Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings & Biocities

Bruno Ganem is a Brazilian architect and researcher from Brasília. He currently serves as the Green Fab Lab Manager at Valldaura Self-sufficient Labs.

Bruno holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Brasilia (UnB), a Master’s in Advanced Architecture, and a Postgraduate degree in 3D Printed Architecture from IAAC.

With a strong interest in the intersection between architecture and craftsmanship, Bruno has gained experience working with various materials at different scales, from furniture production to the construction of timber structures.

Alex Hadley is a working architect, landscape designer and writer. After studying architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia, Alex worked as both architectural designer and landscape architect for several firms in Philadelphia and New York gaining experience on a wide variety of scales: small residential renovations and landscape installations to urban pocket parks and master plans for entire hospital and university campuses.

In 2019 Alex traveled to Spain to join the MAEBB program at Valldaura Labs, participating in the ‘Voxel’ Quarantine Cabin thesis project which was later featured on ArchDaily and the New York Times. While studying, Alex wrote and published two articles focused on sustainability and critiquing the dominant ‘green’ narratives in mainstream architecture; one attacking the credibility of starchitects who proclaim their solutions to the climate crisis, and another addressing the attempt to de-radicalize the burgeoning transition to mass timber.

Alex’s interest in gardening and exploring the outdoors has been a consistent thread throughout his career, joining architectural design with broader ecological and systemic considerations and locally specific plant knowledge.

Mateus Sartori is a collaborative architect interested in multidisciplinary design projects and research-based work: architecture design projects, digital fabrication research on complex geometries, 3D printing expertise, fashion and artistic collaborations. Since receiving an MA in Parametric Design in Architecture at the UPC he has been collecting experiences that allow him to explore the possibilities that digital tools and generative creative processes offer to design, as well as to understand the importance of architecture from a transversal and sustainable point of view. His professional experience varies from the urban planning realm (METROPLAN) to large-scale complex architecture projects (OSPA), from research-based works (FabLab IAAC) to fashion and artistic collaboration (Radiorator). Currently, he is part of Estudi Biga and Faculty of IAAC.

Javier García-Germán studied architecture at the School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM), Oxford School of Architecture and Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he was Fulbright Scholar. In 2005 he founded ToTem arquitectos. Since 2008 he is Associate Professor at ETSAM and since 2010 Director of the Energy and Sustainability module in the Master’s Degree in Collective Housing and The New School of Architecture (PUPR). He has edited several books linked to energy and sustainability, among others De lo Mecánico a lo Termodinámico.

Guillermo Sevillano is an Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (ETSAM) and he has been teaching at Camilo Jose Cela University. He studied the MS in Advanced Architectural Design, GSAPP at Columbia University. Elena Orte has been Assistant Professor at ETSAM and has studied the MS in Advanced Architectural Design in ETSAM. Together they are the directors of SUMA architecture. SUMA is currently developing the largest cross-laminated timber public building in Spain, located in Barcelona.

Honorata Grzesikowska is an urban designer, architect, and researcher currently based in Barcelona, founder of Urbanitarian.com.

She is a co-author of the projects, among others: ‘The New Urban Fabrik: Torrent Estadella Eco-Industrial Park’, commissioned by the Municipality of Barcelona, that explores strategies for the regeneration of a 30ha decaying industrial site in the central city through the development of urban manufacturing dedicated to clean, green economy-related activities; mixed-use residential masterplan of 28ha for the extension of the city Malacky in Slovakia.

She has also co-authored the entries that won 1st prize in Europan 12-Barcelona, with the project Green Ramblas and 2nd Prize in Europan 13-Barcelona with Sustainable Interface. Honorata gained professional experience in internationally renowned urban design and architecture offices in Rotterdam and in London.

She studied Architecture and Urban Design at Poznan Technical University (PL) and Urban Design at Avans University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg (NL). She has taught as an expert reviewer in the urban design master courses of the University of Liechtenstein, Institute for Architecture and Urban Planning.

Her work has been extensively published in specialized media and books such as ‘Barcelona Plans and Projects 2011-2015’, published by the Municipality of Barcelona.

Jonathan Minchin is a multidisciplinary designer and architect, working between the built environment, digital fabrication with a particular focus on rural contexts. He founded the Green Fab Lab at Valldaura Labs, IAAC Campus in Barcelona in 2013 and is currently the Project Manager of an EU Horizon 2020 program that develops tools for Climate Resilient Agriculture. (ROMI, Robotics for Microfarms.) He founded ‘Open Source Beehives’ in 2015 and directs the research organisation ‘Ecological Interaction’.

In the field ‘International Cooperation, Sustainable Emergency Architecture’ he has worked on housing and development projects alongside ‘UN habitat’ in Barcelona, ‘Habitat for Humanity’ in Costa Rica, ‘UNESCO’ in Cuba and with ‘Basic Initiative’ in Tunisia. He holds a particular interest in appropriate technology and local manufacturing. His writing on “Geographic referencing for Technology Transfer” was published in the book “Reflections on Development and Cooperation”. He has studied and taught in the Fab Academy, Bio Academy and set up the Zero Series workshops in Biology, Agro Ecology and Forestry. He has co-founded the Open Lab platform for technology transfer.

Miquel is a building envelope consultant. He is director of xmade Barcelona and co-owner of xmade Basel. Currently based in Barcelona after working in Basel, Hamburg and Madrid as an associate of Herzog & de Meuron (1999-2011). He also collaborated with Josep Lluís Mateo, MAP architects (1992-1997). Architect (ETSA) he is specialized in envelope technologies. He is Design Studio Professor of the Barcelona Architecture Centre since 2016 and Professor on the Master of Integrated Architectural Design (MIAD), Barcelona, on the subject “Energy and Envelope”.

Jochen is an expert on the cycle of water. Partner- director of ASEPMA, company specialized in the treatment and decentralized management of water in the domestic and urban environment. He is co-author of the largest green facade or vertical garden in Spain, the Tabacalera building, in Tarragona. In total, 185m wide and 18m high, which represent more than 3000 m2 of green space. Schreer tries to arise awareness on the importance of water, in all its forms, as a valuable resource.