IAAC Celebrates 25 Years of Advanced Architecture in Barcelona

The event brought together leading figures from architecture, technology and urban innovation: Vicente Guallart, co-founder of IAAC and editor of the book; Daniel Ibáñez, Director of IAAC; Juan Velayos, President of IAAC; Maria Buhigas, Chief Architect of Barcelona; and Neil Gershenfeld, Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who participated live by video call from Boston.

The act was presided over by Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona, who recognised IAAC as a key tool for attracting and rooting talent in the city, and as one of the first institutions to settle in the 22@ district back in 2003. “The IAAC has thought and rethought architecture with pioneering projects that now centre debates,” said Collboni.

Vicente Guallart opened the dialogue by returning to the founding spirit of IAAC: the conviction that prototyping the future matters more than drawing it. “What we must do is transform reason into action — not think that being right is enough, but use every means to transform the world while continuing to imagine,” he said.

Guallart’s conversation with Neil Gershenfeld also revisited the origins of their collaboration — the connection that brought the first Fab Lab in Europe to Barcelona, 25 years ago, and that continues to shape IAAC’s research agenda today.

Visitors perform a ceramic glazing movement that is captured and translated into robotic motion. A robotic arm then reproduces that gesture on a ceramic surface, generating a unique piece. Through this process, the installation demonstrates how digital technologies can amplify — rather than replace — the knowledge embedded in artisanal practice.

Daniel Ibáñez set the agenda for the years ahead: “We must respond to the climate and housing crisis with civic technology.” Maria Buhigas called on architects and researchers to move from prototyping to solutions at scale, and to bring a critical spirit to new technologies to avoid putting democracies at risk.

Juan Velayos closed the evening with a collective challenge: “IAAC inspires admiration for the vision it has had from the very beginning. Together, we must make it transcend.”

Published by Actar Publishers and co-edited with writer and cultural critic Jorge Carrión, Arquitecturas Avanzadas 2001–2051. Prototipos del Futuro brings together 25 years of education, research and innovation developed with students and experts from over 113 countries. The book’s subtitle — Prototipos del Futuro — captures the essence of what IAAC has always been: a space where ideas become tangible, and where the radical becomes plausible.

IAAC’s 25th anniversary also marks the beginning of a new era. In 2028, the institution will move to its new headquarters — the Barcelona Urban Tech Hub — combining education, prototyping and entrepreneurship in one of Barcelona’s most dynamic urban regeneration areas.