The Masters projects by IAAC Alumni from the Digital Tectonics Studio in the 2009/2010 Masters in Advanced Architecture program are currently featured in the current special exhibition (Fab)Bots at Museo San Telmo in San Sebastian. The (Fab)Bots exhibition, created in conjunction with DHUB Barcelona, features these seven IAAC alumni projects:

Dreamweaver by Melat Assefa (Ethiopia), Brian Peters (USA), Joao Albuquerque (Portugal);
Mimicry by Mia Gorretti Layco (USA), Georgia Kotsari (Greece), Tomasz Starczewski (Poland);
Sandbot by Joel Letkemann (Canada), Viraj Kataria (India), Fabio López (Colombia);
Heliobot by Felipe Pecegueiro (Portugal), Jorge Orozco (México), Kfir Gluzberg (Canada)
Fab [a]thing by Jun Huang (China), Jessica Lai (New Zealand), Asim Hameed (Pakistan)
NGPS (Non Gravitational Printing System) by Ali Basbous (Lebanon), Miquel Lloveras (Spain)
PNEUmorphosys by Natalija Boljsakov (Perú), Brian Miller (Perú), Carlos Naranjo (Panamá)

Admission to the exhibition is free and it is open to the public until September 11, 2011.

(Above: Heliobot)

(Above: Fab [a]thing)

Note on development and methodology:

The projects in (FAB)BOTS were done by master level students of the MAA program at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). They were developed in the design studios tutored by Marta Malé-Alemany, in collaboration with Victor Viña. The seven projects were worked on over the course of five months and supported the work through tutorials in programming and building customized robotic devices using the open-source electronics prototyping platform Arduino, which is based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. Student teams were encouraged to benefit from and contribute to a large on-line community by sharing experiences with interactive projects or environments. The electronic and mechanical components of each fabrication and robotic device were produced at the Fab-Lab Bcn (IAAC).

Marta Malé-Alemany on: (FAB)BOTS: Fabrication/Design experiments with customized robotic devices

(FAB)BOTS presents a collection of 10 student projects from the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture and the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), developed in two design studios tutored by Marta Malé-Alemany, in collaboration with Jeroen van Ameijde (in London) and Victor Viña (in Barcelona). The 10 projects investigate the work flow between computational design and material production methods, exploring the relationship between design inputs and computer programmable devices that can be used for the production of building structures and/or components. Challenging the traditional norms of linear file-to-factory production processes, they examine scenarios in which parametric design and material production are developed simultaneously, exploring the potentials of linking design programming and mechanic behaviour in real time.

Victor Vina
From Bricolage to Jugaad: DIY in Context

How do sustainable, creative strategies found in informal economies relate to contemporary new media practices? The lecture, through research case studies and academic projects developed in emergent countries, will identify local design principles relevant to global design practices.