MAA Research Trips: Pictures from Dubai

By iaac | Published: April 4, 2011

(Above: IAAC Inside 0-14 Tower in Dubai. IAAC Tweet: “RS2@O-14 tower by Reiser+Umemoto/amazing concrete exoskeleton structure+skin freeing the building core and the floors from columns”)

Students in the Masters in Advanced Architecture Program are split into three Research Studios (RS1: Emergent Territories, RS2: Self Sufficient Buildings, RS3 Digital Tectonics). This week each will be exploring a different part of the world. Each trip is related to the focus of each Research and Development Studio.

RS 1:Emergent Territories landed in Hong Kong today. Their first day will consist of a walking tour of Hong Kong to visit relevant projects such as the HSBC headquarters, Bank of China Tower, and The Peak Tower. RS3: Digital Tectonics is currently traveling by bus through Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Tomorrow they will be in Zurich visiting Blumer-Lehmann, Design to Production and Gramazio & Kohler, Architecture and Digital Fabrication.

RS2: Self Sufficient Buildings has been in Dubai all weekend and have been very busy so far. They’ve been to the top of the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, and to Meydan Race Course. Today the group visited the dxb.Lab studio led by founder Khalid Alnajjar.

Tomorrow the group will visit Masdar City. Masdar City, established in 2006, is a commercially driven enterprise that operates to become a leader in making renewable energy a real, viable business and Abu Dhabi a global center of excellence in renewable energy and clean technology.

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Smart Geometry 2011

By iaac | Published: April 4, 2011


IAAC community at SG 2011. Foto: Nicholas Waissbluth

Smart Geometry workshops and conference finished with a talkshop and symposium, right after 4 days of intensive sessions on different workshops based on the subject: Building the Invisible.

Talkshop was an opportunity to open debates, pose questions, challenge orthodoxies, and propose new ideas regarding the use, production and sharing of data into the architectural world. The Symposium has been a unique opportunity to hear insights into the challenges ahead for the discipline. Some of the speakers: Ben van Berkel (UN Studio), Usman Haque (Haque Design + Research), Billie Faircloth (KieranTimberlake), Craig Schwitter (Buro Happold + Adaptive Building Initiative), Lisa Amini (IBM Smarter Cities Lab), and Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen (CITA).

IAAC was represented by alumni: Felipe Pecegueiro (EMBT), Luis Fraguada (LAN), Tomas Diez (Fab Lab Bcn), Nicholas Waissbluth, Joao Albuquerque (BIG), Tomasz Jaskiewicz, Kristof Gornici (Foster and Partners), and current students: Morten Bulow (Urban Feeds CITA affiliate), and Andrea Debilio.

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Emergent Territories Research Studio- 2nd Term Final Presentation

By iaac | Published: April 1, 2011

Students of the 2010/2011 Master in Advanced Architecture Emergent Territories Studio had their final presentations on Friday April 1.

In Phase II of the MAA program students attend one of three Research Studios: Self-Sufficient Buildings, Digital Tectonics or Emergent Territories. The Phase II final presentations for the Self Sufficient Buildings and Digital Tectonics Research Studios were held on separate days.

This Studio is run by Willy Müller, MAA Co-Director, assisted by Maite Bravo. For the final presentations, IAAC welcomed a guest jury: Antoni Brey (URBIOTICA), Miguel Roldán (R+B Arcquitectura), Antonio Sanmartín de Azcón (aSZ Aquitectes), and Andreu Ulied (MCRIT).

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Digital Tectonics Research Studio- 2nd Term Final Presentations

By iaac | Published: April 1, 2011

Students of the 2010/2011 Master in Advanced Architecture Digital Tectonics Studio had their final presentations on Thursday March 31.

In Phase II of the MAA program students attend one of three Research Studios: Self-Sufficient Buildings, Digital Tectonics or Emergent Territories. The Phase II final presentations for the Self Sufficient Buildings and Emergent Territories Research Studios were held on separate days.

The Digital Tectonics Studio is run by Marta Malé-Alemany, MAA co-director, assisted by Victor Viña and Brian Peters. Guest jury for the presentations included: Javier Peña (Xpiral Architecture), Oscar Tomico (TU/Eindhoven), Carlos Ipser (DHUB), Andres de Mesa (ETSAB-UPC).

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IAAC Everywhere- MAA Research Trips 2011

By iaac | Published: April 1, 2011

(Self Sufficient Buildings- Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Above- Masdar City)

The Masters in Advanced Architecture program will be traveling the world!

Each year the MAA program takes its research out of Barcelona and explores a different region of the world. Past trips include India, Romania, Taiwan, Slovenia-Croatia, and Brazil.

This year, the three Research Studios will be exploring a different part of the world. Self Sufficient Buildings will be in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Digital Tectonics will visit Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, and Emergent Territories will travel to Hong Kong. Each trip is related to the focus of each Research and Development Studio.

Follow IAAC’s Travels

IAAC staff from each group will be updating everyone on Twitter and we will be posting pictures and recaps regularly on the blog. Students have already set off on their travels and updates have started to come in!

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Self Sufficient Buildings Research Studio- 2nd Term Final Presentations

By iaac | Published: March 31, 2011


Students of the 2010/2011 Master in Advanced Architecture Self Sufficient Buildings Studio had their final presentations on Wednesday March 30.

In Phase II of the MAA program students attend one of three Research Studios: Self-Sufficient Buildings, Digital Tectonics or Emergent Territories. The final presentations for the Digital Tectonics and Emergent Territories Research Studios were held on separate days.

The project for this Research Studio: Build a Self Sufficient Block for Barcelona.

This studio is run by IAAC Director Vicente Guallart who is assisted by Rodrigo Rubio. For the final presentations, IAAC welcomed a guest jury: Cristina Sendra (Eco Intelligent Growth), Javier Peña (Xpiral Architecture) and Max SanJulian (Volido).

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IAAC at Smart Geometry 2011

By iaac | Published: March 28, 2011

Following last’s year Smart Geometry conference, hosted in Barcelona, IAAC faculty Luis Fraguada and Tomas Diez and alumni Felipe Pecegueiro are leading the Urban Feeds cluster (assisted by MAA student Morten Bulow) at the Smart Geometry Workshops and Conferences 2011, which is taking place in Copenhagen from March 28th to 31st.

Urban Feeds cluster aims to generate design responses that scrutinize and analyze the relationships between two or more sensor parameters. Like traffic lights with sensors that are programmed to respond to fluctuations in traffic flows, the cluster aims to prototype urban interventions. These ‘behavioral prototypes’ allow the participants to design explicit behaviors and their varying degrees of expression in relation to the input parameters.

To achieve the challenge, Urban Feeds team pre-developed and produced the Ambience Sensor Kits (ASK) at Fab Lab Barcelona, supported and sponsored by IAAC.

Smart Geometry 2011 > Building The Invisible

Vast streams of data offer a rich resource for designers. User data, energy calculations, embedded sensing, material and structural simulation allows design to be situated and responsive. Design sits not separate from is environment but inhabits an ecological system, open, dynamic and interdependent. We now have the chance to instil design with an immanent intelligence creating new relationships between the user, the built and its ecosphere. From the simulation of megacities to the solid modelling of material systems, design has the potential to be informed by the real.

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