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.
Agriculture is not simply another economic sector. It is the foundation of food security, livelihoods and social stability. Yet in many conflict zones, agricultural landscapes are systematically damaged through bombardment, infrastructure collapse, restricted access to farmland, and disruption of water systems. While urban destruction is often visible and extensively documented, the destruction of food-producing landscapes … Read more
At what and whose cost does India’s solar transition operate? Mapping the unseen costs of solar expansion across resource-scarce landscapes and vulnerable populations. India has seen an accelerated transition toward renewable energy, starting on 2010 and today the solar farms represent an extension of aprox 3,156 square kilometres of panels, and infrastructure. Vast landscapes are … Read more
Jakarta’s rapid urbanization has outpaced the development of equitable mobility infrastructure, exacerbating safety disparities, particularly for low-income women navigating the city at night. While formal policies fall short, informal transport networks like Angkot fill critical gaps, despite exposing riders to physical and psychological risks. This study explores how machine learning can be used to fill … Read more
Understanding the complexity of urban flooding Across the globe, cities are facing the increasingly visible consequences of climate change, with floods and landslides ranking among the most destructive urban hazards. In Brazil, the city of Petrópolis offers a critical lens through which to study the layered vulnerabilities of urban settlements exposed to extreme rainfall, unstable … Read more
An alternative ways of exploring the sounds that make up Gràcia This project investigates alternative ways of engaging with the sounds of Gràcia and how they can empower communities by fostering a deeper connection to place, memory, and identity. Sound functions as both a sensory experience and a cultural artifact, carrying layers of emotion, history, … Read more
El Poblenou is a neighborhood in Barcelona which is experiencing several degrees of transformation leading to urban niches unconsidered. Open City Poblenou envisions public spaces that respond to urban flux, creating environments that encourage interaction and a sense of belonging through co-designed, adaptive interventions by leveraging data-driven strategies and participatory design. INDEX 00_IntroductionExplanation of Poblenou’s … Read more
Designing an Inclusive and Functional Bench Through the Lens of Iconic Visionaries Urban design has always required balancing complex social, cultural, and environmental factors. In this project, we explored the potential of AI in shaping public spaces. Specifically, designing a bench that serves the needs of both homeless individuals and daily users. We developed a … Read more
“capitalism as a mode of production has necessarily targeted the breaking down of spatial barriers and the acceleration of turnover time as fundamental to its agenda of relentless capital accumulation” (David Harvey.) 01. The Evolution of Urban Reading Urbanization, much like the transition from print to digital media, reflects evolving modes of engagement. The shift … Read more
Introduction According to the World Health Organization, around 1.19 million people die each year due to traffic accidents, and another 20 to 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries, many of which result in disability. Beyond the human toll, the economic costs related to treatment and care for those involved in traffic accidents are significant, estimated to … Read more
“Can we understand urban environments and street characteristics from Google Street View panorama images using Machine Learning and Stable Diffusion techniques?” Project OverviewThis computational design project aims to develop a pipeline utilizing Grasshopper and Python to visualize clusters of panoramic streetscape images. The project leverages t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) for dimensionality reduction, facilitating the … Read more
Grasshopper is an incredibly versatile tool that in recent years has expanded into fields far beyond the origins in three-dimensional parametric design. One of these fields is that of GIS analysis, which has traditionally been approached through software such as QGIS. The advantages of Grasshopper and Rhinoceros3D over QGIS include the versatility and customisability of … Read more
Introduction Urban transportation planning relies on data science to explain the conditions driving mobility patterns. This exploration of bicing, Barcelona’s resident bike rental program, analyzes the actors impacting discrepancies in bicing data to select machine-learning strategies able to predict biking station vacancies across Barcelona for the year 2024 with an accuracy of 0.02387. With this … Read more
Grasshopper’s neural network component is turning data into smart, functional design solutions. The neural network component within this environment presents a new frontier for design intelligence. Here’s a walkthrough of how this component transforms raw data into smart design solutions. The Training Grounds: Neural Network Trainer Designers input parameters into the Neural Network Trainer—this is … Read more
The project started with an experiment to see if an agent could follow a line and illuminate its path to see obstacles. The light is composed of isovits and only the ones in front of the agent are colored. The experiment went then to make the light 3D to illuminate buildings facades. Many approaches were … Read more
Introduction Simulations are a powerful tool for understanding the world around us as it exists, and also as it could be. The creation of models that reflect a given context by adhering to selected rules that are followed in said context, show how all the constitutive parts behave and evolve over time, and by doing … Read more
Introduction This exercise aims to create a customizable fluid simulator, to explore how microscopic particles interact with each other and their environment, ultimately building a foundation for understanding fluid dynamics at a smaller scale. The key challenge lies in computationally emphasizing the crucial behaviors of these particles. Fluids, despite appearing continuous, are actually comprised of … Read more
