Hybrid Spaces for Fragile Territories
Ingrid Quiroga
Angela Sueiro
Paz Walker
Fundació Contorno Urbano is a non-profit spatial practice organisation based in the Barcelona metropolitan area. We explore how situated hybrid civic infrastructures can strengthen the collective capacity of fragile urban territories by connecting architecture, culture, ecology, education and community action.
Since 2016, we have developed long-term place-based methodologies that combine spatial design, cultural mediation, ecological regeneration and collective governance. Between 2019 and 2025, we designed, co-built and now steward a distributed network of four permanent hybrid infrastructures across L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, El Prat de Llobregat, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Sant Vicenç dels Horts. Together with local communities and public institutions, we activate these spaces through cultural, educational, ecological and civic programmes, transforming them into living laboratories for experimentation and territorial learning.
Our multidisciplinary team includes architects, cultural practitioners, educators, artists and researchers working collaboratively across disciplines. Rather than delivering isolated projects, we create the long-term conditions that enable communities to organise, learn, care and shape their own future through shared stewardship and place-based collaboration.
Alongside our local work, we participate in European cooperation, research and knowledge exchange to develop practical methodologies for hybrid civic infrastructures. We see LINA as an opportunity to connect this practice with a wider community of spatial practitioners and collectively rethink how architecture can contribute to strengthening the collective capacity of Europe's fragile territories.
# Hybrid Spaces for Fragile Territories
Across Europe, urban regeneration still prioritises physical transformation while overlooking the infrastructures that enable communities to organise, learn, care and shape their future. Fragile territories are defined not only by social or economic vulnerability, but by the erosion of their collective capacity to respond to complex challenges.
My practice explores how hybrid civic infrastructures can rebuild this capacity. I design spaces where culture intersects with education, ecology, community action and local governance, creating living laboratories where spatial practice strengthens relationships, knowledge and collective agency.
Between 2019 and 2025, I designed, co-built and now steward a network of four hybrid infrastructures across four municipalities in the Barcelona metropolitan area: L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, El Prat de Llobregat, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Sant Vicenç dels Horts. Together with local communities and public institutions, we activate these permanent spaces through cultural, educational, ecological and civic programmes.
Through LINA, I want to work with architects, designers, artists and researchers to investigate a shared question: **How can hybrid spatial infrastructures rebuild the collective capacity of fragile territories?**
Rather than proposing a fixed model, I aim to co-develop an open framework for designing and evaluating hybrid infrastructures that strengthen local agency, democratic participation and ecological resilience. Combining spatial practice, participatory research and international collaboration, this work seeks to generate practical methodologies adaptable across Europe and contribute to recognising hybrid infrastructures as essential civic assets for resilient and inclusive territories.