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Title: IaaC open lecture: Michel Rojkind
Location: COAC , Plaza Nova 5, Barcelona
Link out: Click here
Description: Michel Rojkind was born in Mexico city, where he studied Architecture and Urban Planning at the Universidad Iberoamericana (1989-1994). After working on his own for several years, he teamed up with Isaac Broid and Miquel Adria to establish Adria+Broid+Rojkind (1992-2002).

With the idea of exploring new challenges that address contemporary society, of designing compelling experiences that go beyond mere functionalyti, and of connecting at a deeper level with the inticacies of each project, in 2002 he establishes an independent firm: Rojkind Arquitectos, recognized by Architectural Record in 2005 as one of the then best “Design Vanguard” firms.
Date: 2011-02-25

Our friends at Studio Banana TV have shared with an interview with Vincent Guallart, a spanish architect and pioneer of interaction between nature, technology and architecture proposes new paradigms based in urban, social and cultural conditions emerging from information society.

He crosses boundaries through collaborations in geology, sociology, engineering, fabrication, economics, and software design. His projects follow a “natural” logic, referring to components originating in nature, as well as to environmental systems. A logic that connects nature with the transformations of urban spaces, social organizations, and the digital world.

Merging architecture, nature and new technology, Guallart (b. Valencia 1963) is one of today’s most exciting Spanish architects. Besides having his own practice, he is the director of the Institute of Advanced Architecture in Catalunya (IAAC) and is the leading architect of Sociópolis project in Valencia, an innovative housing project for urban and environmental development with projects by international architects.

His most recent projects include, among others, The Alborz Gates in Tehran, Fugee Port, Keelung Port and The Fab Lab House Project-Solar decathlon
Interview by Studio Banana TV. Translation by Remy Arroyo.
Via: Studio Banana TV

The Fab Lab House, developed by the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), is a self-sufficient building that marks a new paradigm of energetic efficiency through its innovative hability to generate energy, food and utensils. The house produces three times more energy than it consumes, and thanks to its elevated structure –which naturally creates a patio/orchard/kitchen space underneath to provide for food. Also, it incorporates state-of-the-art machinery which can build tools and everyday objects by using the very same parametrical designs used in the general design of the space. More info and pictures after the break.

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IAAC is pleased to invite you to it´s public Lecture “The Ethics of f2f Processes” given by Maria Voyatzaki
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Free Entrance
IAAC Conference Hall, 20.00hrs
Pujades 102, baixos. Poble Nou

Maria Voyatzaki
Associate Professor of Architectural Design and Building Technology
Maria Voyatzaki is associate professor of architectural design and building technology at the School of Architecture of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) since 2001. Her PhD at the University of Bath, School of Architecture (1996) supervised by Dr. Chris Williams and Prof Ted Happold investigated the design process of non-standard architecture entitled ¨An Insight into the Design Process of Unconventional Structures¨. Her research and respective published work focuses on the integration of an idea and its materiality aiming at enhancing the quality of architecture through this integration.

She has taught for over 11 years in the United Kingdom and for a semester in Denmark (Aarhus School of Architecture). Between 1989-1991she worked in the research team of Bath University, UK on projects between the University of Bath led by Ted Happold, Buro Happold and Frei Otto. She works as a free launch architect in Greece. She has organised and participated in a great number of international student workshops and international conferences for architecture educators. She is the Coordinator of the European Network of Construction Teachers since 2001. She is also the coordinator of a number of European funded programmes on architectural education, with the most recent one being the two-year funded LifeLong Learning Multilateral Project, continuum: from the school lab to the factory workshop that investigates new pedagogic protocols for teaching students on a file-to-factory logic.

She has been a Council Member of the European Association for Architectural Education (2000-2007). She has lectured abroad and has sat at design juries around the world. She is a chartered architect and member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

IaaC is pleased to invite you to it´s public Lecture “One Project, Three Designs” given by Bostjan Vuga

Friday, February 19th. 2010
Free Entrance
IaaC Conference Hall, 20:00hrs
Pujades 102, baixos. Poble Nou

Bostjan Vuga
SADAR VUGA ARHITEKTI Founder

Bostjan Vuga graduated at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana (1992) and continued post graduate studies at the AA School of Architecture in London (1993-1995).

Since 1998 he lectures at architectural schools, conferences and symposiums in Slovenia and abroad. In 2003 he was a studio tutor at Berlage Institute in Rotterdam. He was a visiting critic at AA School of Architecture, at Bauhaus Kolleg in Dessau, at the IAAC in Barcelona, at the ETH in Zuerich, at the Universitaet fuer Angewandte Kunst Wien and Academy of Visual Arts Vienna. As a visiting editor he took part in two issues of AB architectural bulletin.

He had published numeurous articles on current occurance in architecture and urban planning, presented in national and international professional and broad interested publications.

IaaC is pleased to invite you to it’s public lecture “Approaching Architectures in Sao Paulo – Choosing a Sustainable City Redevelopment Model” given by Carlos Leite
Friday, January 29th. 2010
Free Entrance
IaaC Conference Hall, 19:30hrs
Pujades 102, baixos. Poble Nou

Carlos Leite
Principal of Leite+Brooke Arquitetos Urbanistos
Founder of CIC_SP: City Information Center, Sao Paulo [NGO]

Carlos Leite is an Architect and Urbanist with a Master and PhD in Urban Design from the University of Sao Paulo and a Posdoc from California Polytechnic University where he was a professor. He is a principal at Leite+Brooke Arquitetos Urbanistos in Sao Paulo. He also works as a Sustainable Development and Design consultant with public planning agencies, private developers and NGOs.

He is a professor at the School of Architecture, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Sao Paulo and has been a visiting professor and lecturer at different schools in California, Canada and the Netherlands. His professional focus is to face new challenges abroad through academia and consultancy – from his broad and multidisciplinary achieved knowledge in Brazil and abroad in the last 15 years (more than 40 cities visited).

IaaC is pleased to invite you to it´s public Lecture “The Specialist Modelling Group at Foster+Partners : A case study” by Prof. Xavier De Kestelier

Thursday, January 14th. 2010
Free Entrance
IaaC Conference Hall, 19:30hrs
Pujades 102, baixos. Poble Nou

Prof. Xavier De Kestelier
Associate Partner at Foster+Partners
Xavier De Kestelier was educated in Belgium and the United Kingdom and holds an MSc in Urban Design from The Bartlett School of Architecture. Since 2002, he has been part of the Specialist Modelling Group at Foster+Partners. In this position he has worked on a broad range of projects such as Beijing Airport, Yacht Plus BoatFleet, MASDAR and Spaceport. Besides this he is also responsible for new rapid prototyping and manufacturing developments at Foster+Partners. In 2008 he became Associate Partner at Foster+Partners

His area of research is the application of parametric software to solve complex geometry, the redefinition of the role of architects as a designer within the digital environment, and the application of digital fabrication and rapid manufacturing techniques in architecture. He has been a critic and lecturer at a wide range of universities and conferences:  Smartgeometry, Berlage, Architectural Association, MIT, The Royal Institution, ACADIA, Bridges. Since 2006, he has been a professor at the University of Gent, where he heads the education and research in digital design in architecture. He is also Adjunct Professor and studio master at the Syracuse University in London.

Due to inclement weather in London this Lecture has been CANCELED
It will be rescheduled for another date. Thank you!

IaaC is pleased to invite you to it´s public Lecture “Relational Urbanism:Digital Relations for a Global Metropolis” given by Eduardo Rico and Enriqueta Llabres

Friday, January 8th. 2010
Free Entrance
IaaC Conference Hall, 19:30hrs
Pujades 102, baixos. Poble Nou

EDUARDO RICO BIO
Eduardo Rico is a Civil Engineer and Ma Landscape Urbanism Graduate currently working in Arup. He is also director of Groundlab and co-funder of Relational Urbanism.  He is currently engaged in strategic advice on infrastructure and transportation for urban master planning in the ILG team in Arup, combining it with teaching in the AA Landscape Urbanism and research in the contemporary design practices feeding infrastructural inputs into architectural urbanism.

ENRIQUETA LLABRES BIO
Enriqueta Llabres is an architect graduated at the UPC in 2002.  In 2003 she became part of MAP Architects team whose principal is Prof. Josep Lluis Mateo. During this period she was a team member of important winning competitions for the practice, ending up the architect responsible for the Netherland projects. In 2007 she leaves the office and moves to London co-founding together with Eduardo Rico Relational Urbanism. Currently she combines her research in Relational Urbanism with her own architectural practice, DNA-Collective.

IaaC is pleased to invite you the open lecture of Hanif Kara “Interdisciplinary Curiosity”

Friday, December 4th
19:30 > IaaC Auditorium
C/Pujades 102. Poble Nou
FREE ENTRANCE

Hanif Kara (http://www.akt-uk.com) is a structural engineer and co-founder of Adams Kara Taylor, the design-led structural and civil engineering consultancy based in London. As design director, he has worked on award-winning projects throughout Europe. His projects have included Peckham Library (UK), the National Trust Headquarters in Swindon (UK) and the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg (Germany). Hanif is a long-standing visiting lecturer at a number of design schools. He is currently appointed as a visiting Professor of Architectural Technology at (KTH), Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan Stockholm, and is the Pierce Anderson visiting critic for Creative Engineering at GSD Harvard. He was selected for the Master Jury for the 2004 cycle of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture. Professor Kara is the first structural engineer to be appointed a Commissioner at CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) where he co-chairs the design review panel and chairs the Inclusive Design Group. He is a fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has interests in connecting education, design and construction through advanced tools and methods, and recently edited ?Design Engineering?, a book that positions the work of structural engineers into a contemporary paradigm.

Lecture: Interdisciplinary Curiosity

IaaC is pleased to invite you to the open lecture of Ben van Berkel, UNStudio

Tuesday 10th of November
19:30 > IaaC Auditorium
C/Pujades 102. Poble Nou

Ben van Berkel studied architecture at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and at the Architectural Association in London, receiving the AA Diploma with Honours in 1987.

In 1988 he and Caroline Bos set up an architectural practice in Amsterdam. The Van Berkel & Bos Architectuurbureau has realized amongst others projects the Karbouw office building, the Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam, museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen, the Moebius house and the NMR facilities for the University of Utrecht.

In 1998 Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos established a new firm: UNStudio (United Net). UNStudio presents itself as a network of specialists in architecture, urban development and infrastructure. Current projects are the restructuring of the station area of Arnhem, the mixed-use Raffles City in Hangzhou, a masterplan for Basauri, a dance theatre for St. Petersburg and the design and restructuring of the Harbor Ponte Parodi in Genoa. With UNStudio he realized amongst others the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, a façade and interior renovation for the Galleria Department store in Seoul and a private villa up-state New York.

Lecture:
Attainability

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and HP are pleased to announce the 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest, on the theme of THE SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY: Envisioning the habitat of the future.

The aim of the competition is to promote online discussion and research through which to generate insights and visions, ideas and proposals that help us envisage what the city and the habitat of the 21st century will be like.

The competition is open to architects, planners, designers and artists who want to contribute to progress in making the world more habitable by developing a proposal capable of responding to emerging challenges in areas such as ecology, information technology, socialization and globalization, with a view to enhancing the connected self-sufficiency of our cities.

The competition jury, which is composed of architects, directors of some of the world’s foremost architecture schools, and mayors of cities such as Barcelona, is looking for outstanding proposals for any city in the world, at any scale, and within any timescale. Competition entries should be submitted via the Internet on Connected metropolises, Eco neighborhoods, Self-sufficient buildings, Intelligent homes or any other proposal for a short-, medium or long-term project to create habitats that respond to the social, cultural, environmental and economic conditions that may obtain in the 21st century. The proposal should include whatever texts, drawings and other images may be needed to make it fully understandable.

The competition prizes will consist of three scholarships for the IaaC Masters in Advanced Architecture for academic year 2010-11, cash prizes, and the latest generation of large-format HP printers. The selected projects will go on show in a major exhibition, due to open in Barcelona in May 2010, which will then travel to key cities around the world. The best projects will also be featured in a book to be published by Actar. The project is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Housing, the Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona City Council, and the publishing house Actar.

More Info:
http://www.advancedarchitecturecontest.org/

Pulsation in Architecture

IaaC is pleased to invite you to the open lecture of Eric Goldemberg from MONAD Studio.
Monday 25th of May.
19:30h
IaaC Main Hall
C/ Pujades 102, Poble Nou

The architecture of MONAD aims at ‘pulsation’, a fundamental animate capacity of living forms.

Pulsation thrives on hyper-charged, syncopated rhythms and sexual drive. It operates via smooth aggregation of discrete, articulated components and de-aggregation of luscious bodies in friction, unzipping seams and foraging into spatial crevices.

The partners of MONAD Studio – Eric Goldemberg + Veronica Zalcberg – define a practice that takes advantage of cutting-edge 3D computer technology, design techniques and digital fabrication (CAD/CAM) for a range of scales, from urban strategies and landscape infrastructure to architecture, installations and product design.

The conference is part of the workshop´s activities: “Barcelona-Berlin Extramuros Studio 2009″ with the participation of the students of the Architecture School of Florida, International University in Miami, USA. Workshop´s coordinators: Bea Goller, Armando Montilla

IaaC is pleased to invite you to the open lecture of Theodore Spyropoulos.
Friday 24th of April.
19:30h
IaaC Main Hall
C/ Pujades 102, Poble Nou

`Systemic Play`
Theodore Spyropoulos / Minimaforms

Theodore Spyropoulos co-directs the Architectural Association Design Research Lab [DRL] (London). He directs the experimental architecture and design studio Minimaforms with Stephen Spyropoulos. He is a visiting Research Fellow at MIT since 2006 and curates the AA New Media Research initiative. He has taught in the graduate schools of the University of Pennsylvania and the Royal College of Art. He has studied at the AA, Bartlett School of Architecture and the New Jersey Institute of Technology graduating cum laude. He has worked as a project architect for the offices of Peter Eisenman and Zaha Hadid Architects.

The lecture will examine role of experimentation in architecture and design through the work of Minimaforms and the AADRL.

IaaC is pleased to invite you to the open lecture of Mauro Costa.
Friday 17th of April.
19:30h
IaaC Main Hall
C/ Pujades 102, Poble Nou
Barcelona, Spain

Mauro Costa

Architect Mauro Costa is a Ph.D. professor, fulfilling his doctoral investigation with outstanding. His research concerns the analysis of functional analogies between biology and architecture with special emphasis in architectural mass customization proposals based in sustainable processes that can be simulated and constructed by CAD/CAM methods.

New theoretical contents in complexity studies, mainly provided by biology and cybernetic fields, allow the use of biological analogies as a valid approach to architectural design and it may offer new tools to organize and optimize models. The beginning of bionic applications in architecture, as well as its contextualization, is presented, giving a special attention to geometric and structural methods inspired by living beings. Scientific and philosophic concepts provided by biology are analyzed and considered in a prospective way. Finally, the attention will be focused in how the complex scientific concepts provided by the observation of biological processes may be connected to architecture professional practice by the creative use of digital technologies.

IaaC is pleased to invite you to the open lecture of Fermin Vazquez.

Thursday 26th of March.
19:30h
IaaC Main Hall
C/ Pujades 102, Poble Nou
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