Everyday life at the Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia
This year the Self Sufficient Buildings Research line has gone to Figueres and Cadaques for their research trip to visit some of the architectural (and not only) highlights of this part of the Spanish coast. Among these the Dali Museum, elBulli, Villa Nurbs, Villa Bio, and much more.
This week the Research Studios are all off on Research Trips around the world.
Emergent Territories is in L.A. this week, with the objective of discovering the opportunities of a territory in a context of unprecedented urban growth with high density and congestion.
Visiting one of the most iconic cities worldwide, and located along the coastline of California, Los Angeles is one of the most distinctive areas in the world.
The Research trip is an educational one, aiming to understand what can be learnt from the situation in cities and the process of formulating proposals within these constraints. Students are able to investigate the particular conditions prevailing within the realms of the Emergent Territories Research Line established by the studio project at all scales.
The IAAC group has so far had the opportunity to visit some of the more important architectural works in L.A., a visit to SCI-Arc, where they have been working for the past 2 days in the development of a Workshop regarding Render Animation and Robotics.
The students and Tutors of the Digital Matters Research Studio have gone to Copenhagen to partake in a Workshop organised in collaboration CITA from the 3rd to the 7th of March.
The professors and tutors leading the 4 groups of students, both from CITA and IaaC, are: Prof. Christoph Gengnagel (UDK), Julien Nembrini (UDK), Mette Ramsgard Thomsen (CITA), Paul Nicholas (CITA), Martin Tamke (CITA), Anders Deleuran (CITA) , Areti Markopoulou (IaaC), Alexandre Dubor (IaaC) and Moritz Begle (IaaC).
The workshop is developed to investigate a further an understanding of material systems as being based on discreet energetic systems that negotiate flows of energy. The forces and emerging behaviour of the system are understood and simulated as well as used in a designerly way.
The investigation is centred on how materials and their properties can be modeled, chosen and programmed to influence a material system in a target oriented way.
The overarching concepts and computational techniques are exemplified and investigated in a structural system that negotiates the forces from programmed bending active elements and a tensile surface with variable geometry.
The IaaC students and tutors arrived in Copenhagen on Saturday, and started off their stay with a bicycle tour visiting the VM Houses, 8 taller, VM Mountain, Hotel by 3XN, as well as Christiania.
They then went to CITA where an introduction to the workshop, including the design task and diverse materials to be investigated. The students were then divided into their working groups, and started developing their specific tasks towards the creation of their first models.
BCN Re.set - Ephemeral Architecture in the Public Space
During next summer the public space of Barcelona will be transformed by six ephemeral installations designed by six international architects, in cooperation with the leading architecture and design schools in Barcelona. IAAC will be collaborating together with the Indian architect Anupama Kundoo for the construction of an ephemeral architecture in Raval – Barcelona.
The architect Benedetta Tagliabue (EMBT/Fundació Enric Miralles) and the stage director Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus) will lead and coordinate this intervention in Barcelona, as part of the events programmed to commemorate the Tercentenary BCN. Within this event some of the most outstanding public spaces in Barcelona will be altered by a series of seven artistic and architectural installations reflecting on such concepts as identity, freedom and democracy.
This initiative will mark the first time that some of the city’s schools of architecture, have worked together on a single project, an educational, architectural and artistic undertaking imbued with enormous symbolic value for the enjoyment of all citizens.
Here the list of the installations:
1. Ciutadella. Central installation. Benedetta Tagliabue (EMTB) and Àlex Ollé. Ciutadella Park
2. Identity. URBANUS (Liu Xiaodu, architect) + La Salle School (URL). Plaça Nova
3. Freedom. Anupama Kundoo + IAAC. Plaça de Salvador Seguí
4. Europe. Urban-Think Tank (Alfredo Brillembourg) + ESARQ (UIC). Plaça del Mar
5. Diversity. Odile Decq. Plaça dels Àngels
6. Democracy. Sir Peter Cook. Plaça de la Mercè
7. Memory. Grafton Architects. + Elisava. Arc de Triomf
Organised by: Barcelona Institute of Culture. Barcelona City Council.
IAAC will be partcipating with an installation in this year’s LLUM BCN festival centered on the art of light. The IAAC installation is part of the Patis Transformats Section of the event, consisting in professionals and academics, along with the participation of students, in the field of architecture and design.
IAAC will be transforming the Patio of the Museu Frederic Marès, generating a light mesh whose intesity will var according to the number of visitors in the patio. So come and visit the patio and make the light shine bright!
