Belvís as an urban strategy
At the beginning of 2025, Fundación RIA –in collaboration with Fundación MOP– organized a workshop for students of architecture and other disciplines to address urban planning in Santiago de Compostela. Over twelve days, nine participants worked with this green space to explore its future civic role.
Organised by
Fundación RIA
Fundación MOP
In collaboration with
Mutu
Year
2025
Location
Santiago de Compostela
The current environmental crisis urges the rethinking of land use and urban strategy. Belvís offers a starting point from which to promote connection between people, plants, and water.
What role can Belvís play in the city’s urban strategy? Could it act as a connector—not only between the historic centre and beyond while linking other neighbourhoods and public services? What kinds of services and activities might it accommodate without compromising its environmental quality and function? How can Belvís serve as a catalyst for placing green and blue infrastructure at the heart of urban planning?
To explore these questions, Fundación RIA proposed three thematic approaches:
—Urban relationship: focused on Belvís’ integration within Santiago de Compostela’s urban fabric, highlighting its strategic location and role as a transition space between the historic centre and beyond.
—Green and blue infrastructure: addressing the natural components of the site, with emphasis on their ecological and landscape value.
—Functionality and social perception: aimed at assessing the social value of the space through public engagement and mapping of uses and activities.
An interdisciplinary workshop
Fundación RIA launched an interdisciplinary student workshop as part of its ongoing collaboration with Fundación MOP to promote a culture of architecture and design in Galicia grounded in sustainability and efficiency.
Fundación RIA developed the workshop in partnership with Mutu, the cooperative based in both Barcelona and Galicia. The Mutu team played a crucial role in guiding the process, mentoring students and facilitating critical reflection on Belvís throughout the workshop.
Nine student participants were selected from responses to an open call to explore the challenges and opportunities posed by this key urban space. From 27 January to 7 February they worked from Casa RIA, located on the edge of the Belvís park.
The students engaged the park through lectures, site walks, fieldwork, mapping, analysis and strategy design. This approach enabled experimentation with new tools grounded in a holistic view of urban challenges.
An open and collaborative methodology
The workshop combined theory, practice and research through an open and participatory methodology. Through mapping, active engagement, site visits and data gathering, participants explored the multiple dimensions of the space and its influence on the urban dynamics of Santiago de Compostela.
A series of thematic lectures deepened understanding of Belvís from different perspectives. Architects Enrique Seoane and Carlos Seoane were invited to discuss the neighbourhood’s relationship with the larger city. María Fandiño and Cristina García Fontán –specialists in landscape architecture– addressed Belvís’ green and blue infrastructure. Functionality and social perception were explored with city councillor Xesús Domínguez and Lino Vilas, co-founder of the Belvís organic market.
In addition, Mutu delivered transversal lectures focusing on collaborative urban strategies and tools for incorporating gender perspectives into urban design.
Students shaped their contributions according to their own interests and areas of expertise and produced a diverse and inclusive study. Proposals were then collectively refined through group discussions and critical review sessions.
Multiple futures for Belvís
The workshop’s goal was to explore multiple alternatives in order to better understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of each. Participants imagined three different scenarios for each issue, promoting a more open and holistic understanding of the space.
From the three initial themes came six cross-cutting objectives that addressed key aspects such as territorial identity, accessibility, biodiversity and land use. These informed the identification of nine core questions, which formed the basis of a series of illustrated triptychs.
Each triptych presented three spatial responses to the issues studied during the workshop, positioned within Belvís. The students’ proposals offered starting points for a collective conversation about the park’s future.
The students made a series of mixed-media collages combining photography, hand drawing and references to impressionist painting as their final product. The collages show synthetic and evocative representations of their diverse perspectives and imagined futures for Belvís.
Closing the workshop
The two-week workshop culminated in a public presentation held on the morning of 7 February at Sala RIA. The students prepared, organised and delivered the presentation, sharing both the process and its outcomes with the individuals and organisations who contributed along the way.
The session began with a welcome and introduction by Fundación RIA, and was followed by a methodological overview by Mutu,. The students then presented their findings using a variety of formats. They started with An interactive map to display the proposed strategies and used a second map to showing how their work evolved over time.
The synthetic collages were accompanied by a sound installation capturing the auditory landscape of Belvís park. Students drew on the connection between Casa RIA and the park by painting on the windows to point out key elements of Belvís visible from the workspace.
After the presentations, invited experts offered critical reflections and feedback. The event concluded with an open discussion between the audience and the student team.
At the end of the session, each participant received a process diary and a booklet summarising the key results, leaving a tangible record of the work carried out.
