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.
A frame where our buildings tell us a story of care, not just for the structures themselves, but for the world around us. Welcome to Lumber Legacy, where construction is more than a business – A heartfelt endeavour to create a legacy that resonates with sustainability and compassion. In the heart of Lumber Legacy, we’re … Read more
This project was designed embarking on a vision to create a city that embodies sustainability, organic density, decentralization, multipolarity, complexity, transversality, liveliness, resilience, inclusivity, diversity, mixed-use, beauty, biodiversity, cohesion, safety, health, accessibility, and support for an active life and a city of care – all with people at the centre rather than technology or economics. … Read more
ITERATION 1 Large Span Truss Structure Main Structural Components Primary Trusses Catlogue Forces Diagram Lateral Forces Diagram Gravity Truss Junction Details Physical Model understanding the structure Load Testing After a thorough analysis of the structural loading and its behavior, we have developed a more efficient and lightweight approach to address the cantilever and overall structure. … Read more
|Toward Re-Entanglement: A Charter for the City and the Earth| “Cities, when convivially organized and clearly bounded, are inherently efficient organisms. By reigning in their spatial extents, we avoid the conversion of biologically productive land into sprawling, infrastructurally attenuated, automobile-oriented hardscapes. Instead, we can optimize land already assigned to the urban sphere and thereby instill … Read more
-The future of the earth, its eco-systems, and our own civilization will be decided in and by our citIes– Learn more about Barcelona Protocol here “Only if we ensure that the material, means, and methods with which we build and manage our cities are primarily drawn from regionally available and sustainably managed biological resources can … Read more
Our Sustainable Forest Management course kicked off in December with an open air lecture from Dr. Arbol. This explorative walk through the Valldaura forest helped us to better observe and understand how the ecosystem forest functions. We also learned how to identify the existing tree species and their way of growing in the context of … Read more
The Advanced Digital Tools workshop introduced me to the parametric software Grasshopper. This came in handy for the development and planning of many project-related tasks as well as for personal projects and experimentations. In the course, we were given many practical examples and tasks that I tried to continued further and translated into my own … Read more
European Action Plan for the CITY and the EARTHPresented at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona, 4 October 2022 The future of the earth, its ecosystems, and our own civilization will be decided in and by our cities. Only if we ensure that the material, means, and methods with which we build and manage … Read more
Convened in Rome, 08 June 2022 A CALL TO ACTION The following blog post contains the 12 principles that the Charter looks at highlighting and emphasizing through the document. The students of the Masters in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities has proceeded to create diagrams for each of the principles to aid in the process … Read more
This semester Bruno introduced us to the advanced tools of the fab lab and the computer programs to operate them. This allowed us to directly implement newly learned fabrication skills into our design processes. I implemented these newly learned skills in designing a Surfboard, producing different joineries for the CODA workshop, fabricating ceramic pieces, and … Read more
IntroductionAs part of the IAAC MAEBB academic course, we have participated in the Furnish Kids 2.0 program. The program aims to improve public space through design interventions of tactical architecture. This year’s edition, hosted in the creative hubs of Barcelona and Milan, and co-funded by the European Union, concentrated on the ever-changing area of Plaça … Read more
During the first session of the Agroecology course, we were introduced to the concept of bi-annual rotation agricultural system and its importance in restoring soil quality. Every Monday was spent actively taking care of the plant beds as part of Valldaura’s Living Labs. We prepared the beds by removing weeds, tilling the compact soil, mixing … Read more
The Furnish Kids program aims to improve public space through design interventions of tactical architecture. The design for this term has been developed to utilize natural materials such as Pine logs unused for previous Valldaura Labs projects and offcuts from wooden plan production. The materials have been cataloged, measured, and scanned for improved digital modeling. … Read more
3D Scan The fountain project for Open Nature was developed through a collaboration of hands-on experimentation and computer modeling. First, to understand the site best, it was advantageous to the group to 3D scan the landscape. This allowed us to work with dimensions and positioning relative to on-site boundaries that the mountains and vegetation created. … Read more
As part of the IAAC´s Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities of 2022-2023, we got involved in the yearly garden that conforms not only of the Valldaura Labs property, but also to our home and therefore provides food to all our us. In order to manage the garden, during these past months we had … Read more
