IaaC | Fab Lab Barcelona was featured in El Periodico as a central player for Digital Fabrication innovation in Barcelona, and in preparation for FAB10, the 10th International Fab Lab Conference that will be held in IaaC | Fab Lab Barcelona this year.

Barcelona is a city with an important and imposing industrial history, and that is currently supporting and pushing for innovation in many fields, including economy, culture and education. The main mission for the city of Barcelona is to redefine the future of cities based on a self-sufficiency model for the production of resources and social well-being.

In this sense, Barcelona will be the first city in the world to have a public network of Fab Labs, as part of the cities future plan, and in line with Fab10′s main theme: From Fab Labs to Fab Cities, by which the city of Barcelona aims to have at least one Fab Lab in every district. This implementation will allow to discover the talent present in the city itself, give the citizens and users the possibility to gain understanding and control of the technology available and its potentials.

Read the article here.

Philippe Rahm is architect, principal in the office of Philippe Rahm architectes, based in Paris, France. His work, which extends the field of architecture from the physiological to the meteorological, has received an international audience in the context of sustainability. In 2002, he was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 8th Architecture Biennale in Venice, and was one of the 25 Manifesto’s Architects of Aaron Betsky’s 2008 Architectural Venice Biennale. He is nominee in 2009 for the Ordos Prize in China and in 2010 and 2008 for the International Chernikov Prize in Moscow where he was ranked in the top ten. He has participated in a number of exhibitions worldwide (Archilab, Orléans, France 2000; SF-MoMA 2001; CCA Kitakyushu 2004; Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2003-2006 and 2007; Manifesta 7, 2008; Louisiana museum, Denmark, 2009; Guggenheim Museum, New-York 2010). In 2007, he had a personal exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Mr. Rahm was a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome (2000). He was Headmaster at the AA School in London in 2005-2006, Visiting professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in Switzerland in 2004 and 2005, at the ETH Lausanne in 2006 and 2007, at the School of Architecture of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen in 2009- 2010, in Oslo at the AHO in 2010-2011. From 2010 to 2012, he held the Jean Labatut Professorship in Princeton University, USA. He has lectured widely, including at Harvard School of Design, Cooper Union, UCLA and the ETH Zürich. He is working on several private and public projects in France, Taiwan, Italy and Germany. His recent work includes in 2011 the first prize for the 69ha Taichung Gateway Park in Taiwan, an office building of 13000 m2 in La Défense in France for the EPADESA; a convective condominium for the IBA in Hamburg, Germany; the white geology, a stage design for contemporary art in the Grand-Palais on the Champs-Elysées in Paris in 2009 and a studio house for the artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster in 2008. Monographic books include Physiological architecture published by Birkhaüser in 2002, Distortions, published by HYX in 2005, Environ(ne)ment: Approaches for Tomorrow, published by Skira in 2006 and Architecture météorologique published by Archibooks in 2009.

Tuesday 29th of April 2014

Philippe Rahm
Lecture: Thermodynamics cities

@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium
Open to the Public

PHILIPPE RAHM
Philippe Rahm is architect, principal in the office of Philippe Rahm architectes, based in Paris, France. His work, which extends the field of architecture from the physiological to the meteorological, has received an international audience in the context of sustainability. In 2002, he was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 8th Architecture Biennale in Venice, and was one of the 25 Manifesto’s Architects of Aaron Betsky’s 2008 Architectural Venice Biennale. He is nominee in 2009 for the Ordos Prize in China and in 2010 and 2008 for the International Chernikov Prize in Moscow where he was ranked in the top ten. He has participated in a number of exhibitions worldwide (Archilab, Orléans, France 2000; SF-MoMA 2001; CCA Kitakyushu 2004; Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2003-2006 and 2007; Manifesta 7, 2008; Louisiana museum, Denmark, 2009; Guggenheim Museum, New-York 2010). In 2007, he had a personal exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Mr. Rahm was a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome (2000). He was Headmaster at the AA School in London in 2005-2006, Visiting professor at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture in Switzerland in 2004 and 2005, at the ETH Lausanne in 2006 and 2007, at the School of Architecture of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen in 2009-2010, in Oslo at the AHO in 2010-2011.

In the audience Vicente Guallart, Chief Architect of the Barcelona City Council, Manuel Sanroma, President of the City Protocol Society, Joan Subirats, Full Professor of Sociology, as well as Antoni Munne and Montae Ingla, Arcadia editors were all present for the discussion that Barber proposed.

Barber discussed themes of city governance, starting with some brief historical notes, to then elaborate the potentials city governance and the city itself has in future of democracy with respect to the older Nation state models. Cities and their leaders are now taking decisions that were once reserved to the nation states relative to climate change, immigration, and much more. Cities, with their multicultural connotation, are, in contraposition to the States an their monocultural connotation, in a position to face these imposing problems, together, in a sort of global democracy. The aggregate force of cities has the potential to have a powerful and direct effect on the market place, and not only. Cities, and their citizens, need to be heard, they need to have a larger voice.

Tuesday 11th of March 2014
Maria Sisternas
Lecture: Everyday city.

@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium
Open to the Public

MARIA SISTERNAS
Maria Sisternas trained as an architect at EtsaB-UPC, was awarded with the Fundación Caja Madrid Scholarship and holds a MSc in City Design and Social Sciences from the London School of Economic. She has lectured at the Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism at La Salle (PAMUS) since 2010 and serves as a Board member of COAC. She is a regular contributor to the “Revista Diagonal” and took part of the Commission of Architecture at the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan 2010-2020. Her interests focus on the links between the economic, social and legal issues that contribute to the development of contemporary cities, as well as the influence that urban form can play over citizens’ quality of life. She is currently Director Projects at the Urban Habitat Department of the Barcelona City Council.

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.

Gonzalo kicked off the debate with some reflections on the future of cities in the 21st Century. How do we find solutions to the problematics posed by these cities?

Beyond green is a reflection on the future of sustainable habitats, sustainability being something that is complex in nature, not unidimentional. Can the answer be in the buildings themselves? Or are we facing a more complex situation?

Dense cities seem to provide a more efficient solution with regards to energy consumption, for example Detroit is much less efficient that a city like Munich.

With reference to the Project of Newark, then presented by Ron Beit, it seems that the city aims to become more global in order to finally enrich its local experience. How can one connect the city of Newark to the world? What makes this city so special?

Also, in the context of finacial vs economic profitability, how can we make compatible development programs and economic profit? and how does this relate to the current macro economic context?

The word was then passed to Ron Beit who presented the Newark project. Newark, New Jersey, is the 3rd oldest city in the States, and offers what seems to be a better connection infrastructure in comparison to Manhattan. What made Newark so attractive in the begining was the quantity of problems that the city had, that could be transformed into potential opportunities. On top of this, the city was big enough to get attention, but small enough to offer the possibility of dealing with its problems. The general public was all for the redevelopment, as the policies and politics up until there applied in Newark were so bad, that the redevelopment was for sure beneficiary.

The project englobes the historic core of the city, a blank canvas to be redeveloped, not only to a scale of regional acceptance, but also to that of global acceptance, thanks to its strategic position on the grid of both regional and global infrastructural connections.

Newark, along side the infrastructural network it offered, also offered the great potential of a good university system.

The project revolves around 2 macro policies: the concentration of middle income housing stock, something which Manhattan does not offer; and the need to generate a community over night, so as to generate both a green and economicly sustainable, resolving the iminent social problems. To do so, they maintained the development plan horizontal, having buildings that are no more than 6 storeys high, and offering residential, retail and office buildings, generating a mixed use scenario and guaranteeing presence in the city 24/7. This allows for the generation of character in the streets of Newark.

The first phase of the project consisted in the Teachers village, offering low rent residencies, also for teachers, and new schools, so as to become a tool for the city to recruit and retain the best possible educators.

The neighborhood is one of the few with the LEED neighborhood development status.

Ignacio Jiménez de Laiglesia then presented the Valencia riverside and waterfront development. The city of valencia also presented, as Newark, bad policies, on top of which the recent bursting of the real estate bubble.

The lack of link between the city and its waterfront, is a problem that is still looking to be solved today, and with the window of opportunity presented by the Americas cup, seems to be the perfectopportunity to offer solutions to all the conflict present from a social and environmental point of view. The past expansion of the port area was done without any sensibility towards the surroundings, on top of which the river bed of the city generated a situation of ecological fragility.

The starting point for the redevelopment was therefore the port area, and its connections to the waterfront and the riverside, with the insertion of residential and commercial activities, generating a living and vibrant place, and offering, through a public-private project, both public and private amenities even in the old port area, a project thought for the creative society.

The discussion then commenced with all the members of the round table posing questions and rflecting around themes regarding the 21st Century city:

Most of the time, when an urban development plan is developed, a contingency plan is also developed, but what happens when a plan is successful?

Developers should think beyond just the bricks they are building, they should think more towards what they can give a community.

Cities need to become 24/7 use areas, with 24/7 communities, following the model of European cities.

Generating a global city, brings with it the global citizens, generating organic growth thanks to global connectivity.

The way that the younger generation is using the city is changing, calling for a change in the way we design cities: oreintated design for long term sustainability.

With the participation of:

Ron Beit (Newark Real Estate Board member – RBH Group, USA)

Ignacio Jiménez de Laiglesia (Real Estate developer – “Valencia Litoral”, Spain)

Mario Chang (Strategic Advisor, USA)

Christian Benedetto (Hopkins, Sampson & Brown Real Estate Advisory Services, USA)

Debate moderated by:

Gonzalo Delacámara (Environmental Economist – IMDEA Water Foundation, Spain)

Christian Benedetto (Hopkins, Sampson & Brown Real Estate Advisory Services, USA)

Christian Benedetto enlisted in the US Marine Corps in the late 80s, serving during the First Gulf War armed with a bachelor’s degree in Financial Services and Philosophy. He received graduate degrees in Finance and Computer Information Systems Management. He re-entered the civilian world as a sales agent specializing in commercial real estate. Within three years, he co-founded one of the most successful real estate brokerage firms in New Jersey. In 2006, he opened the first office of Hopkins, Sampson & Brown Real Estate Advisory Services, LLC. With the opening, he has helped the company become the largest commercial real estate brokerage firm in Newark. He is resident real estate guru, having consulted 500 companies worldwide.

Gonzalo Delacámara (Environmental Economist - IMDEA Water Foundation, Spain)

Gonzalo is an environmental economist, PhD and currently a Senior Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Department of Economic and Institutional Analysis at IMDEA Water Foundation, a non-profit research body – Gonzalo only works in international projects. He has been a Senior Lecturer on Economic Analysis at the UAH for the last 17 years. Water policy advisor for the European Commission and the 2030 Water Resources Group as well as international consultant on water and energy economics for the UN system and international banks. Faculty Member of the Belpasso International Summer School in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Gonzalo’s approach to architecture, urban design and spatial development is based on advanced microeconomics.