The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is glad to take part in “Model. Barcelona Architectures Festival” which presents experimental and speculative architecture to help us collectively rethink through new city models and new visions how we want to live together.
Jointly organised by Barcelona City Council and the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC), with the participation and collaboration of multiple city organizations, the festival seeks to bring new ideas capable of transforming society through architecture and the construction of the built and natural environment.
Led by artistic directors architects Eva Franch i Gilabert and Beth Galí, along with the cultural researcher José Luis de Vicente, Model. Barcelona Architectures Festival is the first edition of this new festival and will be held at different locations in Barcelona from the 5th to 15th May.
These are the 11 events which will be presented by IAAC in the framework of the Festival, please check the registration form at the end of this post where you will be able to sign up for each of them.
May 7th | 15h (CEST) | In Person
Food & Energy in Public Space Round Table
How to connect plants and communities through design and digital technologies? CO-mida is a 3D printed wall for food and energy production, co-designed by IAAC with the local community and installed in ConnectHort, where the event will take place. The event will consist of the wall presentation and a roundtable with experts talking about co-design, new technologies, digital fabrication and urban ecology. Experts participating to the roundtable includes: Chiara Farinea (IAAC), Elisabetta Carnevale (Arquitectura de Terra), Diego Arnold (ConnectHort), Edouard Cabay (Appareil/IAAC), Massimo Menichinelli (Elisava).
Address: ConnectHort – Carrer del Dr. Trueta, 100, 08005 Barcelona
Please register by filling up the form below
May 7th | 16h-20h (CEST) | In Person
IAAC Poblenou Urban District Open Day
On May 7th, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia will open its doors for a new edition of the Poblenou Urban District Open Day. IAAC is a centre for research, education, production and outreach, with the mission of envisioning the future habitat of our society and building it in the present. The Institute develops various research programmes and projects bringing together experts in different disciplines such as architecture, engineering, biology, sociology, anthropology and other fields of investigation. During the Open Day, Fab Lab Barcelona’s projects and programs, such as the Master in Design for Emergent Futures, supporting the emergence of productive cities will be explained and exhibited, together with a light installation showcasing the water footprint of different products, developed by students of the Master in Advanced Architecture of IAAC.
Address: IAAC, C/Pujades 102, 08005 – Barcelona
No registration needed, check the map here
May 8th | 12h30-15h (CEST) | In Person
Solar Brunch
At the intersection between the slow movement and low-techs, we want to bring awareness and promote a resilient lifestyle. We want to open conversations around how to integrate ancient techniques into our present context. This event will be focused on ways to be less dependent on energy and promote the use of solar energy in a fun way: solar cooked food, solar powered music, solar fun. We will cook vegetarian food and provide beverages. It is organized by “Slow lab” (collective from IAAC x Elisava students) in collaboration with the “Low Tech Magazine”
Note: As everything is powered by the sun, in case of bad weather, the activities of the event could change and focus on showcasing low-tech devices in general and have an open conversation around how to integrate these techniques to today’s context. With pica-pica!
Address: ConnectHort – Carrer del Dr. Trueta, 100, 08005 Barcelona
Please Register here (There’s a 3€ contribution for food and drinks)
May 9th | 19h30 (CEST) | Online
Nader Tehrani, Lecture – The Woodpecker’s Delight
In a world increasingly challenged by global warming, it is clear that the construction industry is a major contributor to unsustainable carbon emissions. The identification of naturally renewable resources is a critical factor in determining a sustainable supply chain for the industry, and yet that cannot guarantee the role of architecture in the equation. This lecture will focus on the role of wood, adopted in its hybrid formats to contribute to the cultural and ecological equation in balance.
For his contributions to architecture as an art, Nader Tehrani is the recipient of the 2020 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, to which he was also elected as a Member in 2021, the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in The United States.
Please register here
May 10th | 19h30 (CEST) | In Person
Karolin Schmidbaur & Efilena Baseta, Lecture – From sketch to AI
In this lecture, the design-to-realisation thinking and processes of key projects along that period will be unfolded through an interplay between analog and digital means. Can a pencil sketch be substituted by Artificial Intelligence (AI) design processes? And ultimately; Can architecture with aesthetic values emerge through merely digital workflows?
Karolin Schmidbaur is an Architect and Educator with a wide experience in practice and teaching. She is Design Partner and Head of Research at Coop Himmelb(l)au, where she held key roles in many of their completed projects. Since 2017 she holds a professorship at the institute of experimental architecture, building design and construction, at the University of Innsbruck.
Efilena Baseta is an Architect Engineer, with a Doctorate in the field of transformable structures, and holds a position as Senior Artist at the Institute of ‘Arts and Design’ at the Vienna University of Technology. Efilena is a co-founding partner at Noumena, a multidisciplinary practice focusing on novel design technologies. Since 2019 she is a computational designer at Coop Himmelb(l)au and part of the research team.
Address: IAAC, C/Pujades 102, 08005 – Barcelona
Please register here
May 11th | 19h30 (CEST) | In Person
Daniel Ibañez, Lecture – Design in a Warming Planet
Daniel Ibáñez is a Spanish practicing architect and urbanist and Doctor of Design from Harvard University GSD. He has recently been appointed Director of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC). Design in a Warming World will reflect on the design and architecture, as well as urban implications, of timber design through professional and research focuses. Daniel is building the tallest social housing mass timber building in Spain and he is co-author of the book Wood Urbanism: From the Molecular to the Territorial (Actar, 2019). Additionally, he is a Senior Urban Consultant at the World Bank, advising international governments and institutions on housing and urban development timber projects.
Address: IAAC, C/Pujades 102, 08005 – Barcelona
Please register here
May 12th | 18h (CEST) | Online
Nick Shepherd, Lecture – Politics and Poetics of Water in the Anthropocene
This talk takes the notion of the Biocity and the entanglements of nature and culture to the global south, by examining a dramatic series of events that took place in Cape Town, South Africa. In the opening months of 2018, Cape Town, a city of some 3 million people, came close to running out of water. City managers went so far as to announce the date of “Day Zero”, the day when the taps would run-dry and residents would have to queue for a daily ration of water. Taking the events of Cape Town’s Day Zero drought as a case study, the lecture will revolve around the politics and poetics of water in the Anthropocene, and the implications of Anthropogenic climate change for urban life.
Nick Shepherd is professor at the Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies at Aarhus University. He was the founding editor of Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress. In 2004-5 he was at Harvard University on the Mandela Fellowship. In 2008 he was visiting professor at Brown University and in 2009 at the University of Basel. He has published extensively on issues of archeology and society in Africa and on issues of public history and heritage.
Please register here
May 12th | 19h30 (CEST) | Online [ESP]
Carlos Leite, Conferencia – Diseñando ciudades para niños
Urbanista con un máster y un doctorado en la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de São Paulo (USP), y un postdoctorado en la Universidad Politécnica de California, donde también fue profesor visitante. Profesor de la Universidad Presbiteriana Mackenzie. Profesor colaborador del Máster en Ciudades Inteligentes y Sostenibles de Uninove. Investigador invitado en el Instituto de Estudios Avanzados de la USP. Director de Stuchi & Leite Projetos e Consultoria Urbana. Ex director de Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento de São Paulo. Es autor del libro “Ciudades sostenibles, ciudades inteligentes” (2012).
Las Sesiones de Redes son un ciclo de debates íntegramente en Español, centrados en el pensamiento contemporáneo en torno a la ciudad, abordando el contexto iberoamericano.
Registrate aquí
May 13th | 16h-18h (CEST) | In Person
Spain first 3D Printed Earthen Architectural Prototype, Guided Tour
The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, continues its research towards 3D printing architecture with local earthen materials by completing a housing prototype in the natural park of Collserola, in the outskirts of Barcelona, this winter. The final prototype is the first 3D printed earthen construction in Spain, spanning construction of 7 weeks exclusively with materials from a 50-meter radius. It is composed of a stone foundation, 3D printed earth walls, a timber roof structure and wooden carpentry. Join the project team for a special visit of the prototype!
Address: IAAC Valldaura Labs, Ctra. BV-1415 (Horta-Cerdanyola), km 7, 08290, Barcelona
Registrations closed
May 13th | 20h (CEST) | In Person
VALLDAURA: A QUARANTINE CABIN, Documentary Premiére
Every year the Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities (MAEBB) at IAAC welcomes students from all over the world in an immersive 11month academic programme, which takes place on a 135-hectare property located in the Collserola forest. Surrounded by nature, students live and work as they develop their projects, experimenting and using advanced technologies and design techniques to create ecological and self-sufficient environments and work processes applied to architecture. This idyllic curriculum is unexpectedly cut short with the arrival of COVID and the lockdown and soon problems of self-sufficiency and coexistence begin to surface in the group. They face an exceptional situation with tensions and new dynamics that they need to overcome individually and collectively. Dealing with their own frustrations and moving forward with their studies and projects, they will discover that, behind a wall of trees, the possibilities and options are infinite.
Address: BARQ Festival, Cines Girona, Carrer de Girona, 175, 08037 Barcelona
Find more information on BARQ Festival webpage
May 14th | 17h-19h (CEST) | In Person
IAAC Valldaura Labs Open Day
The IAAC Valldaura Labs, a research centre for Self-sufficient habitats located on a historic 135-hectare farm at 20 minutes from downtown Barcelona, will open its doors to visitors on May 14th 2022. As part of IAAC’s commitment to promoting habitability on the basis of ecological principles, making the fullest use of all available technologies and resources, the Valldaura Labs is testing ground allowing to learn directly from nature in order to apply this understanding to the regeneration of XXIst century cities. Two tours will be organised: one at 17:00 and the second at 19:00. Register at the link below, and you will be contacted by the team to specify your preference.
Address: IAAC Valldaura Labs, Ctra. BV-1415 (Horta-Cerdanyola), km 7, 08290, Barcelona
Registrations closed
No Fields Found.
