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.
VENUS is a 3D printable bio-composite made from clay and mycelium. It merges natural building materials with bio-based growth to create modular, biodegradable, and regenerative architectural components. Design The voids in the geometry enhance ventilation, critical for mycelium growth. Simultaneously, the organic content in the bricks regulates mycelium-colonized surfaces, particularly in shaded and moist environments. … Read more
Abstract Our project, addresses the need for Productive Justice for Self-Sufficiency in Mesquita, a municipality in Rio de Janeiro marked by socio-economic challenges such as food insecurity, water scarcity, infrastructure deficiencies, and a strong dependence on government subsidies. Our strategy transforms residual urban spaces-abandoned plots, unused corners, canal edges-into a Productive Web of interconnected hubs … Read more
So, how can material innovation bridge the gap between reducing energy use in buildings and designing circular insulation systems for carbon-conscious retrofits?
Carbon Envelopes Toward Carbon-Sequestering Architectural Systems through Biochar-Concrete and Hybrid Fabrication
SecondMatter upcycles 85% construction and demolition waste into low-impact building units using a hybrid ramming-jamming technique. With 9 MPa strength and 7% lower carbon emissions, it forms walls, panels, and columns. Integrated into municipal waste systems, its compaction method adapts to unpredictable debris, turning urban waste into resilient, structural architecture within existing material cycles. What if … Read more
Introduction This project explores a double landscape approach, bridging a student accommodation in the city with an ecological extraction site in the Collserola foothills. It establishes a material and climatic dialogue between the two contexts: one as a site of inhabitation, the other as a site of making. At its core is a breathing terracotta … Read more
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
