Tag: IAAC Lecture Series

Alison Brooks at IAAC Lecture Series

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IAAC Lecture Series 2025/26 – Alison Brooks

IAAC is pleased to announce a new Lecture Series with Alison Brooks, Founder and Creative Director of Alison Brooks Architects. In her keynote An Architecture of Nature, Brooks will share her vision of architecture as a bridge between cultural memory and the future, blending inclusivity, sculptural form and sustainable design.

Alison Brooks B.E.S., B.Arch, RIBA, Hon. FAIA, FRSA, RDI, Doc.Eng (Hon Causa), is one of the UK’s most highly awarded and internationally acclaimed architects. She is the only UK architect to have received all three of the country’s most prestigious awards for completed works: the RIBA Stirling Prize, the Manser Medal and the Stephen Lawrence Prize. Her acclaimed projects include the Cohen Quadrangle at Oxford University, the arched tower Cadence at King’s Cross and The Smile for the London Design Festival, the world’s first public CLT structure. Currently, her practice is developing major projects in London, Taiwan, Oslo and Toronto.

This lecture is organised in collaboration with the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), the global voice of the U.S. hardwood industry. For over three decades, AHEC has championed the performance, sustainability and aesthetic potential of American hardwoods worldwide, uniting thousands of producers and exporters across more than 20 hardwood species.

With the support of Labóh (Press & Communications) and BARQ – International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona.

Attendance is free upon registration through the official form. Seats are limited – don’t miss the opportunity to join this special evening at IAAC.

Date: 5 November, 2025 Time: 19:30 – 20:30

Location: IAAC’s Campus – C/ Pujades 102, 08005 Barcelona

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IAAC Lecture Series – Joan Busquets

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Lecture Barcelona: Strategic Plans and/or Key Urban Projects? by Joan Busquets at IAAC Lecture Series

Joan Busquets, the first Martin Bucksbaum Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard GSD, is a globally recognized urban planner, designer, and architect. Formerly Chair-Professor of Town Planning at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona (1979-2002), he also served as Head of Urban Planning for the Barcelona City Council during the transformative 1980s, playing a pivotal role in the city’s Olympic redevelopment.

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A founding member of the Laboratorio de Urbanismo de Barcelona (LUB), Busquets’ pioneering research on squatter settlements earned him the Spanish National Award for Town Planning in 1981 and again in 1985 for his masterplan for Lleida. His urban strategies for cities like Toledo and Alghero, as well as his numerous international projects spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas, have shaped contemporary urbanism.

His academic research explores diverse urban design strategies, the potential of urban grids, and the transformative impact of Expos on city development. Busquets has authored significant works such as Barcelona: The Urban Evolution of a Compact City, Urban Grids, and Cities X Lines. His professional firms, BAU and BLAU, based in Barcelona, continue to deliver groundbreaking architectural and urban projects worldwide.

Date: Thursday, December 12, 2024
Time: 19:00 (CET)
Location: IAAC Main Hall, Pujades 102, Barcelona

Program

18:45 – Doors Open
19:00 – Welcome and Introduction
19:10 – Lecture by Joan Busquets
19:50 – Q&A Session
20:15 – Networking and Refreshments

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IAAC Lecture Series – Michael Green

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”The Natural Revolution: How Mass Timber is transforming our world” lecture by Michael Green

Next Thursday, 30th of May, 2024 at 18.00h (CEST)  Michael Green the founder and Co-Principal of Michael Green Architecture (MGA), is an award-winning architect, speaker, and author known for using design to create meaningful, sustainable built environments that benefit both people and planet. A leader in wood and bio-based construction and innovation, he has completed some of the most significant timber buildings in the world, and has been recognized with over fifty international awards for design excellence.

Lecturing internationally on mass timber and new building technology, Michael’s TED talks “The Natural Building Blocks of Sustainable Architecture” in 2023 and “Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers” in 2012 have almost 3 million views and been translated into 31 languages. He serves as a government policy advisor on mass timber design and is the co-author of the first and second editions of ‘The Case for Tall Wood Buildings’ and ‘Tall Wood Buildings: Design, Construction and Performance.

The Natural Revolution: How Mass Timber is transforming our world
As a leader in wood construction, award-winning studio Michael Green Architecture (MGA) has traveled the world lecturing on sustainable design and materials, led research and education initiatives in climate, environment, disaster and global shelter needs, and designed some of the most significant timber projects on the planet.
In this engaging discussion, Michael Green, Kelly Alvarez Doran, and Maria Mora from MGA will show built and unbuilt examples of how Mass Timber is changing the skylines of cities around the world and how this material plays a major role in decarbonizing our environment and creating safe, affordable, practical, and transformative urban environments.

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The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is delighted to present him in the framework of the Closing Events of the Academic Year 2023-24.

Programme

18:00 Lecture by Michael Green The Natural Revolution: How Mass Timber is transforming our world
18:30 Roundtable with Michael Green, Kelly Alvarez Doran and Maria Mora from MGA, moderated by Daniel Ibañez IAAC Director
19:00 Refreshments

Location: In-house at IAAC Main hall, C/ Pujades 102 & Zoom

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IAAC Lecture Series – Aaron Betsky

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”Don’t Build, Rebuild: The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture” by Aaron Betsky at IAAC Lecture Series Tuesday 23th April

Aaron Betsky was born in Missoula, Montana but moved to The Netherlands where he received his grade and high school education. He was granted both a Bachelor of Arts (1979) and a Masters of Architecture (1983) degree from Yale University. Mr. Betsky’s leadership of major institutions in the world of art and architecture includes serving as the Director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam from 2001 to 2006, the Curator of Architecture and Design of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 1995-2001 and the Artistic Director of the 11th International Architecture Biennale Venice, Italy, in September 2008. He was Dean at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and President of the School of Architecture at Taliesin until 2020 and Director of the School of Architecture and Design Virginia Tech until 2024. A prolific writer and editor with a dozen books and hundreds of articles to his credit, Mr. Betsky is a also a lecturer and visiting critic who teaches around the world.

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Don’t Build, Rebuild: The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture

As climate change has escalated into a crisis, the reuse of existing structures is the only way to even begin to preserve our wood, sand, silicon, and iron, let alone stop belching carbon monoxide into the air. Our housing crisis means that we need usable buildings now more than ever, but architect and critic Aaron Betsky shows that new construction—often seeking to maximize profits rather than resources, often soulless in its feel—is not the answer. Whenever possible, it is better to repair, recycle, renovate, and reuse—not only from an environmental perspective, but culturally and artistically as well.

Architectural reuse is as old as civilization itself. In the streets of Europe, you can find fragments from the Roman Empire. More recently, marginalized communities from New York to Detroit—queer people looking for places to gather or cruise, punks looking to make loud music, artists and displaced people looking for space to work and live—have taken over industrial spaces created then abandoned by capitalism, forging a unique style in the process. Their methods—from urban mining to dumpster diving—now inform architects transforming old structures today.

IAAC Lecture Series – Aaron Betsky

Date: Tuesday, 23rd of April, 2024, 19.00h (CEST)

Location: IAAC ATELIER – First Floor (C. de Pujades, 59, 08005 Barcelona) & Zoom

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IAAC Lecture Series – Anupama Kundoo

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Anupama Kundoo graduated from University of Mumbai in 1989 and received her PhD degree from TU Berlin in 2008. Her research-oriented practice started in 1990 in Auroville has generated people centric architecture based on spatial and material research for low environmental impact while being socio-economically beneficial. Her body of works was recently exhibited as a solo show ‘Taking Time’ at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.

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She has taught Architecture and Urban Management at various international universities strengthening her expertise in rapid urbanization and climate change related development issues including at Yale University and Columbia University. She is currently Professor at Potsdam School of Architecture, Germany and the Head of Urban Design, Auroville in India. She received the RIBA Charles Jencks award for her contribution to architectural theory, the 2021 Auguste Perret Prize for architectural technology, the 2021 Building Sense Now global award of the German Sustainable Building Council DGNB, and the Global Award for Sustainable architecture under UNESCO patronage in 2022. Her studios are based in Berlin in Germany, and Pondicherry in India. Kundoo’s rigorous research and experimentation in new materiality for architecture is the result of questioning basic assumptions, construction habits that humanity has adopted during the long process of industrialization. Rather than focussing on shortage, she sought abundance through investing in human resources and human resourcefulness, such as ingenuity, time, skills, care and sense of community.

Rethinking Material Resources Alongside Human Resourcefulness

Our built environment is the physical stage on which all human stories are lived out. This physical stage is the historical and ongoing manifestation of human imagination operating within real (or, imaginary!) constraints. Anupama Kundoo advances the idea that architectural imagination must transcend design and enter the realms of materials science and economics where some of the bigger questions reside. She will discuss the thrust of her inquiries which have been to find practical ways to fulfill the universal human aspiration for refuge, purpose, and social engagement through extensive material research and experimentation. She will discuss ‘Human Time as a Resource’ in the quest for new materiality and critically examine the way the time value of money has nudged us towards code-based design and the industrialized production of building components and, sometimes, even entire buildings themselves. She will discuss materiality and consumption of finite natural resources alongside their impact on human wellbeing and human resourcefulness.

IAAC Lecture Series – Anupama Kundoo

Date: Thursday, 29th of February, 2024
Time: 19.30h (CET) 

Location: IAAC ATELIER – First Floor (C. de Pujades, 59, 08005 Barcelona) & Zoom

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Mark Burry IAAC Lectures Series

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Tuesday, 20th of February, 2024 at IAAC Lecture Series – Mark Burry

Mark Burry is a registered architect and the Founding Director for Swinburne University of Technology’s Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI). His role is to lead the development of a whole-of-university research approach to ‘urban futures’, helping ensure that our future cities anticipate and meet the needs of all – smart citizens participating in the development of smart cities.

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Mark Burry is a practising architect who has published internationally on two main themes: putting theory into practice with regard to procuring ‘challenging’ architecture, and the life, work and theories of the architect Antoni Gaudí. He has been Senior Architect to the Sagrada Família Basilica Foundation since 1979, pioneering distant collaboration with his colleagues based on-site in Barcelona concluding in late 2016.

Recent publications include an edited 4-volume 1,600-page collection of papers setting out the grounds for Digital Architecture as a critical concept, including a 9,000-word introduction to the set with accompanying introductions to each volume (Routledge – Taylor & Francis, March 2020), and an edition of AD titled ‘Urban Futures – Designing the Digitalised City’ (Wiley, May-June, 2020)

After Gaudí: how might AI have helped us learn from Gaudí’s surviving model fragments for his Sagrada Família Basilica design?

Mark Burry’s talk will outline his experience in helping unpack the mysteries of Gaudí’s final design models for the Sagrada Famíilia Basilica. He will describe Gaudí’s struggles realising his projects more as sculptural undertakings than architecture, and how he shifted dimensions to bring an invisible rationality to his modus operandi. Burry will first examine Gaudí’s analogue design process, and then critically examine the role of design computation for a deep dive into Gaudí’s creative world in both the digital and post digital eras. This will lead to some general observations on the power of creativity, and both some limits as well as opportunities for AI to influence future architectural design seen through the lens of Gaudí’s extraordinary endeavour.

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IAAC Lecture Series – Felipe Correa

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Felipe Correa is a founder and managing Partner of Somatic Collaborative. Through Somatic Collaborative, Correa has directed a wide range of applied research and design projects in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Correa’s work focuses on the design and transformation of cities and urban areas. From the conceptualization of urban regeneration projects to the planning of new city extensions, Correa’s work sits at the intersection of design, policy, and economic development. He is currently the Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he served as chair of the Department of Architecture from 2018-2022.

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Rivers as Outlines for Resilient Urbanization: The cases of São Paulo and Manaus

Through work developed by Correa’s design practice, Somatic Collaborative, in São Paulo and Manaus, he will describe the intricate relationship between urbanization and rivers; showing how watersheds have shaped cities and in turn how cities have enclosed rivers. Furthermore, the lecture will argue for the reintegration of derelict rivers into the city’s urban imaginary, as twenty-first century infrastructures that mitigate environmental uncertainty and as renewed spaces for new forms of civic life.

IAAC Lecture Series – Felipe Correa

Date: Tuesday, 21st of November, 2023
Time: 19.30h (CET) 

Location: In-house at IAAC Main hall, C/ Pujades 102 & Zoom

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Firas Safieddine at IAAC Lecture Series

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Firas Safieddine will be at IAAC Lecture Series AI for the Built Environment on Tuesday 14th of November. This lecture is part of the events organized in the framework of the 10th Advanced Architecture Contest that invites architects, designers, and innovators to explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the built environment.

Firas Safieddine is a leading practitioner whose work spans architecture, urbanism, design, Ecology, and neurotechnology. He coined “Electrical Ecologies”, and aims at designing the first ‘architecture brain implant’. With the mission to redefine the spatial design discourse, Firas is the founder and executive strategist at Spatial Forces, a next-gen spatial design practice operating across scales and media, from the microcontroller to the territory. His professional involvement goes beyond design, to strategy, writing, community building, and academia. He is the Chief Architect at Gamium, Founder and Creative Strategist at Urbanitarian, author at UrbanNext, and Chapter lead at NeurotechBCN, the Barcelona chapter of NeurotechX.

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He holds a bachelor’s in Architecture from the University of Balamand through the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts and a post-professional master’s degree from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya through the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and certifications from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT on Smart Mobility and Emerging Design and Technologies beyond Smart Cities.

The What, Why, and How Behind the Buzzword of the Year – AI

Much like past technological advancements that reshaped architecture, AI stands as a contender to be a vital element in the future of design. AI models are now integral throughout the design process, from data collection and simulation to conceptualization, modeling, and visualization.

Understanding intelligence as an emergent property of material assemblages unlocks new highways of exploration within the context of spatial design and creative production at broad. On the one hand, understanding the fundamentals and defining AI within the design context, and on the other, experimenting with design workflows and AI models to create works relevant within the architecture and spatial design context.

The talk will set the groundwork for a comprehensive understanding of what is AI, examine architectural and design questions that can be the catalysts behind AI experimentation, and finally, run through workflows and projects that adopt AI as as an integral component of the creative process.

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AI for the Built Environment Lecture Series – Firas Safieddine

Date: Tuesday, 14th of November, 2023
Time: 19.00h (CET)

Title: The What, Why, and How Behind the Buzzword of the Year – AI

Location: Online

Chris Precht at IAAC opening event 23/24

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The opening event of the IAAC Lecture Series 2023/2024  will be on Thursday 19th October with Chris Precht and his Lecture “Architects Anonymous”

Chris Precht is the co-founder of Studio Precht. He is husband to Fei, father to Tio and Emma and an architect in the mountains of Austria.

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is delighted to present his lecture in the framework of the Opening Events of the Academic Year 2023-24.

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Programme

19:00 Doors Open
19:10 Welcome and Introduction by Daniel Ibañez, IAAC Director
19:30 Opening Lecture by Chris Precht
20:15 Q&A session
20:30 Refreshments

Architects Anonymous

Architecture events often present idealistic standards of perfection, concealing the challenges architects face beneath the surface. Precht, with six years of experience in Studio Precht, has learned that the initial enthusiasm of architecture often gives way to a heavy responsibility. Creatives protect their work in a competitive industry, showing confidence and success while keeping as private their failures and conflicts. In this lecture, Chris Precht aims to share the shift in perspective that parenthood has revealed to him, underlining the value of sharing struggles and vulnerability alongside successes as a way to grow. Read the full statement in his post

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Alicia Nahmad

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IAAC Lecture Series – Alicia Nahmad, “Democratising Offsite, Digitising Onsite Construction”

Alicia Nahmad is an architect with a passion for robotics and digital fabrication, a strong believer that robotics can augment rather than replace human craft and that human-robot collaboration is the future of the construction industry. As a research-based practising architect, for the last 12 years, she has been engaged with the digitization of building trades and adapting advanced digital design and robotic fabrication methods to incorporate the wisdom and craft of traditional building cultures. Her projects include the construction of award-winning ‘Knit-Candela’ and diverse collaborations with practice and academic institutions. She holds a PhD from Cardiff University and a MArch from the AADRL.

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Her work focuses on exploring design through integrating materials, local skills and cutting edge design and digital fabrication technologies – such as machine learning and robotics – in relation to context-specific environments. She has developed workflows for human-robot collaboration in the design and construction process that engage with local communities. Nahmad’s work expands across a number of scales, from architectural pavilions and robotic installations to developing customized PPE masks for frontline personnel.

As an academic and an entrepreneur, Alicia Nahmad is the founder of The Circular Factory (CF), and MI Toolbox. Nahmad works as an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary SAPL. She also co-directs the Laboratory for Integrative Design. Before joining SAPL, she worked as studio master at the AADRL for 5 years. Previously, she worked developing digital tools for practices like Populous and Zaha Hadid Architects. Her work has been published in numerous conferences and journals an she has lectured internationally on related topics.
Democratising Offsite, Digitising Onsite Construction

Advances in digital fabrication and computation enable us to address the increasingly urgent requirement of decreasing embodied energy and waste in construction. However, access to digital fabrication processes is not equally distributed. Through case studies, Alicia Nahmad reflects on how human-compatible novel digital design and construction methods can augment onsite construction techniques by reducing material waste whilst building beautiful and efficient structures.

IAAC Lecture Series – Alicia Nahmad / Date: Tuesday, 23rd of May, 2023 Time: 19.30h (CEST) 

Title: “Democratising Offsite, Digitising Onsite Construction”

Location: In-house at IAAC Main hall, C/ Pujades 102 & Zoom

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Richard Schulman

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“For the love of architectural design: It is in the eyes” Richard Schulman at IAAC Lecture Series

Richard Schulman, a renowned architectural and portrait photographer, has traveled extensively around the world since the 1980s to capture extraordinary works of architecture and design, as well as portraits of prominent cultural figures such as artists, architects, and literary personalities. His impressive body of work has been featured in numerous national and international publications including Domus, Abitare, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, London Times, El Pais, Metropolis, Paris Match, and Stern.
Schulman has particularly focused on capturing portraits of architects, as well as their buildings and designs, and has photographed many notable figures in the field such as Philip Johnson, Oscar Niemeyer, Tadao Ando, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid, Bjarke Ingles, Diller & Scofidio, Jean Nouvel, and Toyo Ito, among other leading international architects.

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For the love of architectural design: It is in the eyes

Richard Schulman will present a lecture on the genesis of his agenda in architectural photography. Through his dialogue with architects ranging from Adjaye to Zumthor, Schulman has built an impressive portfolio of unique architectural masterpieces and designs. In this presentation, Schulman will share his insights and experiences from his architect portrait sessions and how he has applied those conversations towards a better way of seeing architecture. His visual presentation will showcase a dizzying array of visual moments that have shaped his career, providing a unique perspective on the world of architecture. Join Schulman for an engaging and inspiring lecture on the art and craft of architectural photography.

IAAC Lecture Series – Richard Schulman

Date: 9th of May, 2023 Time: 19.30h

Title: “For the love of architectural design: It is in the eyes”

Location: In-house at IAAC Main hall, C/ Pujades 102 & Zoom

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Winy Maas at IAAC Lecture Series

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Winy Maas lecture at IAAC, Tuesday 25th of April, as part of the +MODEL activities in the framework of the MODEL Festival which will take place from 20th to 30th of April 2023 in Barcelona.

The ‘M’ of MVRDV, Founding Partner and Principal Architect Winy Maas (Schijndel, NL – 1959), has received international acclaim for his broad range of urban planning and building projects, across all typologies and scales. These are often self-generated, innovative, experimental, and theoretical.

Driven by this dedication to green, user-defined, sustainable cities and spaces, Maas’ leadership drives many of the office’s award-winning projects, amongst them Rotterdam’s Markthal (2014), Crystal Houses (2016) the Tianjin Binhai Library (2017), Valley (2022) and the first publicly accessible art depot in the world, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, which opened its doors in Rotterdam end of 2021. In Maas’ broad portfolio are also several masterplans, including a vision for the future of Greater Paris, the Left Bank in Bordeaux, and the waterfront of Oslo. Maas supervised the world horticultural exhibition Floriade 2022 and Eindhoven city centre from 2017 until 2022.

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Maas challenges colleagues, clients, as well as students and collaborators at TU Delft’s The Why Factory – an internationally engaged think tank Maas established in 2008 – to challenge the boundaries of established standards to produce solutions that reimagine how we live, work, and play. Aside from his dedicated leadership role at MVRDV and professorship at TU Delft and elsewhere, Maas is widely published, actively engaged in the advancement of the design profession, and sits on numerous boards and juries, including the Spatial Quality Boards of Rotterdam, Eindhoven, and Barcelona.

“I advocate denser, greener, more attractive and liveable cities, with an approach to design that centres around user-defined, innovative, and sustainable ideas for the built environment, regardless of typology or scale.” – Winy Maas
Everything Becomes Bio

How could both architectural and urban design facilitate meaningful relationships between humans and other species, between buildings and nature? Join Winy Maas for his lecture “Everything becomes bio”, related to the future of cities. Given the global climate crisis and the specific role of architects in constructing infrastructures that shape society, the discipline of architecture must tackle and consider current societal challenges in a variety of ways. Could ‘green’ ideology, as we know it solve this complex situation? Winy Maas will take on this question Tuesday, April 25th in his lecture. Using researches by The Why Factory and examples from MVRDV ‘s portfolio, he will demonstrate the opportunities architecture can create in changing behaviours by creating meaningful relationships between humans – cities and the rest of the ecosystem – biodiversity.
Winy Maas challenges colleagues, clients, as well as students and collaborators at TU Delft’s The Why Factory – an internationally engaged think tank Maas established in 2008 – to challenge the boundaries of established standards to produce solutions that reimagine how we live, work, and play.

IAAC Lecture Series – Winy MaasDate: Tuesday, 25th of April, 2023

Time: 19.30h (CEST)

Title: “Everything Becomes Bio”

Location: In-house at IAAC Main hall, C/ Pujades 102 & Zoom

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José Toral

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IAAC Lecture Series – José Toral

José Toral is a partner, along with Marta Peris, at the architecture firm PERIS+TORAL ARQUITECTES, based in Barcelona. The firm focuses on researching new ways of living and building to address the challenges posed by the climate and housing emergency. Since 2016, José Toral has been an associate professor at the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAB UPC, specializing in the study of public space and urban projects.

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The creative work of PERIS+TORAL ARQUITECTES has been consolidated by winning numerous national public competitions, and the quality and rigor of their built works have been recognized by various international awards, such as the Matilde Baffa Ugo Rivolta European Architecture Award 2021, the Gold Label Best Architects 22 Award in the multifamily housing category, the Architecture MasterPrize 2021 in the multi-unit residential architecture category, The Plan Award 2021 in the social housing category, the BLT Built Design Awards in the social housing category, the Live Challenge Award by Baumit, and as a finalist in the Eu Mies Award 22 with the 85 social housing units in Cornellà, in 2022.

Form Follows Material

The lecture aims to explain how the PERIS+TORAL ARQUITECTES studio approaches architectural creation through its projects, considering the current challenges of the climate and housing emergency. In this sense, architecture is approached from an integral sustainability perspective, where environmental, economic, and social aspects are interrelated in order to offer efficient and sustainable architectural solutions for current and future needs.
The objective is not to focus on each of these aspects individually, but to find the overlapping areas between them to discover strategies that can solve social, environmental, and economic problems. When we combine social and environmental sustainability, the strategy of creating intermediate spaces that reduce demand and promote social relationships emerges. When we combine environmental and economic sustainability, the strategy of reducing material use to minimize CO2 emissions and costs appears. Finally, when we combine economic and social sustainability, the strategy of sharing resources to reduce costs and obtain social benefits emerges.

IAAC Lecture Series – José Toral

Date: Friday, 31st of March, 2023
Time: 19.00h (CEST)
Title: Form Follows Material
Location: Online

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Mireia Luzárraga

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IAAC Lecture Series – Mireia Luzárraga

Mireia Luzárraga is an architect (ETSAM) and Studio Critic at Columbia GSAPP. Luzárraga founded TAKK in 2010, an architecture and design studio based in Barcelona. Her projects investigate how architecture can catalyze the development of more democratic lives through the incorporation of feminist thought, ecology, and politics into its practice.

Their work has received recognition such as the COAM award, the “Temps de les Arts” award, and the FAD award.

Their work takes place in both the public and private spheres. TAKK’s clients include FRAC-Centre Val de Loire and IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), Barcelona City Council, FAD (Foment de les Arts i el Disseny), Vitra, Swatch, Hermès, FITUR (Feria de Turismo), or CA2M (Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo).

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Their reference art and design galleries for his furniture work are Side Gallery Barcelona and Camp Design Milan.

TAKK’s work belongs to the permanent collection of the FRAC-Centre Val de Loire and has been exhibited at the Oslo Triennale, and the Venice, San Sebastián, Tallinn, Maia, and Rabat Biennales, among others. Likewise, TAKK has participated in exhibitions at Matadero-Madrid, Center d’Arts Santa Mónica, CCCB (Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona), MAK Vienna, TCDC Bangkok, or Alcova Milano.

Mireia Luzárraga is currently a professor at the IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and La Salle, and together with Alejandro Muiño at Columbia GSAPP. Previously TAKK has participated as a professor and lecturer in institutions such as the University of Alicante, ETSAM, IED (Istituto Europeo di Design), ELISAVA, RMIT, Floating University Berlin, or ILEK Stuttgart.

TAKK’s projects have been published in some of the most important architecture magazines such as Arquitectura Viva, Plot, Domus, Abittare, l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, and in publications such as El País, El Mundo, Diari Ara, or Architectural Digest.

Architecture and Co-Existance

It would seem that the laws of thermodynamics are in contradiction. While the first would advocate a world of infinite energy, the second reminds us that far from this energy utopia our resources are limited. If modernity; cumulative, extractive, predatory, capitalist in short, “grew” on the first law of thermodynamics, events such as climate change, the fossil fuel crisis, or the sixth mass extinction seem to indicate that the future is bound to “decrease” according to the second law looking for a balance that allows us to coexist on this planet.

But what does this turn, which some call degrowthist, mean for the arts and specifically for architecture? Are concepts such as the “new green deal” or green capitalism enough to carry out this transition or does the future require more profound changes? from our way of eating to what we understand by the word “home”? What (new) material, energetic, political and aesthetic models can we look for to face this turn?

Through examples developed by TAKK architecture, Mireia Luzárraga will try to answer these and other questions and we will see how the future (of architecture) is full of flowers and oysters.

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Date: Wednesday, 22nd of March, 2023
Time: 19.30h (CET)
Title: Architecture and Co-Existance
Location: In-house at IAAC Main hall, C/ Pujades 102 & Zoom

Aldo Sollazzo

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Tuesday, 7 of March, IAAC Lecture Series – Aldo Sollazzo

Aldo Sollazzo is an Italian entrepreneur and innovator, expert in robotics, computer vision, and computational design. He is the CEO of Noumena since 2011, a data-driven company implementing computer vision and machine learning to study and analyze spatial dynamics.

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As part of the Noumena Group, he is also the CEO of PURE.TECH, a material-driven company operating promoting sustainability at the industrial scale, and of LAMÁQUINA, a large-scale 3D printing factory, shaping new architectural solutions integrating advanced manufacturing and computation.

At the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya in Barcelona, he is the Director of the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction.

In 2019 Aldo received, from the Italian President of the Republic, the title of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy for the promotion of national prestige abroad as a recognition of his scientific and technological activities.

Aldo has made many appearances as a guest speaker at Conferences and University Seminars, amongst them European Conference on Computer Vision, Barcelona Urban Tech, Future City Summit, The Venice Biennale and TEDx Barcelona.

Respira: Encoding Material Ecologies into Large Scale Additive Manufacturing Components

Material-driven methodologies for large-scale 3D printing have allowed the incorporation of sustainable techniques towards the design of architectural pieces and the creation of a new generation of ecologically responsible design solutions. At LAMÁQUINA by Noumena, architectural components are made by using advanced robotic manufacturing techniques and a cutting-edge material called PURE.TECH, leader in material innovation. PURE.TECH merges technology and sustainability to develop novel solutions against climate change by neutralising greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, cleaning the air we breathe.
Through data-driven design engineering and material technology optimisation, Aldo’s projects are capable of creating modular and adaptable design solutions for architectural, public and urban spaces with a lower environmental impact. By adopting these methodologies, RESPIRA project is one of the first demonstrators of the future of regenerative design of space.

Date: Tuesday, 7 of March, 2023 at 19.00h (CET)

Title: “Respira: Encoding Material Ecologies into Large Scale Additive Manufacturing Components”

Location: In-house at IAAC Main hall, C/ Pujades 102 & Zoom

The lecture is part of the kick-off of R.ES.P.I.R.A. project, and will be introduced by Michael Donaldson (Comisionado de Innovación Digital, Administración Electrónica y Buen Gobierno) from Fundació BIT Habitat.

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