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.
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
The exigency of the Anthropocene compels a fundamental reassessment of design paradigms. Traditional anthropocentric approaches, which prioritize human needs often to the detriment of ecological integrity, have precipitated a confluence of environmental crises. This discourse will explore the concept of Ecological Intelligence, a framework that necessitates a departure from human-centered design, advocating for a holistic … 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
Wark reflects on how modern nature tourism often prioritizes “second nature”—human-made environments—over authentic nature. On her family trip to Mount Zion, the park’s vast canyons and rock formations inspire awe, but this grandeur is soon filtered through rituals like taking selfies. Wacker’s RV transforms the wild into a comfortable, controlled space, making nature feel familiar. … Read more
An Analysis / Interpretation on Katherine Hayles, ‘How We Read’, ADE Bulletin 150 (2010), pp. 62-79 Close Reading in our brave new world seems to be, indeed, an act of bravery—rarely practiced and disfavored by contemporary multimedia. Technology has stripped reading of its old contemplative value, scattering it across illuminated fields of tabs and battering … Read more
McKenzie Wark, during the chapter “Adventures in Third Nature” of the book “New Geographies #9” uses her own family vacation as a sociological observation study to address the distantiation between humanity and nature. Everything built that shapes the natural environment and promotes comfort for mankind is part of the so-called “second nature”, like the own … Read more
“If you suffer from the misconception that most of the world is still too poor to buy anything at all, you risk missing out on the biggest economic opportunity in world history … Strategic business planners need a fact-based worldview to find their future customers” – Hans Rosling, in another instance at a business lecture. … Read more
“The end of the “wilderness.” In every region of the globe, erstwhile “wilderness” spaces are being transformed and degraded through the cumulative socio-ecological consequences of unfettered worldwide urbanization.” – Neil Brenner & Christian Schmid’s Planetary Urbanization from Implosions and Explosions (2013), p.65 source: Pinterestedited by author Earth, An Urban Organism Planetary urbanization challenges the idea … Read more
Micro-Essay by Isabel Flores “a new conceptual lexicon must be created for identifying the wide variety of urbanization processes that are currently reshaping the urban world and, relatedly, for deciphering the new emergent landscapes of socio-spatial difference that have been crystallizing in recent decades.” (Neil Brenner & Christian Schmid, p. 02) Planetary Urbanization” (2013) explores … Read more
Could bio-based materials be the key to transforming the building sector and reducing its impact on climate change? The articles described present a compelling set of arguments on timber industry, sustainable forestrynonconventional materials and innovative technologies. TIMBER Timber is highlighted as the biggest widespread potential of low-carbon alternative to steel and concreteespecially referred to in … Read more
In our seminar with Michael Salka and Mariano Gomez Luque, we explored the meaning of ecology and the multifaceted challenges of sustainability, materiality and humanity’s relationship with the planet. Over eight weeks, we delved into two distinct but deeply connected approaches to build with ecological thinking and addressing climate change as well as envisioning a … Read more
MICRO-ESSAY On Gerry Canavan, If Those Goes On Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction’, 2014 & Benjamin Bratton, ‘Planetary Sapience Technology & The Human’, 2021 Both Bratton’s “Planetary Sapience” and Canavan’s “If This Goes On” touch upon the concept of intentional terraforming, albeit in significantly different contexts. Bratton frames it as a necessary outcome of … Read more
Micro-Essay by Georgia Hoyer “When we contemplate ruins, Christopher Woodward writes, we contemplate our own future.”(Canavan, p. 11) Benjamin Bratton’s “Planetary Sapience” and Gerry Canavan’s “If This Goes On” intersect in their exploration of humanity’s precarious relationship with the planet, emphasizing the power of imagination and speculative thinking to confront ecological and technological crises. Both … Read more
MAEBB01 / M02 ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE / MICRO-ESSAY On Benjamin Bratton,‘Planetary Sapience’, NOEMA (2021), pp. 1-10. On Gerry Canavan,‘Introduction: If This Goes On’, Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction (2014),pp. 1-19. “In stark contrast to the untold riches and total freedom they are imagined to provide, distant space colonies — whether on inhospitable moons or orbiting … Read more
MAEBB01 / M02 ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE / MICRO-ESSAY On McKenzie Wark,‘Adventures in Third Nature’,pp. 179 – 182. The idea of second nature1comes from the layer of physical transformations that humans have built all around our environments: houses, cities, and even RVs. Second nature operates through tangible items and mechanisms that directly affect the physical environment. It … Read more
