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.

The Students are continuing to develop their research and prototypes in the workshop studying the ways of creating tensioned membranes with disconnected bending active elements, stabilising non-elastic membranes locally (for example with the configuration of three linear elements placed in a reciprocal configuration).

Within the workshop a series of questions are being discussed and developed among which: the setup of bending active elements; patterns towards the creation of membranes with local active bending tensioning (regular, irregular, self-organising); topology of skin, single, double, splitting skin; the computation of bending active and tensioned skin; modelling of interdependent models for skin and bending active elements; as well as tools for 3d modelling and pattern cutting of membranes.

The CITA tutors Mette Ramsgaard Thompsen and David Stasiuk also gave a presentation on the evolution of the works produced during the Workshop held in IaaC, by David Stasiuk – digitalization of the physical models for the self parametrization -, Henrik Leander Evers – 3D scanning expert -, as well as the RS3 studio directors: Areti Markopoulou with Mette Ramsgaard Thompsen – CITA – and tutor Alexandre Dubor, and developed with the Digital Matter Studio students, earlier this year. The evolution presented included new generative algorithms to be added in the different stages of the design process, allowing to enhance the self-learning systems, as well as generating an optimisation criteria towards the final development of the 1:1 prototype. Said prototype is to be produced in CITA during an exhibition to be held in 2 weeks from now.

After the Presentation, the Students then presented the work they have developed so far in a Mid-Workshop Presentation, gaining some useful feedback towards the further development of these projects, and finally the 1:1 Prototype.

The Students and Tutors from IaaC also had the possibility to visit the 3XN /GXN, including a visit to the DAC (Danish Center of Architects).

The Masters in Advanced Architecture 2010/11 came to an end today with the third and final day of presentations for the week. In their final projects, the Emergent Territories Studio, led by Willy Müller and assisted by Maite Bravo, proposed: various new and innovative ways to make urban and public space multifunctional; a vision of the future where citizens interact with urban design; and a system which applies a mathematical construction to investigate the process of generating architectural forms as a bottom-up approach.

Today’s jury panel included: Antoni Brey (URBIOTICA); Julio Gaeta (Gaeta Springhall Arquitectos); Maria Solé Bravo (director of StAP-BCN); Andreu Ulied (MCrit); Ali Kermanian(Ali Kermanian & Associates) as well as IAAC Faculty and staff Javier Peña, Areti Markopoulou and Luis Fraguada.

Congratulations to all of the MAA students for their hard work throughout the year. Graduation is this Saturday, it is time to celebrate!

(Above: IAAC MAA Co-Director, Willy Müller, during the final reviews)

(Above: Julio Gaeta (Gaeta Springhall Arquitectos) reviewing one of the final projects this afternoon.)

The 2010/11 MAA Students in the Self Sufficient Buildings Studio wrapped up their year with today’s presentation of final projects. The goal of each project was to create a self-sufficient city block in Barcelona. This Studio was led by IAAC Director Vicente Guallart and Javier Peña. The studio assistant was Rodrigo Rubio.

For the final presentations each MAA project in the Self Sufficient Buildings Studio was individually reviewed by an outside jury panel which included: Ali Kermanian (Ali Kermanian & Associates); José Pérez de Lama (Hackitectura.net); Antonio San Martin (aSZ Architects); Cristina Sendra (Eco Inteligent Growth); and Luis Viu Rebes and Jordi Pages i Ramon (Max de Cusa Arquitectes).

This was the second of the three MAA Studios to present this week. You can read about the Digital Tectonics presentations from Monday. Tomorrow, the Emergent Territories Studio will begin their presentations at 10:30h. All of the Studio presentations are open to the public.

(Above: Ali Kermanian (Ali Kermanian & Associates) discussing the MAA studio projects)

Studio: Digital Tectonics
Studio Instructor: Marta Malé-Alemany, MAA Co-Director

Project: Material Networks
Student Summary:

Material networks is about the development of a site-conscious  multi-material additive deposition process combined with a subtractive material recycling strategy. With this process we are able to generate desert dwellings which from the outside provide a very rough appearance which merges with the surroundings and features an inner climate based on natural airflow and cooling through convection. The architecture’s potential ranges from permanent desert housing  in the appearance of Nomads’ villages to bungalow units  for adventure hotels.

ShopBot in action

Recent developments:
- Current machinic prototype for material deposition is being modified into a light weight structure.
- Simulation of material deposition allows now for reliable simulation of deposition process before starting the physical deposition.
- First material network has been printed on shopbot, more samples will be printed before the finals.

Simulation with Processing

In Final Phases of the Masters in Advanced Architecture program students attend one of three Research Studios: Self-Sufficient Buildings, Digital Tectonics or Emergent Territories. At the end of Phase II MAA Students presented their initial proposals. Throughout Phase III they have refined this research for their final presentations.

This year final presentations will be held the week of June 27. All presentations are open to the public. We invite you to come to see the students present. More information will be provided closer to the week of presentations.