Advanced educational architecture
Introduction
The Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (in Catalan: Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya, IAAC) is an architectural research and educational center in Barcelona.
History
Based in the 22@ district of Barcelona, one of the world capitals of architecture and urbanism, IAAC is a platform for the exchange of knowledge with teachers and students from more than 40 countries, including the United States, China, India, Norway, Poland, Italy and Mexico, Peru and Sudan.
The IAAC has carried out research projects in Brazil, Taiwan, Croatia and Romania. In 2008 she was chosen to participate in the official section of the Venice Biennale with the Hyperhabitat project and in 2010 she presented a 1:1 scale house at the Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid where she won the Peoples Choice Award, which has the most advanced digital production laboratory of any educational institution in southern Europe, with laser cutters, 3D printers, milling machines and a platform for chip manufacturing. IAAC also designed the world's first 3D printed bridge in collaboration with Acciona, which was built in Alcobendas (Spain) in 2016.
IAAC offers a wide range of educational programs in the field of advanced architecture, green buildings, city and technology, robotics and advanced construction, and design for emerging futures that are accredited by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). The Institute is an open, independent and radical non-profit foundation inspired by the values of Barcelona, the capital of architecture and design, where urbanism was invented and where local research oriented towards innovation is connected to an international network of excellence in the fields of technology, architecture and society.
The IAAC, beyond its educational and research work, is a stable, interdisciplinary and multicultural community that seeks permanent contact and cooperation among the hundreds of professors, researchers, institutions and companies that pursue the goal of providing solutions to the great challenges of humanity. The Institute is an innovation center that includes in its organization research laboratories for self-sufficiency such as Valldaura Labs and the digital manufacturing laboratory Fab Lab Barcelona, which is part of the global network of Fab Labs affiliated with the Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) of the MIT Media Lab.