use of new technologies. The knowledge, therefore, that arises from local experiences, whether in political, economic, social, technological or cultural spheres is then transferrable to more international contexts.