BIOMIMICRY: INNOVATIONS INSPIRED BY NATURE

This blog is a review of Janine Benyus’s book, Biomimicry: Innovations inspired by Nature. Click here to check out the interactive blog version. – “Claiming that we are superior to the rest of the creation is like saying the Eiffel Tower was built so that the scrap of paint at the top would have somewhere … Read more

MISSION GOOD ECONOMY FOR HARDER TIMES

This blog is a combined review of the two books, 1. Mission Economy by Mariana Mazzucato and 2. Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo. – “On many weighty matters, economists and everyday people disagree”  – “Public sector leaders and managers are not really taught or  encouraged to think outside the box,  … Read more

Arctic Onion | Resilient Envelopes

- Material Catalogue : Collecting & Cataloguing materials around Valldaura; Simulating real-time construction process of procuring material from waste sources.- 1:20 Model of Weather & Cluster Shelf Envelopes - Multiple Layers of the Weather Envelope: Wind Turbines, Water Channels & Raincoat - Front Elevation: Raincoat of the building made of Upcycled Sails & Fabrics - ... Read more

DZONGHA | Thermodynamic Fabrications

Larsen Bidstrup, Shruti Sahasrabudhe, Nishanth Maheshwaran, and Antoni KostrzewaMaster In Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities 2022-2023, IAAC Paro, Bhutan is a place of rich culture, high environmental values, and beautiful nature. For the design of a place to learn and exchange traditional handicraft techniques and knowledge, our building follows design values to enhance the space … Read more

THE NEST | Metabolic Systems: Water

The region of Accra, Ghana receives heavy rainfall and has two wet seasons. As a result, through the design, the goal is to trap as much rainwater as possible and utilise it in an optimum manner. The Site is also located in close proximity to a natural lagoon. Hence, ground water and stormwater treatment become … Read more

Thermal Rhythm

 An interactive art installation that utilizes thermal imaging and real-time animation to create a captivating visual experience. The general aim of the project “Thermal Rhythm” was to generate an interactive art-wall in complete darkness which translates the human body movements into animations that controls or visualizes the emotions of the detected person through different colors … Read more

THE NEST | Advanced Digital Tools

THERMAL QUESTIONS: Q1. Having studied the sun path diagram, it is observed that there are low sun angles in the east and the west throughout the year. How can thermal heat gain be prevented from the east and the west direction? – To prevent the heat gain from the lower angle of the sun from … Read more

PATI de la VILA: 3d Printed Earthen Housing

Nader Akoum IAAC 3d Printing Earthen Architecture Housing

At a time when additive manufacturing using earth becomes commercial and available for large scale services, earthen housing becomes more possible without the heavy maintenance required for challenges like spanning, drying, heightening, printing, and durability. A student earthen housing project in Barcelona could vary in many capacities depending on its context of deployment, and in … Read more

UNFURL

Adaptive shading system Concept The project aims to create a shading installation that reacts to the pressure under it. The movement in the shade occurs when a person or a vehicle is under a module of the shade, triggering the opening of only that module. Location For the site for the installation we chose the … Read more

Agua Mobility

Employing a passive design strategy for construction can be a viable way to address this issue since buildings use the majority of the energy consumed in a city for heating and cooling space. The goal of the study is to create a passive heating and cooling system in a controlled environment by experimenting with the … Read more

Housing for All

India is one of the fastest developing countries with many metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Migration from villages and small towns to metropolitan areas has increased tremendously in India and led to the degradation of urban environmental quality and sustainable development especially in the metropolitan cities. The problems faced by the people living … Read more

Towards Urban Democratic Adaptation

Adaptation districts towards prioritized urban interventions  in cities with limited green spaces.  The case study of the metropolitan area of Athens, Greece Athens, during the four last decades, has been extremely urbanized while changing the environment dramatically. By reclassifying open spaces and networks of urban mobility, this model aims to suggest strategies for prioritized urban … Read more

Earth 3D Printed Pavilion: Optimized Arches for Self-support and The Fifth Facade

Designing for the 3D printing of a self-supporting Pavilion Background For the Competition phase, the brief asked for a design of geometries that addressed the 5th facade in the attempt to cover or go over and above the average human height. Our proposal attempts to have this brief satisfied without the use of additional/external support … Read more

DIGISCAPES ver 1.0

DIGISCAPES ver 1.0 is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed in the Master in Advanced Architecture 02 – by the student: Preetam Prabhakar and Research Thesis Advisor: David Andres Leon during the course MAA02 22/23 Thesis under the Algorithmic Design research thesis cluster.

RE:EDU: architecture for emergency

As a target country for  our project we selected Ukraine, the biggest European country that is located in the eastern part. Ukraine has 1000 years of history, during which it has been fighting for freedom and identity. In 2013 in Kyiv students started the protest, which evolved into the revolution of dignity, after the president … Read more

Environmental Responsive School

Introduction  As my final submission, I decided to create an environmental school in response to the urban environment. A project that harnesses the mass of the building in a way to enhance spaces for a variety of purposes is the idea behind the design.  As a starting point for architectural massing, very basic elements are … Read more

Nested Flocks

What if our design follows the trails of flocks? The #flockingbehaviour guides the circulation paths nested inside the environmentally responsive shell. An investigation of #optimization with #grasshopper#houdini#culebragh#biomorpher and render with #unrealengine.

Advanced Digital Tools for Open Nature | Mil Ramas

Through the classes of this course, we practised and learned how to apply the parametric software Grasshopper as well as associated plug-ins into our computational designs. We implemented what we learned in our studio projects in order to comprehend it in real-time. Since our project did not require any direct fabrication through 3d software, we … Read more

MoVA: Museum of Vulnerable Animals

Concept MoVa is a project for a museum located in the crater of Lago Grande in Pozzuoli, near Naples. The museum has the purpose of raising awareness towards the extinction of species. The project’s inspiration came from a new in 2020 when a blue shark was seen in the port of Pozzuoli. This event is … Read more

Fabrication for Open Nature | Mil Ramas

INTRODUCTION The Design and Fabrication course’s main objective is to orient us towards learning and gaining experience in the use of tools and machines in relation to fabrication. Through designing, manufacturing and prototyping the models we were able to gain hands-on experience on how to fabricate and construct our projects. Valldaura Green FabLab provided us … Read more

The Green Ally

In Spain, there is an urban myth, according to which – The country was once so thickly forested that a squirrel could cross the peninsula hopping from tree to tree. -However, this condition has changed throughout the years, both in terms of the natural environment and the existence of squirrels in Spain. The case study … Read more

An Ode to Air

Keep the water out! It seems as though this is the first shard of wisdom one is exposed to when studying Architecture. I remember coming across this motto of sorts for the first time in a class on detailing; my professor seemed almost obsessed by the presence of water and its surreptitious ability to undo … Read more

ReActiva!

La irrupción en la trama urbana consolidada de Montevideo por la rehabilitación de una infraestructura ferroviaria, principalmente de carga caída en desuso, comienza a generar fuertes impactos en las dinámicas urbanas existentes. Haciendo del problema una oportunidad, esta nueva barrera es tomada como excusa para repensar nuevas formas de dinamizar y reconectar la ciudad a … Read more