In this framework the Introductory Studio group 2, led by Edouard Cabay, with Rodrigo Aguirre, presented their projects today to an international jury board composed by: Areti Markopoulou – IAAC Academic Director, Silvia Brandi – IAAC Academic Coordinator, Lluis Víu – Max de Cusa Arquitects, Jordi Pagès – Creative Director & Motion Designer, Jaime Coll – COLL-LECLERC, Pepe Ballesteros – Pasajes Arquitectura, Javier Peña – Xpiral and Marcella del Signore – x-topia.

Introductory Studio – Torre Baró Energy District G1

Thursday, 18th of December 2014 // 10h00 – 14h00, IaaC Auditorium

Senior Faculty:

Edouard Cabay

Assistant:

Rodrigo Aguirre

Jury:

Areti Markopoulou – IAAC Academic Director

Silvia Brandi – IAAC Academic Coordinator

Lluis Víu – Max de Cusa Arquitects

Jordi Pagès – Creative Director & Motion Designer

Jaime Coll – COLL-LECLERC

Carmelo Zappulla – External Reference architects

Pepe Ballesteros – Pasajes Arquitectura

Javier Peña – Xpiral

Marcella del Signore – x-topia

Digital Fabrication

Wednesday, 10th of December 2014 // 10h00 – 14h00, IaaC Main Hall

Senior Faculty:

Alexandre Dubor

Assistants:

Sofoklis Giannakopoulos

Anna Popova

Jury:

Areti Markopoulou, IAAC Academic Director

Silvia Brandi, IAAC Academic Coordinator

Edouard Cabay – Appareil & IAAC Faculty

Pablo Martinez Diez – 300.000Km/s

Luis Fraguada – IAAC Computational Expert

Luciano Bertoldi – Fab Lab BCN Manager

Anastasia Pistofidou – Fab Lab BCN AMO director

Rodrigo Aguirre – IAAC Computational Faculty

Beijing Design Week 2014

This year Barcelona had the honor of being the guest city for the Beijing Design Week 2014, implementing the “Barcelona, a future inspired by design” exhibition in the 79-Tank, an impressive circular precinct in district 751. The Barcelona City Exhibition, designed by ExitDesign, won the prize for Best Exhibition of BJDW2014.

In this framework, the Institut Ramon Llull, content curators of the exhibition, invited architecture and design schools of Barcelona to develop a proposal for the realization of an installation, finally selecting the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia’s (IAAC) BB Make proposal, presented by Areti Markopoulou and Mathilde Marengo.

BB MAKE – BARCELONA BEIJING MAKE

The BB Make proposal, developed by IAAC, in collaboration with the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, explored the potentials of new technologies applied to design, through the generation of a participative collaborative structure, enhancing local materials with advanced technologies. The structure consisted in bamboo beams, a well known local construction material, held together with digitally fabricated joints, in particular 3D printed joints and CNC milled joints, fabricated onsite, allowing the joints to be easily customized, so as to deal with the irregularity of the natural bamboo material, and finally allowing the structure to grow easily.

OPEN AND PARTICIPATIVE DESIGN

The design phase of the joints was developed through a workshop, run onsite by IAAC digital fabrication and computation faculty Alexandre Dubor and Rodrigo Aguirre, during the week prior to the Design Week. The Workshop was held at the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts with 15 local students, giving the local students the opportunity to be introduced to digital fabrication techniques, as well as new software necessary for this implementation. Through the application of 3D printing and CNC milling a series of joints designed were elaborated. These designs were then combined and integrated to finally develop one single base joint typology. A press fit joint was developed, allowing easy customization and allowing to overcome the great irregularity in the bamboo beams, differing in size from 40mm to 60mm. For the final structure, 22 different joints were fabricated through the customization of the original design.

COLLABORATIVE MAKING

During the Design Week, the BB Make structure was constructed thanks to the participation and collaboration of the local visitors, and the CAFA students. The structure was composed of a primary structure, implemented with bamboo beams, and held together with the 22 customized joints fabricated onsite in the 79 Tank. On top of this, in the interest of allowing the local visitors to further personalize the structure, hence fully taking advantage of the perks of digital fabrication, and finally making the structure “theirs”, a secondary structure was implemented using split bamboo beams, where the visitors could CNC mill a personal message, and connect this to the primary structure through simplified joints.

The BB Make installation finally represented the physical implementation of an exchange of knowledge, as well as culture, thanks to the combination of local materials and participation, with technologically advanced fabrication techniques, one of the fields of investigation developed in IAAC. Towards facilitating the access of these digital fabrication techniques during the Design Week, IAAC generated a “popup” Fab Lab inside the 79 Tank, among which the user could access and use 3D printers and a CNC milling machine.

The collaborative implementation of the structure allowed people, from students and professionals of the fields of architecture and design, to the general public, to have the opportunity to be introduced to new digital fabrication techniques, with the support of trained professional, as well as having the opportunity of actually realizing their designs through these techniques, and finally constructing the BB Make structure throughout the duration of the BJDW2014.

IAAC Team:

Areti Markopoulou, Mathilde Marengo, Alexandre Dubor, Rodrigo Aguirre, Maria Kupstova

IAAC local collaborator:

China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, Beijing)

Supported by:

Istitut Ramon Llull with ExitDesign.

The competition involves several partners: IaaC  (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia), Fablab Barcelona, Solido3d and the Mediterranean Fablab, with the media partnership of Archello, Cityvision, e-architect and 3d-dreaming.

The competition has selected various innovative ideas in the field of design and digital fabrication. The selected projects, and the related manufacturing processes will now be inserted into our online platform and proposed on the market through a specific e-commerce website.

To produce these objects, RESHAPE has identified a community of makers unique in the world. Many FabLab and digital craftmans have joined our network and are now ready to produce the proposals of our designers.

The jury that selected the winners was composed of experts from various fields of design and digital fabrication as well as architectural criticism and information.

It was an honor for us to have as members of the jury: Tomas Diez [director of Fab Lab Barcelona]; Luis Fraguada [computational expert at IaaC and director of BAD Barcelona]; Andrea Graziano [computational expert and co-founder of Co.de.It]; Filippo Moroni [expert and director of Solido3d]; Giorgia Olivieri [freelance journalist and communication manager]; Emmauele J. Pilia [critic director of Deleyva Editore].

We received projects from all over the World, emphasizing the international success of RESHAPE.

The winner of the first edition of RESHAPE is Wooden Furokishi designed ​​by the group formed by Yuko Ishizu (Japan), Xexaki Evi (Greece), students from ETH Zurich.

The second price is Aleph by Massimiamo Lorenzo (Italy), Arturo Tedeschi (Italy), Maurizio Degni (Italy) and Elnaz Ghazi (Iran).

Third price for Robotic Surface Manipulation Peter Sprowls (USA) and Rossitza Kotelova (Bulgaria) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Have also been selected with the honorable mention: BeadBot of Ahmend Hosny (USA), Amanda Lee (USA) and Jared Friedman (USA); Joinery Based Deployable Structure of Nicholas Germann (USA);

Transformable Table by Kwok Tung Chun (China); L+L side table by Joris Nielander (Netherlands); Soma by Lorenzo Massimiano (Italy), Andrea Galli (Italy), Elnaz Ghazi (Iran); Biotube by Samanci Sinem (Turkey), Rodolfo Parolin Hardy (Brazil), Grugiel Sebastian Alvarado (Costa Rica); T by Daniel Gillen (USA).

The online voting selected first Henka of Michela Ruggiero of Marble Eco Design and Gildo Incitti.

Second Prize for Flip of Ramy Aydarous; Third Prize for Plaint of Plarent Berhamaj and Paolo Nazzari.

The numbers of the first edition of RESHAPE say: 162 applications received. 180 designers from 24 countries and 44 cities. Students from 49 Universities around the world.17 Fab Labs involved. 10 Projects selected. 7 Honorable Mentions. 3 Prize Winners. 1 Winner.

This first edition ends with a series of important lessons which we learn for the future. The results of RESHAPE show how around topics such digital fabrication and computational design there is a receptive and entusiasthic community. From the other side also evidence that the real challenge is to teach, explore and share properly these issues.

The team of RESHAPE is ready to accept it.

For those interested, Fab kids will be at #FabFestival on the 5th and 6th of July, so don’t miss out on your chance to make your life funner with Digital Fabrication!

For those interested, Fab kids will be at #FabFestival on the 5th and 6th of July, so don’t miss out on your chance to make your life funner with Digital Fabrication!