Category Archives: Uncategorized

IAAC, Noumena and Advok communication are very pleased to announce the launch of RESHAPE ® digital craft competition.

RESHAPE ® is a competition of computational design and digital fabrication focused, in its first edition, on the topic of LIVING space.

RESHAPE ® is seeking designers and fabrication centers to create a network of ideas and production.

All ideas have to present a clear fabrication strategy, taking into consideration economic and production aspect.  All techniques must be connected to the use of digital machines such milling, 3d printing and laser cut machine. The scale can vary from small to large size objects.

Is allow to present furnishing, lighting, decoration or tools elements.

We ask participants to be product designers and to design as makers.

RESHAPE ® can became an opportunity for designers to express their ideas and for FabLabs to be part of a new fabrication community.

The competition involves several partners as IaaC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya), Fablab Barcelona, Solido 3d and the Mediterranean Fablab, with the media partnership of Archello, 3DDreaming and Cityvision.

Read More »

Today we ad the pleasure of Hosting the Open Thesis Fabrication Final Presentations to an international jury consisting in Silvia Bures (agricultural engineer), Joan García (GEMMA UPC), Tomasz Jaskiewicz (TU Delft), Manuel Kretzer (ETH Zurich), Mitchell Joachim (Terreform NY), Alex Sasplugas (CRICURSA), Toni Cumella (CUMELLA CERAMICA), Josep Mª Serra (SATA&COLE), Gemma Pagès (BREINCO), Jordi Ribatallada (ASCAMM), Mònica López (SNABOGADOS), Ignasi Espiell (VOLARTPONS), as well as the IAAC Dean Manuel Gausa, and the resrch line Advisors: Intelligent Building Construction - Areti Markopoulou, Silvia Brandi; Smart Urban Elements - Luís Fraguada; 3D Printing in Architectural Construction - Enrico Dini, Saša Jokic, Petr Novikov; Experts – Guillem Camprodon / Physical Computing Expert, Marc Viader / AI Expert, Victor Arribas / Material Expert.

The researchers preseted their finalised prototypes, and we are happy to say that all prototpes presented were successful. Congratulations to all the researchers!

Read More »

This afternoon the Studio lead by Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto and Carmelo Zappulla, When Energy Becomes Form, presented their prototypes to an international jury composed by Silvia Bures (agricultural engineer), Joan García (GEMMA UPC), Tomasz Jaskiewicz (TU Delft), Manuel Kretzer (ETH Zurich), Mitchell Joachim (Terreform NY), Josep Muntañola (ETSAB UPC), Enrico Dini (D-Shape), Manuel Gausa (IAAC Dean) and Areti Markopoulou (MAA Director).

Energy is at the centre of the development of the contemporary urban landscape, however we are facing a situation where the energy structures of these cities are often segregated, hidden from the places of urban life. The bio-technological Prototypes presented aimed to subvert this paradigm of segregation, through the study of morphology, materiality and aesthetic novelty generating the emergent qualities of specific flows of energy and information.

Read More »

This morning at the Valldaura Self Sufficient Labs, the Wind Energy MachinesStudio lead by Javier Peña, Rodrigo Rubio, Oriol Carrasco and Stefanos Levidis, presented their finalised prototypes, designed specifically for the site, to a international jury featuring Manuel Kretzer (ETH Zurich), Josep Lascuraín (SGM Biologist), Jose María Pujol (TECHNOWIND), Pep Mascaró (Chief of Collserola Park Projects), Pep Salas (ENERBYTE), Enric Ruiz Geli (Cloud 9), Manuel Gausa (IAAC Dean) and Areti Markopoulou (MAA Director).

The prototypes studied the ambiguous links between energy and society, through the fabrication of an energy production machine, aiming to activate new social spaces, strategic engagements and community making processes. The machines were deployed in Valldaura, transforming IAAC’s forest campus into a prototype testing field, proving that energy cycles are not only key factors in the current change in the urban paradigm, but that they can also be serious social catalysers.

Read More »

Check out the results of the Digital Fabrication Exercise on CNC milling, with molding, casting and composite explorations.

Read More »

“SELF-SUFFICIENT HABITAT”

Organized by The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and HP.

240 proposals from 91 countries were evaluated through the internet from October to December by the following jury members of the 5th ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE CONTEST:

Aaron Betsky, Architect. (Cincinnati, USA).

Areti Markopoulou, Architect. IaaC Master Program Director

Daniel Ibañez, Architect, Iaac Factulty IAAC

Eric Owen Moss Director, SCI-Arc; Eric Owen Moss Architects (Los Angeles, USA)

J.M. Lin, Architect. The Observer Design Group. (Taipei, Taiwan).

Josep Mias, MIAS Architectes. (Spain).

Kim, Young Joon, Architect. Korea

Lucas Cappelli, Architect. Director of the Advanced Architecture Contest.

Manuel Gausa, Dean IaaC. Architect. Spain

Nader Tehrani, Director School of Architecture MIT (Boston, USA)

Neil Gershenfeld, physicist. MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Rodrigo Rubio, Architect Iaac Factulty, IAAC. Spain

Tomas Diez, Director FabLab Barcelona

Willy Muller, Architect. Director Barcelona Regional.

Each juror has selected a first, second, and third prize, and honourable mentions in some cases. The jury voted on a total of 20 proposals.

The jury has decided to award the following contestants:

The first prize has been awarded to the project WALKING CLOUDS designed by Josiane Crampe and Ji Won Jun (Canada).

The second prize is for the project F.R.A. FLOATING RESPONSIVE AGRICULTURE designed by Javier Ponce (Guatemala).

The third prize is for the project THE ANT TRIBE designed by Junqin Lian (China).

The jury has agreed to give 4 honourable mentions to the following proposals:

- CLIFF DWELLINGS – Roman Jesus Cordero Tovar and Izbeth Katia Mendoza Fragoso (Mexico).

- Self sufficient PARASITE city – Hana Svatos-Raznjevic, Yen Ju Timothy Tai and Sean.J Kim (Croatia).

- THE ENERGY OF TRAFFIC – Shurui Yan, Licheng Wang, Zhaolun Yang and Yuchen Liu (China).

- SWARM URBANISM – Kenichi Kabeya (Japan)

The jury would like to thank the effort carried out by all contestants, and encourages the development of ideas which transform cities into more efficient and stimulating environments for the human life.

People’s Choice Award:

In parallel to the 5th Advanced Architecture Contest, the Institute for advanced architecture of Catalonia (IaaC) and Hewlett-Packard were also running a Peoples Choice Award. Submissions were displayed online to be viewed and voted on by the public.

Finally the most popular image and the winner of the HP Designjet web connected Printer is the project SELF SUFFICIENT re.HABITAT (ID: we5mdb) by Adam Myczkowski and Anna Jurkiewicz (Poland) which received 2166 votes (likes) from the public. Read More »

This evening we had the pleasure of partaking in the Lecture on behalf of Neil Leach, as part of the IAAC Fall Lecture Series 2013. During the Lecture entitled Adaptation a series of topics were touched around the following concepts: within contemporary architecture design a significant shift in emphasis can be detected – a move away from an architecture based primarily on visual concerns towards an architecture justified by its performance. Structural, constructional, economic, environmental and other parameters – concerns that were once relegated to a secondary level – have now become primary, and are embraced as positive inputs into the design process from outset. Architecture – it would seem – is now preoccupied less with style and appearance, and increasingly with material processes and performance. It is as though a new architectural design sensibility has emerged.

Read More »