The exhibition Decentralised productive ecosystems will open on 19 October at the Centre Cívic Ateneu Fort Pienc in Barcelona, continuing the collaboration between the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura at UIC Barcelona and Fundación RIA.

First presented at Casa RIA in summer 2025, the exhibition brings together research and projects developed around two areas of study: Barbanza, in Galicia, and Osona, in Catalonia. The collaboration explores the role that academia and professional practice can play in understanding and transforming rural territories with close productive, ecological and cultural connections to urban areas.

Its presentation in Barcelona continues the work begun in Santiago and brings together experiences developed in both territories. The student projects are grounded in territorial research and dialogue with communities, local stakeholders and public administrations, approaching these productive contexts as places from which to address wider territorial challenges.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme of talks that expands on some of the questions raised by the exhibition, bringing together voices from academia, professional practice and the territories themselves. The programme aims to create spaces for knowledge exchange between Galicia and Catalonia and to introduce different perspectives on the future of productive rural territories.

Following the opening on 19 October, three public events will take place: Learning and thinking beyond the city on 2 November; Augmented ruralities on 16 November; and Frontline methodologies on 30 November. The sessions will explore, respectively, the role of academia and professional practice in non-urban territories, the possibilities offered by technology and data, and approaches to fieldwork, mediation and co-creation as tools for territorial transformation.