Friday 23rd of January 2015

Jelle Feringa

EZCT Architecture & Design research

Tuesday 27th of January 2015 - 13.00-14.30

Dave Pigram

supermanoeuvre, Sydney [UTS]

Tuesday 3rd of February 2015

José Luis de Vicente

Journalist, digital culture, arts & technology

Thursday 12th of February 2015

Andrew Watts

Newtecnic, façade system design

Thursday 19th of February 2015

Alfredo Brillembourg

Uban-Think Tank & ETH-Zurich

Thursday 26th of February 2015

Alberto Diaspro

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, advanced materials

Tuesday 3rd of March 2015

Rodolphe el-Khoury

Dean, University of Miami

IAAC Lecture Series is FREE and OPEN to the Public

Lectures are held @ IAAC Auditorium

19.30 – 21.00

(unless otherwise indicated)

For more information, contact: info@iaac.net

Today the IAAC OTF researchers presented their research proposals to the partner companies (KUKA, CRICURSA, SANTA&COLE, DUPONT, STORA ENSO, BREINCO and CERAMICA CUMELLA), as well as the research line advisors, to discuss the next possible steps towards the development of their experimental prototypes.

9 projects, presented by 10 OTF researchers, in total were presented inside the research lines of INTELLIGENT BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS, and SMART URBAN ELEMENTS, bringing forth great interest on behalf of the partner companies, and an interesting discussion in general.

The research proposals presented various aspects and themes of interest:

_How can buildings meet the needs of public space, adapting continuously to the changing conditions posed by the environment and the interaction between public and private space? What is the potential of a building to interact and adjust to its physical, environmental and social context?

_What are the potentialities of embedding responsive technologies into various materials to generate smart materials, and dynamic products, finally a dynamic and responsive city, potentially generating constant evolution in the spatial context of these material applications, according to the real time needs of these contexts?

_What is the potential of parasite architecture towards the rehabilitation of obsolete infrastructure in the dense urban scape?

_How can invisible elements, such as pollutants and sound, become the basis for the interaction with space, creating new spatiality, according to urban and social needs, and potentially generating energy for these?

Today at IAAC the OTF Researchers followed a lecture on Intellectual and Industrial Property & Unfair Competition, given by Ignasi Espiell, Santiago Nadal, and Mònica López, vibrant young and experienced lawyers from Volartpons and SNAbogados.

This lecture gave the OTF Researchers the opportunity to understand and fully grasp the potentials, limits, the path to be undertaken, and possible problematics that can be encountered regarding Patenting, Industrial Design, Trademarks, unfair competition, and copy rights, as well as a final discussion on general Intellectual and industrial property doubts.

For 28 years now, Santa & Cole has lived for industrial design, an art consisting of focusing on everyday
objects in order to seek a better use experience, thereby leading us to reflect upon material culture.
Santa&Cole generate elements of domestic and urban furniture and lighting, plant elements (living matter)
and books (likewise alive). A range that is only apparently dispersed, converging upon a single concern: not
to accumulate, but rather to select; not to enjoy quantity, but rather quality. Santa & Cole is organized around
four core themes : 1. Strategy, Structure and Knowledge, 2. Editing Policy, 3. The Importance of Design for
Santa & Cole and 4. Policy Knowledge Management.

Breinco is a Catalan company dedicated to the production urban elements and urban furniture using concrete.
Its phylosophy is oriented to define a new generation of products which are set to improve our surroundings
thanks to their sustainability, while constantly striving for eco-efficiency in the manufacture of products,
using recycled materials and incorporating new technology in the design of multifunctional spaces.
Following these strategic guidelines, Breinco has evolved its product research and development, and has
created a new line of products, eco-logic®, being the first Spanish company to produce air clean® concrete
pieces with photocatalytic properties, which cause a decontaminating, self-cleaning effect and which reduce
the emission of environmentally-harmful NOx.

The family workshop CERÀMICA CUMELLA, founded in 1880 in Granollers (Barcelona), originally devoted
to the manufacturing of traditional ceramics and pottery for daily use, has finally become the central core
of an intense public and professional activity. Ceràmica Cumella has lately experienced a notorious increase
in the industrial production of serial pieces -floorings, socles, lattices, coatings, steps, modular elementsundoubtedly
specific in many cases, since they are ordered pieces. Cumella with the conviction of a necessary
integration of technical tradition and innovative process, encouraging with a steady hand and continued
research, for example, on the definition of colours and the manufacturing of the corresponding glazes, both
for mechanical or manual applications; or on finding solutions on how to keep up with present technological
requirement. Toni Cumella spontaneously associates craftsmanship with serial production, personalization,
adaptability, history and culture, not necessarily by this order. He sees it all as a use of concepts, techniques
and processes so as to achieve a specific form of life.

CRICURSA was founded in 1928 with the intention of bringing form, material and processing into high technology glass bending, in order to explore the possibilities of bent glass as a decorative element. After more than 8o years of experience, now offers architectural glass, curved and flat interior and exterior glass, and is present in many of the most famous architectural works around the world.
introduction of new glass-made solutions. Passionate about architecture, creativity and innovation, their aim is to continue inspiring the best engineers and architects in the world, in close collaboration with Facades and installers and all professionals, partnering CRICURSA to the efficiency and capacity to deliver ideas and concepts of the designers.

This year the researchers will follow one of three research lines: 3D printing in Architectural Construction, tutored by Enrico Dini, Petr Novikov and Sasha Jokic; Intelligent Building Constructions, tutored by Areti Markopoulou, Marc Viader, Silvia Brandi and Victor Arribas; and Smart Urban Elements, tutored by Luis E. Fraguada, Ali Basbous and Roland Bosbach.

The researchers’ projects will be developed hand in hand with the partner companies, consisting in: KUKA, CRICURSA, SANTA&COLE, DUPONT, STORA ENSO, BREINCO and CERAMICA CUMELLA.

This morning, after a welcoming and introductory presentation given by Areti Markopoulou, IAAC Master Program Director, each of the Partner Companies briefly presented themselves, and outlined some of their innovation and development interests.

With the knowledge gained today, the researchers will proceed to further elaborate their Projects, based on an individual research topic based on their own interests and prior experience, and in line with the challenges proposed by the divers partner companies, and start prototyping.

The GSS 2013 concluded today with the Final Presentation of the 6 projects developed throughout the 2 weeks of work. The Global School programme seeks to investigate common agendas in global localities.  The 2013 edition included the participation from institutes in Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, and North America, in particular: Mumbai, Tehran, Istanbul, Barcelona, New York and Lima.

The projects developed aimed to generate a new strategy to understand and facilitate the Production of the City in various aspects: Production of Knowledge, Prodution of Food, Production of Objects, and the Production of  Energy,  key elements which establish the basic necessities to create self-sufficient habitats, and allowing the Summer School to serve as the testing ground for the generation of project ideas. Concepts included sharing energy, sharing working experience, adaptable structures that combines data and visual illusions, sunshine sterilization installation, etc.

The projects were developed through a 3 phase process: Analysis, both on a global and a local scale, Digital Design, generating a programme and concept for the Project, and, finally, a Fabrication phase, in which a vision, through the generation of a prototype, and the project process were elaborated.

Each Group worked on a different square in the centre of Barcelona, generating interactive tools, through the elaboration of 1:1 scale prototype for each square. These facilitated the incremention of knowledge and facilities for the square in question, thanks to the use of the Smart Citizen kit and Arduino, that is associative tools that allow  to relate the projects to various internal and external dynamics of the site.

The Barcelona Group distribution was as follows:

Group 1: Plaça de la Merce

·         Daniel Villacis

·         Francis Goyes

·         Sara Infelisi

Group 2: Plaça de Salvador Segui

·         Gabriela Fichtner

·         Kritina Zubko

·         Necdet Yağız Özkan

·         Stephie Moukarzel

Group 3: Plaça dels Angels

·         Jordi Guerra

·         Sofia Li Xin

·         Tseng Tzu-Man

Group 4: Plaça Nova

·         Amro Kabbara

·         Anna Goga

·         Olga Tarasova

Group 5: Arc de Triomf

·         Alexander Plotkin

·         Misha Knyazev

·         Stas Kozin

Group 6: Plaça del Mar

·         Mattia Benatti

·         Olga Gorkaya

·         Sandra Poliakov