Course Details

The Master in Design for Distributed Innovation (MDDI) is a distributed learning program focused on the intersection of design, technology, ecosystems and communities to improve interspecies wellbeing. MDDI is a research and innovation ecosystem for creative professionals, entrepreneurs, policymakers and agents of change who want to realise real-world responses to the climate crisis, social injustice and biodiversity loss, connecting a global community of changemakers with local innovators in order to address complex challenges.

It combines online and in-person learning to support innovators to gain the social and technical skills needed to develop projects for positive impact with their own communities that aim for measurable transformational change towards planetary consciousness.

The programme is organised by Fab City Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. It is co-delivered by Fab Lab Barcelona at IAAC, local nodes of the distributed campus, and is supported by the global Fab Lab Network.

Competition Details

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia announces every year a Scholarship Competition giving our master’s applicants the chance to win partial scholarships covering 50%, 30%, 20% of the tuition fee of each IAAC’s academic programme.

Project Brief

“A decade of Harmless Entities for the Global South”.

The quantified impact of Novel Entities in our social foundations and ecological ceiling are catastrophic, and the next decade is crucial. Can we use digital technologies, distributed design and territorial intelligence to design harmless and regenerative novel entities? How the next decade of design interventions through technology looks like?

Applicants have to design a system that reconfigures the relationship between technology, communities and ecosystems, and is implemented and unfolded in 10 years, applied in any Global South context.

Applicants from all over the world can send their proposals. Scholarships will be awarded to pursue MDDI at any node in the Global South.

In order to participate, candidates interested in the MDDI Scholarship Competition must:

  • Hold a first-level academic diploma or Bachelor degree, or about to graduate within the academic year 2021/22;
  • Have a full proficient level in English;
  • Complete the IAAC scholarship application form below in full*.
  • Submit your project in pdf format, A3 format, 3 pages max (max 8MB) by sending an email to the Applications Department ([email protected]);

*If you have already applied to an IAAC Master program, please send an email to the Applications Department ([email protected]) to communicate that you are participating in the scholarship competition as well. In this email, please attach your project proposal (as indicated on the scholarship page ”Project Brief”)

Competition Deadline

Start date: 25th January 2022 – 00:00 (CET)
End date: 25th February 2022 – 23:59 (CET)
Winners announced: 11th March 2022 – 23:59 (CET)

The Selection Committee

The Jury will be integrated by master programme Directors, faculty and special guests and professionals coming from the different topics to be addressed by the 6 competitions.  

Winners Announcement

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia will release the name of the winners on its official website in March 2022.

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