Within the current global context of rapid change, integrated with the potentials of digital technologies, IAAC’s Master in Advanced Architecture (MAA) is committed to the generation of new ideas and applications for Urban Design, Self Sufficiency, Digital Manufacturing Techniques and Advanced Interaction.
In this context IAAC works with a multidisciplinary approach, facing the challenges posed by our environment and the future development of cities, architecture and buildings, through a virtuous combination of technology, biology, computational design, digital and robotic fabrication, pushing innovation beyond the boundaries of a more traditional architectural approach.
HYGROHOUSE
Self Sufficient Buildings The project investigates esparto grass as a natural humidity moderator within urban student housing. By analyzing its hygroscopic response and recording relative humidity variations, a passive air filtration system is developed. Anchored in a double landscape strategy, the design links material cultivation, extraction, and environmental performance across urban and ecological contexts. Carrer de … Read more
KINXA | The future built with tradition
Vernacular architecture has steadily lost relevance in contemporary practice. Industrialized construction methods, aesthetic shifts, and the pursuit of perceived reliability in materials like concrete and steel have overshadowed traditional techniques. However, these modern materials often come at a high environmental cost. Among the overlooked methods is quincha, a construction technique common in Latin America. It … Read more
RINOVA
Raw | Refined | Revolutionary Rinova aims to look at something often thrown away, “agricultural waste,” and see the future of construction. With our planet facing so many challenges, and traditional construction methods often having a major impact, we are excited to introduce a fresh, sustainable approach.We’re taking rice husk and transforming it into incredible, … Read more
The Palace of Trash
This project reclaims abandoned silos in Rio de Janeiro as neighborhood-scale infrastructures for ecological justice. It builds a circular system where waste is not only recycled, but revalued through community collaboration. Organic and material waste become part of urban greening and pollination strategies, empowering catadores and youth as co-creators. Through reuse, education, and biodiversity enhancement, … Read more
Càlid Terra
Project’s research explores how material behaviour—specifically heat transmission through clay—can inform architectural design. The goal is to generate thermally responsive environments that support the physiological needs of the human body through passive systems.
ReVive_Second Life
Abstract As part of the New Narratives for Circularity seminar at IAAC, the TMDC site in Barcelona—scheduled for demolition—was selected as the project focus. The program offered the opportunity to redesign the site for housing, sports, or service use; housing was chosen as the proposed function. The seminar emphasized strategies for material reuse and carbon … Read more
The Echoes We Buried
Construction fractured an ecosystem, and listening began to heal it The Echoes We Buried is a speculative eco-fiction set in a fractured Barcelona, where construction noise disrupts not just human life but the deep, vibrating language of ecosystems. As species falter and signals blur, one person begins to listen—to the pressure, the silence, the unraveling. … Read more
Garden Of Redox
The Soil Remembers, The Garden Responds This project reimagines Barcelona’s Zona Franca as a post-natural landscape shaped by industrial soil pollution, especially hexavalent chromium. Through speculative storytelling, bioremediation science, and visual narratives, it explores how ecosystems, humans, and synthetic organisms might coexist with contamination, not to restore purity—but to adapt, survive, and form new ecological … Read more
Where Salt Won’t Settle
A story of water, resistance, and the quiet uprising of chlorides and carex Water Pollution in Barcelona The water waits. It holds its breath Its beauty hides a slow-built threat. The rain forgets to fall for months, Then crashes down in angry stunts. No roots to catch it, drains too tight It pulls the metals … Read more
SOMA LOOM
This project introduces an environmental sculpture, up to 1.5 meters tall, placed in the garden of Ballina Methodist Church in Ballina, Ireland. The column acts as a multifunctional architectural element supporting local biodiversity—attracting insects, bees, butterflies, and small birds—while blending harmoniously into the public landscape. Constructed from a geopolymer made with crushed seashells and biochar, … Read more
