Category Archives: IAAC event

IAAC event

Monday 1st of December // Aaron Betsky // The Architecture of Hunting and Gathering

By admin | Published: November 26, 2014

image used for poster

IAAC Fall Lecture Series 2014

Monday 1st of December 2014

Aaron Betsky

Lecture: The Architecture of Hunting and Gathering

 

@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium

Open to the Public

 

AARON BETSKY

Aaron Betsky is a critic, curator, educator, lecturer, and writer on architecture and design, who, from 2006 to January 2014, was the director of the Cincinnati Art Museum. From 2001 to 2006 Betsky served as director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

He graduated fromYale University with a B.A. in History, the Arts and Letters and a M.Arch. He then taught at Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Cincinnati from 1983 to 1985 and worked as a designer for Frank Gehry and Hodgetts & Fung. From 1995 to 2001 Betsky was Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before moving back to The Netherlands.

Betsky has written numerous monographs on the work of late 20th century architects, including I.M. Pei, UN Studio, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Inc., Zaha Hadid and MVRDV, as well as treatises on aesthetics, psychology and human sexuality as they pertain to aspects of architecture.

Betsky was named as the director of the 11th Exhibition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2008.

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Built by Associative Data // BAD Bits

By admin | Published: November 25, 2014

Tonight we had the pleasure of hosting BAD – Built by Associative Data, presented by Ali Basbous and Luis Fraguada, both IAAC Alumni, as part of the 2014 Fall Lecture Series.

Through the presentation of a series of their projects, Ali and Luis showed how with each project BAD strives to give a simple answer to complex challenges, considering data as something with the ability to form structured logics, through its inherent associative properties. These organizations are organic and naturally efficient groupings of data and can provide for novel directions throughout the design process. BAD leverages this concept in order to understand specific contexts wherever a project may arise. The data identified and collected from site analysis will not yield the same organization in Beirut as it will in Barcelona. BAD strives to understand and exploit these variations in order to enrich every one of their projects.

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GreenARCH EU Project // 2nd Meeting in Prague

By admin | Published: November 21, 2014

Partners and FOAT met for the second time on the 9th and 10th of October 2014 in Prague, hosted by CCEA.
During the first day, after a short wrap up of the previous meeting, partners start discussing contexts in which competition programming develop. During the discussion, the partnership achieved three important shared definitions:

  • YOUNG = not only in age but also in experience and in accessing the competition market (e.g. SMEs have less chance to compete)
  • GREEN = effective and sustainable throughout the entire life cycle
  • COMPETITION = in Europe we have a common framework which is the new EU directive on public procurement (2014/24/EU). This might help understand what we are talking about in terms of public competition, then the private competitions work around the law.

To support the debate, Walter Menteth, part of the USE group, gave a very interesting and useful presentation on the current situation of competitions in Britain and in Europe, stressing the importance of EU networking as a tool to reform the competition system.
Its presentation provided inputs to the discussion around the idea that Architects working together might enhance competition practices to improve access, opportunity, societal engagement, improve quality, reduce waste increase sustainability and support growth. Read More »

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Tuesday 25th of November // Built by Associative Data // BAD Bits

By admin | Published: November 19, 2014

GS_01 NIGHT_web

IAAC Fall Lecture Series 2014

Tuesday 25th of November 2014

Built by Assoiciative Data – Ali Basbous + Luis Fraguada

Lecture: BAD Bits

 

@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium

Open to the Public

 

ALI BASBOUS - IAAC Alumni

Ali Basbous (Beirut, 1973) is the Founder and Director of BAD; A Canadian, Lebanese Architect living between Barcelona and Beirut. Ali holds a Masters degree in Advanced Architectural Design from IAAC. Ali’s global experience in creating pioneering ideas have been prized and granted many internationally notable awards. Ali has been performing major roles and renowned design practices like JDS Architects (Brussels, Copenhagen), NBBJ (Shanghai, Seattle) and Raphael Vinoly Architects (New York). Ali’s work has been strongly influenced by questions concerning the evolution of social interaction and new technologies. Ali pursues an expertise in the use of powerful modeling and design software (as Rhino 3D, Grasshopper and VB scripting) to discover new Architectural forms that can respond to contemporary culture, economics and industry. His deep understanding for the complex systems of nature and the massive Data accumulation varying between sustainable issues to practical diagrammatic programming enable him a to generate precise definitions to acquire pioneering designs. During his professional practice the firms he collaborated with have won several competitions and awards on major landmark projects.

LUIS FRAGUADA – IAAC Alumni

Luis Fraguada is the Research Director of Bad Research, he investigates critical issues in architecture, design and urbanism through various modes, including parametric design, scripting, and fabrication. Luis’ architectural studies began at the University of Colorado, Boulder where he was able to begin exploring computational tools and theories that would lead him to choose this field as a specialty. Luis pursued his master’s degree in architecture and urbanism (M.Arch) from the AA Design Research Laboratory (DRL) in London where he studied with Theodore Spyropoulos. Luis chose this program for it intense use of computational tools and extensive physical prototyping of dynamic structures.

A post-graduate degree in Digital Architectural Production at IAAC brought Luis to Barcelona, where he is currently based. Luis is currently member of the Faculty of Architecture at IaaC in Barcelona, Spain as the principle computation instructor, focusing on the interface between computational processes and fabrication. Luis joined BAD as an associate and the Director of the Barcelona office. His expertise allows BAD to implement diverse data sets and analysis in each project, leading to novel design solutions which exploit the boundaries set by budget, material, political, and societal constraints.

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Kengo Kuma // “Smallness” — The world is moving toward small things

By admin | Published: November 19, 2014

Today we had the great pleasure of hosting Kengo Kuma as part of the Fall Lecture Series 2014. Mr Kuma presented his lecture “Smallness”—The World is Moving Toward Small Things, stating that the small project is more exciting than the big project, being a test, or an experiment, in a back and forth process of creativity that does not conclude with the project itself, but represents a mere step in a much greater process. During the lecture, Mr Kuma illustrated his thoughts with a series of projects developed both in academic and professional fields, expressing his interest in the study and investigation of materiality, not as intended in the Industrial era, as a surface material, but rather a substance from which to generate. From stone, to tensegrity, to inflatable structures, their material systems, pushing the research of their adaption to different sizes and complexities Mr Kuma developed his process:

“It was always a natural disaster that directed the course of our civilizations, but the great disaster of 3.11 differed from any other catastrophes since the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. Nature was desperately forceful as never before. However “strong” or “rational” the structures were, the tsunami flattened Tohoku coastline in seconds. The nuclear accident that followed further revealed the inability of “big and strong” architecture. In front of radiation, concrete or steel meant nothing, even though nuclear energy was a solution for our desire since the Lisbon tragedy, to become bigger, stronger, and more efficient. Now that such a process collapsed on itself, we have to start from scratch. Even before 3.11, I had already been fed up with massive concrete and steel buildings, and began to design a number of small works of architecture. You can build them on your own with nearby materials and be totally independent from strong powers – or rather, dependent solely on the nature. Now I sense that the whole world is shifting toward small things. We are no longer passive creatures who are spoon-fed from a giant yet unreliable system. Each individual starts to nest by him or herself and get energy on his or her own. A new relationship is being formed between people and the world. In the lecture I will discuss how I “minimize” architecture to help this transit.”

Read More »

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Jan Knippers // Biological Design Strategies for Integrative Structures

By admin | Published: November 18, 2014

Tonight we had the pleasure of having Jan Knippers lecturing as part of the IAAC Fall Lecture series 2014. Mr Knippers discussed Biological Design Strategies for Integrative Structures, presenting various examples of bottom-up design processes based on the transfer of biomimetic design principles and digital fabrication strategies. Following the analysis of the structural principles of biological role models, the material differentiation and the global morphogenetic arrangement are transferred into an architectural system. During the lecture Mr Knippers explained how this might lead to structural systems far beyond existing typologies of building construction.

An important characteristic of natural structures is their multi-layered, hierarchically structured, finely tuned and highly differentiated combination of a few basic molecular components leading to structures that feature multiple networked functions. Recent developments in computational design, simulation and fabrication offer new options for transfer of these principles to the macro-scale of building construction. Aim is not only to increase performance, but also to transfer the inherent ecological properties of natural constructions, i.e. mainly the efficient usage of limited resources and the closed material cycles, and thereby to contribute to sustainability in architecture and technology.

Watch the lecture here!

Read More »

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Wednesday 19th of November // Kengo Kuma // “Smallness” — The world is moving toward small things

By admin | Published: November 12, 2014

KENGO KUMA IMAGE

IAAC Fall Lecture Series 2014

Wednesday 19th of November 2014

Kengo Kuma

Lecture: “Smallness” — The world is moving toward small things

@ 12.00, IAAC Auditorium

Open to the Public

 

KENGO KUMA

Kengo Kuma completed his master’s degree at the University of Tokyo in 1979. After studying at Columbia University as Visiting Scholar, he established Kengo Kuma & Associates 1990. In 2009, he was installed as Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Tokyo.

Among his major works are Kirosan Observatory (1995), Water/Glass (1995, received AIA Benedictus Award), Stage in Forest, Toyoma Center for Performance Arts (received 1997 Architectural Institute of Japan Annual Award), Bato-machi Hiroshige Museum (received The Murano Prize). Recent works include Nezu Museum (2009, Tokyo), Yusuhara Marche and Wooden Bridge Museum (2010), Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center (2012) , Nagaoka City Hall Aore. (2012), and Kabukiza (2013). Outside Japan, Besancon Music Center and FRAC Marseilles have been recently completed.

Kuma is also a prolific writer and his books have been published in English, Chinese and Korean, gaining wide readership from around the world.

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