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.
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
In order to overcome the current climate emergency and polycrisis a critical approach needs to be explored. This implies analyzing the impacts and trends of the contemporary (inter)relationships between society, culture and digital technologies. However, the nature of those phenomena is multiclausal. There is not a single factor who produces it. Although capitalism and its … Read more
The course of Digital Cultures, tutored by Andres Colmenares, took an investigative approach on the relations between the present and the future through the lens of art, journalism, urbanism, technology, human networks and global market. Course was structured in a “non-linear” way, what makes our tutor’s pride, yet consistent in terms of narrating through scale … Read more
This course examined the interplay of ecological, cultural, and digital transformations amidst a climate emergency, emphasizing the need to prioritize cultural over economic value. It explored how language shapes perceptions of technology, the hidden environmental costs of digital infrastructures, and the biases embedded in AI systems. Addressing the prevalence of misinformation, it highlighted the role … Read more
Accumulation: A Mirage of Progress Imagine a minimalist workspace—a pristine desk, a single laptop, a small plant to complete the tableau. It’s serene, efficient, and modern. Yet, behind this simplicity lies a sprawling network of data centers consuming vast amounts of energy, hidden from view. This duality invites a deeper reflection: is our pursuit of … Read more
In a world of interconnected crises and rapid technological change, Digital Cultures provides a lens to explore how we interact with technology and respond to global challenges. The Digital Cultures class invited us to reflect on these dynamics, highlighting the importance of rethinking the narratives, metaphors, and values shaping our present and future. Central to … 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
“The artificial refers not to the fake, but to what is deliberately created, designed with purpose, and capable of reshaping both human and planetary futures.” Benjamin Bratton In recent years, the notion of artificiality has evolved from being seen as an imitation of the natural, to an integral part of planetary and urban systems. Benjamin … Read more
1. Introduction 1.1. Abstract Autonomous Vehicles are vehicles that employ driver assistance technologies to remove the need for a human operator within the vehicle. These new technologies into automation have been researched in contexts like the United States of America, Middle-Eastern Countries and some European Countries. Planners and architects are designing for these cities including … Read more
Can speculative science fiction ground us in reality? In an age where technology and urbanization shape the contours of our reality, the role of theory as a form of critique becomes ever more crucial. The consequences of centuries of colonization, globalization, and exploitation are evident in our sprawling cities and degraded environments. The 2017 sci-fi … Read more
Skyscrapers are human achievements that require innovation in the extraction of land to tower over its neighbors. The third skyscraper future reflects the past imaginary of Fritz Lang’s, Metropolis. This visualization aims to highlight the economic disparities and labor oppression depicted in the film, contrasting them with the modern logics of rentism as embodied by … Read more
In the realm of speculative urban design, the fusion of cyborg skyscrapers and utopian visions offers a captivating journey into the convergence of reality and imagination. Inspired by Fritz Lang’s timeless sci-fi masterpiece ‘Metropolis,’ I embark on a deep dive into the intricate relationship between design, urbanization, and speculative fiction. Metropolis, Fritz Lang (1927) “Metropolis” … Read more
“Blade Runner 2049” is a good example of how urban landscapes will be shaped differently in response to environmental collapse and societal stress. Designed by communities dominated by fear of losing their stability under an authoritarian social logic, the film features Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Reimagined as part of Bruce Sterling’s, What skyscrapers might … 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
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
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
