Self-sufficiency is about consuming the resources you are able to produce, annulling our ecological footprint. This scenario is close to the statements that we need to achieve for the 2020 agenda. During the Research Studio self-sufficiency will be a wider concept, not only we will apply this term when speaking about energy, but also speaking about other issues like water, food, economy and society among others.
As architects, our role in this new concept of ecology goes beyond buildings, materials, light, space or shape. Our approach to this new way of thinking must be holistic, emphasizing the importance of the whole, and the interdependence of its parts. Therefore, for us, architecture is about this complex combination of elements and their relations. We will read and learn from the people that are already talking about this holistic way of thinking (Rifkin, Braunghart, Mc Donnough, Latour…).
In order to face this approach to thinking, architects cannot be alone, they must learn to work inside multidisciplinary teams. A starting point will be the scenario of the studio, in which we will work on our projects together with physicists, biologists, economists and designers. Inside the topic of self-sufficiency, in the past years IAAC has developed projects around the ideas of Factory of the Future, Urban Retrofitting, Factory of Knowledge, and many more.
SSB continues its exploration into the realm of physical forces and develops an architecture in the form of an equilibrium between man and the environment. Today, form still follows function, but in a world of fluctuating climatic patterns and rigid dependencies on resources, we ask ourselves: how can energy shape architecture?
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From a historical perspective, architecture has always emerged from the need to adapt to a local context and constructed with the limitations of the technique. Today, in the context of globalisation and the explosion of technological progress, we are becoming increasingly alienated from the millennia of contextual architectural innovation, in favour of universal and homogeneous building standards, fueled by enormous energy consumption and at the cost of the environment.
According to the unchallenged global authority for building guidebooks – the Neufert – the standard temperature for human comfort is 22ºC – no matter if the building is located in Siberia, where temperatures can drop to -50ºC, or the UAE, where they can reach +50ºC. In contrast to those simplistic, uniform expectations, we – as architects – need to question the applicability of universal patterns of inhabitation and rethink the relationship between buildings and their climatic and energetic contexts.
Add to that the advent of ever more immersive virtual experiences and digital worlds (e.g. the Metaverse), which are promising entirely new qualities of detachment and apparent independence of the physical reality of material and energy resources – and even our own bodies. We aim to answer this development by emphasising the value of embodied experience and knowledge, and by bravely confronting a complex and difficult, yet beautiful and rewarding physical reality.
This year’s studio proposes an exploration of the archipelago of the Baleares, a complex yet rich geography embedded with a variety of energetical situations and climatic diversity. Our site, spread on a 5000 km² surface, gathers extreme conditions from coastal eolic landscapes to juxtaposing semi-desert areas, witnessing tights, extreme radiations, high winds, fluctuating temperatures… We will explore this territory during our research trip under the form of a low-energy travelling expedition: we will travel together to places of common studio interest, from there all the groups will travel to their own chosen sites to perform a micro workshop: living 24 hours on your site, measuring it’s qualities through a physical act of staying there!
The course is structured along the development of a series of 3 successive design missions:
The initial weeks will see us developing an energy device: using digital fabrication and physical computing you will invent and construct a machine, within the walls of IAAC that stages and performs an energy phenomenon of your choice. During this phase, you will be supported, every week, by one of Barcelona’s most interesting scientists, Josep Perello Palou! The device is the occasion to measure a scientific phenomenon in order to quantify it.
Rich with this scientific knowledge, this will lead you to the choice of a context within the Archipelago for which you will be developing the smallest building, at a 1:5 scale: the smallest off-grid living unit for one person. The design methodology will be centred around the use of the milling machine and plywood, a material which properties close to a construction material. During this phase, you will focus on structure, detail, envelope, constructive detail…
The third phase of the studio is the extrapolation of this small architecture into a larger living architectural intervention within the site of your choice, the self sufficient building. During this phase,you will explore notions of density, distribution, circulation, organisation…
At course completion the student will:
This room is ingeniously designed to cater to user comfort through an innovative grid of shaders, harnessing wind as its primary energy source to dynamically modulate light and shadow from subtle gradients to complete coverage. At its heart lie 45 turbines, poised to pivot in response to the wind generated by a hairdryer, which serves … Read more
Heat is a form of energy that can be transferred between objects or systems due to a temperature difference. It is a manifestation of the internal energy of a substance or a system, resulting in the motion of its constituent particles. Heat can be transferred through three main mechanisms Phase 1_Device How can we control … Read more
The phenomenon of RAIN is an emotion. Some love it from a distance while some enjoy being drenched in it. But what everyone longs for, are those brief showers that help cool down the hot and dry summers and provide a sense of thermal relief. With that we wonder, can a curated rainfall, brought in … Read more
Statement In extreme summer heat, our bodies work overtime to regulate how we feel. It takes massive amounts of energy to maintain a normal and consistent body temperature. All this energy use can cause us to feel tired and sluggish.It makes it important to have a COOLING system in high temperatures. What is a possible … Read more
Wave is a phenomenon of transferring the energy from atmospheric wind motion to the sea surface activated by wind energy, with periods from 3 to 20 seconds sea waves energize renewable power generation. Vital for coastal regions, refreshing sea breezes reduce the temperature by an average of 2-5 degrees. So as architects, we decided to … Read more
Turbulence is fluid motion that is chaotic in time and space. It is characterized by vortices and eddies on many scales. Turbulence can be visualized through particles that flows through the fluid of which the turbulence is active, that are emphasized by the use of light The aim of the project is to explore the … Read more
A Dynamic AquaTherm Mangrove Community A dynamic model of hospitality in the coastal area of ??Colonia de St. Jordi in Mallorca, Punta del Tort, where temperatures ranging from -2 to 38.4 degrees, strong winds, and intense sun, shape the environment. Embracing the concept of thermal experiences, the AquaTherm Mangrove connects guests with the natural environment … Read more
Phenomena analyzed: Lightning From the mythological Prometheus until the middle of the 18th century, the phenomenon of lightning remained an unsolved riddle. In 1749 Benjamin Franklin detailed in his diary the resemblance between an electric spark and lightning: both emit light of the same color, and both have a winding trajectory and rapid motion. Both … Read more
