Master in City & Technology 01 Archives

The Master in City & Technology’s academic structure is based on IAAC’s innovative, learn-by-doing and design-through-research methodology which focuses on the development of interdisciplinary skills. During the Master in City & Technology students will have the opportunity to be part of a highly international group, including faculty members, researchers, and lecturers, in which they are encouraged to develop collective decision-making processes and materialize their project ideas.

Course: MUPD01 25/26 Decolonial Futures & Counter-Cartographies in Urbanism

Mapping, Data, and Knowledge Production in the Contemporary City

Decolonial Futures & Counter-Cartographies in Urbanism critically examines how cities are produced through unequal power relations embedded in planning practices, architectural discourse, and data-driven methodologies. The seminar frames urbanism as an epistemological practice, interrogating how maps, models, and datasets shape what is visible, governable, and imaginable while privileging certain perspectives and excluding others. Through decolonial theory, critical methodologies, and collective cartographic practices, students develop situated research positions and produce layered counter-maps that reveal the city as a dynamic, contested space shaped by multiple forms of knowledge and experience.

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How does Power operate spatially in Poblenou?

February 26, 2026February 26, 2026
MaCT-01 2025-2026 by Ana Julia Caetano
MaCT-01 2025-2026

This project explores how power operates spatially through counter-cartography and autoethnography in Poblenou, Barcelona. Combining observation, mapping, and self-tracking, the research examines how infrastructure, urban objects, rules, and rhythms shape behavior, movement, and perception. Benches, pedestrian streets, and smoking practices reveal how freedom, restriction, and permission are unevenly distributed. Findings show that movement is widely … Read more

Always the new village – Poblenou

February 26, 2026February 25, 2026
MaCT-01 2025-2026 by Reshma Paul
MaCT-01 2025-2026

Introduction “Poblenou” or “Poble nou”, means “new town” in Catalan. When we first arrived to Poblenou in Fall of 2025, it was difficult to see how this space in the city was “new.” While it didn’t appear to be as old as El Born, Raval, or Gràcia, in our outsider perspective it certainly did not … Read more

Extracting Value, Producing Invisibility

February 25, 2026
MaCT-01 2025-2026 by Grace Schleck
MaCT-01 2025-2026

Scrap Metal, Migration and Urban Recycling To better understand people, we must understand the spaces they occupy – the city they navigate, the neighborhood they experience. Robert Park notes that the city is a man’s most consistent and on the whole, his most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in more after his … Read more

Poblenou as Lived Space

February 25, 2026
MaCT-01 2025-2026 by Janani Ranganthan
MaCT-01 2025-2026

Cities are often described in terms of movement. We often tend to move through them in familiar loops – leaving home to catch the metro, commuting to work, coming back in the evening, running errands, going to appointments. Over time, these repeated paths shape how we think about urban space and can seem to define … Read more