A less hierarchical city. Invert the Pyramid by OJO estudio

Project description by OJO estudio

How can we create inclusive cities out of their very diversity and complexity? What enables a space to belong to everyone? What is the social responsibility of architecture? How can we guarantee the right to public space and the right to housing?

"Invert the Pyramid" challenges us to change our perspective.

The square where this intervention is located has had, since 1940, the name of Antonio López, the first Marquis of Comillas; a businessman who became rich through the slave trade during the early 20th century. In 2021, the name of the square was changed to Idrissa Diallo in memory of a young Guinean who died in 2012 in the custody of Barcelona’s detention center for foreigners (CIE) shortly after being transferred there.

Despite the removal of the statue of Antonio López in 2018, in one of the first acts of symbolic resignification as part of municipal de colonization policies, the empty pedestal nevertheless remains in the square, marking his presence.


Invert the Pyramid by OJO estudio. Photograph by Oriol Gómez, Arnau Marimon, Goroka.

A pedestal is one of the most symbolically inaccessible spaces there is. The intervention carried out within the 2022 Barcelona Model Architecture Festival, changes its meaning and point of view away from one that served to highlight individual superiority, hierarchy and power, proposing instead to invert the pyramid of classes by creating a new public space that is elevated above the pedestal. It establishes a public platform from which to reinterpret the post-colonial city and reflect upon the position and cultural representations of class, gender and race in the urban environment. This new space eliminates hierarchies and invites us to appreciate the inherent social aspects of architecture and urban planning.

The ecological footprint of this intervention is minimized through the use of a prefabricated, standardized and, above all, totally reusable construction system that extends the useful life of its materials.

The installation promotes the reuse of public spaces and disused urban structures to increase awareness of the places in which we live. The structure is like a building, a small room for citizens where everyone can express themselves. It is a space at the level of the treetops but also a pergola for the square; a treehouse, a space for debate, an agora, a place from which to reflect and from which to see the city from another perspective.