The fifth edition of the Responsive Cities 2023 Symposium “Collective Intelligence Design”, held last November at the Disseny Hub Barcelona, delved into the emerging paradigm of collective intelligence in the processes of city-making. The event hosted 38 keynote speakers, moderators, and participants from the call for papers and projects worldwide. Over the two days, more than 350 attendees joined the symposium.
This edition of the Responsive Cities Symposium “Collective Intelligence Design”, chaired by IAAC Academic Director Areti Markopoulou, promoted an emerging collective intelligence paradigm that empowers the applications of co-creation, following generative processes of both the living and the machine. By embracing new forms of intelligence in design, architecture and cities can transcend anthropocentric perspectives and cultivate a new ecological, technological but also cultural paradigm of inhabitation where inclusivity lies in its core. This shift recognizes that cities are alive and dynamic ecosystems interconnected with the natural world, while acknowledging the interdependencies among humans, non human, cultural and technological others.
The opening day, after an introduction by IAAC Director Daniel Ibáñez, high-profile guests such as Ekim Tan, Stefanos Levidis, Laura Narvaez Zertuche, Liam Young, Jenny Sabin, Moon Ribas, among others, and IAAC faculty and directors Guillem Camprodon, Aldo Sollazzo, Mathilde Marengo (program chair of the Symposium) were invited to discuss different ways in which our cities can be designed from the human perspective all the way down to the microbial cell. Each session was moderated by carefully selected people such as Jose Luis de Vicente, Mara Balestrini, Angelos Chronis, Laia Romero, Eva Franch i Gilabert, Ethel Barahona Pohl, who allowed the conversation to follow the presentations.
The second day provided an opportunity for the winners of the call for projects and papers to present their research and engage in debates on the topics of collective intelligence design in roundtables moderated by IAAC faculty and directors such as Chiara Farinea and Fiona Demeur (respectively program chair and coordinator of the Symposium), Mariano Gomez-Luque and Alexandre Dubor. The two-day event concluded with the Living Exhibition at IAAC.
The fifth edition of Responsive Cities exemplified the transformative potential of reshaping urban landscapes through nature-based solutions, data, AI, and collaborative initiatives.
Organised by
The Responsive Cities 2023 was orgranised by the Advanced Architecture group of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) within the framework of the BUILDs Programme.
General chair: Areti Markopoulou
Program chairs: Chiara Farinea and Mathilde Marengo
Symposium coordination: Fiona Demeur
Symposium Assistant: Nati Cerutti
In Collaboration with Disseny Hub Barcelona
About Responsive Cities
Responsive Cities is a biennial international symposium on the future of cities organized by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. The 2023 edition, focusing on “Collective Intelligence Design,” took place within the framework of the Green Skills for Cities project. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, the project is developed by the Advanced Architecture Group of IAAC in Spain, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) in Austria, University of Genoa (UNIGE) in Italy, and the European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA) in France.