The Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities (MAEBB) postgraduate program is an 11-month immersive academic program focused on learning how to design and build a new generation of buildings and cities to respond to the planet’s emerging climate challenges. The program is carried out in Valldaura Labs, in Barcelona, a 135 He property located in the Collserola forest. Here, students will live and work surrounded by nature while using the most advanced technologies and design techniques in the pursuit of what is also IAAC’s long term initiative, to create self-sufficient and ecological environments.
The Ecological Intelligence course instructs and engages students in understanding, applying, analyzing, discussing, critically evaluating and integrating in their own creations key theories, scientific developments and socio-cultural perspectives regarding the design and construction of the built environment in light of global climate change and the need to advance carbon neutrality, resource security, biodiversity, and ecological resilience alongside human health and wellbeing.
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Multispecies design as we know it is designing human dominated spaces to be occupied by more species than just humans in an effort to mitigate the biodiversity losses due to human development and territorial expansion. However, multispecies design as it is often practiced, through building facade systems and interventions in the built landscape, can have … Read more
ADAPTING AND MITIGATING: THE FOUNDATIONS OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN For my ecological intelligence mapping activity, I chose to focus on the theme of Adaptation vs. Mitigation. I was drawn to this topic because it feels like the backbone of all ecological thinking. Before we can dive into innovative materials, multispecies interactions, or green cities, we first need … Read more
For this exercise, I found vernacular architecture to be the most interesting topic to dive further into. This predominantly came from the concept that whatever other newer forms of design are trying to achieve, vernacular architecture did it first, and sometimes better. Whether it be bio-design, multi-species design, etc., vernacular architecture always holds the characteristics … Read more
