Category Archives: IaaC Life

S10 – Experimental Structures // Final Presentations

On Thursday, the projects of the Experimental Structures seminar (Lightweight Structures 1:1 3rd edition) were exhibited at IAAC. Groups of students explored the applications of composite textiles and other lightweight materials in the fabrication of a large sphere, using the principals active tension, tensegrity, and expansion/contraction. Through the designing of a sphere, or its components, the intention was to focus on geometry and structural behavior, rather than habitability or otherwise architectural applications. The students worked transversely between digital and analog methods, using specific digital tooling for fabric pattering in complex geometries and CNC machine hacking. The seminar was lead by IAAC Academic Coordinator Silvia Brandi and assisted by IAAC Alumni Alejandro Martinez del Campo and Robert Douglas McKaye. Composite textile sponsorship was provided by Serge Ferrari. Additional jury members consisted of MAA Coordinator Maria Kupstova and computational faculty Rodrigo Aguirre.

See Students’ projects here.

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S12 – Bifurcation Seminar // Mark Burry // Final Presentations

Today were the final presentations for the Bifurcation seminar led by Mark Burry, Senior Architect of the Sagrada Familia. Inspired by Gaudi´s columns in Sagrada familia, the workshop explored firstly the possibilities linked to the description and representation of columns and the creation of a potentially underlying geometrical guide, and secondly, how to branch columns and join them elegantly to the trunk.

Every group had the opportunity to design through computational methods and later built their columns using “Gaudi´s column machine”, PVC half pipes and a lot of plaster. This direct connection between the digital design and physical modelling led the students to a more embedded understanding of both learning experiences and integrate one with the other.

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Digital Matter | Intelligent Constructions // Research Trip // NY & Boston

Digital Matter | Intelligent Constructions Research Studio travelled to the States last week for their Studio Research Trip. The students and faculty arrived in New York where they had the opportunity to visit the city. They then travelled to Boston where they visited and had crits at the Harvard GSD with Bradley Cantrell, also visiting the Harvard Microbiotics Lab.

In Boston they also visited the MIT, with a presentation at the MIT Senseable City Lab, led by Carlo Ratti, with Erin Baumgartner, as well as at the MIT Jerome Lemelson Center and its Labs. They also had a sit down and presentation with Skylar Tibbits in the MIT Self Assembly Lab, and saw the oldest 3D Printer in the USA.

They then returned to New York where they visited the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in particular Terreform ONE with Mitchell Joachim, and Gen Space. They closed the trip with a tour through Brooklyn and New York City.

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Design with Nature // 2nd Term Presentations

Today were the Design with Nature Research Studio 2nd Term presentations. The Studio, led by Javier Peña and Rodrigo Rubio, with Oriol Carrasco and Alessio Verdolino, proposed a series of projects that proposed new ways of growing the city, natural parks and rural areas based on the cycles of water, energy, matter and information.

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Advanced Interaction // 2nd Term Presentations

Today were the Advanced Interaction Research Studio 2nd Term presentations. The Studio, led by Carlos Gomèz, proposed a series of projects that hack out urban environment through the application of a variety of technologies, and incrementing social interaction and awareness. From the #bcnyourbutts urban interactive ashtray installation, to the #hack-a-light illuminating the unseeable, to the #NetPeepBox connecting trash trackers and recycling strategies around the world, to the #awkwardsilence bring people together through musical vibration.

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IAAC @ Torrre Baró

torre baro presentation

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PLUJA DE LLUM // Luminescent Rain @ BCN LLUM 2015

PLUJA DE LLUM // Luminescent Rain

The intimacy of the existing courtyard, located at Carrer de Santa Llúcia, 1, its distinctive elements, among which the lovers palm tree and fountain, as well as the well-known tale of the Saint Eulalia, together fed the concept of Pluja de Llum.

The concept of the installation follows a mixture of the elements of the tale of Santa Eulalia, in particular her tears, transforming these into a conceptual rain. A luminescent rain, a rain of light, emanating from one of the protagonists of the courtyard, the palm tree.

When entering the courtyard, the visitor is not fully made aware of the scenography that the courtyard beholds. The internal patio area is seamed off, leaving the visitor to meander through the porch of the courtyard, and being able to perceive, through a series of small holes in the sealing of the interior patio, or snapshots, what is in fact happening: the luminescent rain falling from the central palm.

The visitor is then called upon reach up to the superior level of the patio, through a sound interaction system, defining the intensity of the light, and finally opening them to the infinite rain of the courtyard. The visitors look down upon the luminescent rain, into an apparently infinite well – reminiscing the existing fountain -, the courtyard itself, transformed through the implementation of a reflective surface – water flooding the ground floor of the patio – making the patio finally seem never ending through the infinite reflection, as the rain of light itself.

Hence Pluja de Llum – or luminescent rain – proposes itself as the dialogue between the intimacy of the existing courtyard, as the tears of a young girl, and the proposed infinity that emerges, reflecting the perseverance of the tale of Santa Eulalia, and finally the festivities invoked by the BCN Llum 2015 festival.

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