Lacol: Community Infrastructure

In this lecture Cristina Gamboa Masdevall and Eliseu Arrufat Grau, two of the 14 cofounders of Lacol, present several of the non-profit cooperative’s projects in the ex-industrial area of Can Batlló, including:
-Coòpolis, a facility for the promotion and development of the cooperative economy in Barcelona
-La Comunal, a cultural space that houses eight cooperative organizations, including Lacol, on a rehabilitated industrial site
-La Borda, a 28-unit housing cooperative organized by its users and built on municipal land.
Through these projects Gamboa and Arrufat show how Lacol’s work incubates new social and economic structures.
The presentation is followed by a conversation with Anna Puigjaner, co-founder of MAIO, which touches on how members of the practice strive to rise above individualistic tendencies, the evolution of Lacol’s internal structure, and how projects are financed.