The Master in City & Technology’s academic structure is based on IAAC’s innovative, learn-by-doing and design-through-research methodology which focuses on the development of interdisciplinary skills. During the Master in City & Technology students will have the opportunity to be part of a highly international group, including faculty members, researchers, and lecturers, in which they are encouraged to develop collective decision-making processes and materialize their project ideas.

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Science Fiction as ‘ecologic critic’

The third and final volume of the Theories of the Urban Seminar has taken science fiction as both a critical framework and a mode of spatial representation, using cinematic and theoretical lenses to examine urban futures in the Anthropocene. Where previous volumes addressed urbanization as historical concept and financial phenomenon, this installment confronts our planetary … Read more

What is the purpose of AI?

In Spike Jonze’s Her, the pivotal moment arrives when Samantha, the AI operating system, quietly departs leaving Theodore alone with a blank screen and the message: “Operating System Not Found.” This is not a glitch. It is a quiet, devastating break from functionality, a poetic refusal to remain a product. Samantha’s evolution into something curious, … Read more

Is it too late for humanity to awaken from the blackout?

In our final presentation for the Theories of the Urban course, we explored the film Leave the World Behind (2023) as a speculative lens through which to interrogate contemporary urban conditions. Though the narrative unfolds in a seemingly remote, rural setting, its core tension emerges from the collapse of deeply urban and planetary systems [technological, … Read more

THE SKYLINE OF THE CAPITAL

Architecture as a means of social segregation “capital materializes, to a large extent, through urban construction, the establishment of social relations in the city, the organization of space in the city, among others” (Harvey 2020, 23) According to Charles Jencks, the death of the modern architecture dated on July 15, 1972 at 3:32 p.m, when … Read more

The Bodies of [Urban] Finances – Eye of the Bear, the Bull, and the Rat [on]Capitalism

CRITICAL QUESTION: “How can urban planning and architectureactively resist the dominance ofspeculative capital, and instead promoteequitable, community-driven developmentthat prioritizes social cohesion and publiclife over the financialization of space?“ ——————————————————- The city is not just a physical construct of streets and buildings; it functions as a living entity, constantly shifting, shaped by the flows of CAPITAL … Read more

Emerging Economies

The Seminar opened new perspectives on several fields of Emerging Economies. The topics at stake ranged from circular economic models to ways to include ecosystem thinking into economic ventures. My key learning center around the possibility to think economies in terms of different network structures, the inclusion of the common approach into design and planning … Read more

Digital Culture(s): A cultural blindspot of solutionism

photo credits: ‘Imagining Intercitizenships’ 3D artwork by Lorna Pittaway for IAM

In an era of accelerating change, digital cultures weave together a mosaic of materiality, temporality, and social impact, redefining the very essence of culture itself. The interplay between these dimensions raises compelling questions about the way we live, create, and envision futures. From solutionism in the face of a polycrisis to the extractivist underpinnings of … Read more