By Aldo Sollazzo

GSS19_DAY01

BECOMING | DAILY DIARY | DAY 01

What’s happening in Tehran:
The first day of the GSS19 in Tehran started with an introduction covering the nature of the Iaac summer school, the previous node of Tehran and finally this year’s project which will give emphasis to the surrounding environment. Later an Arduino course took place focusing on different sensors and their functions. The day was wrapped up with an evening lecture by Mohammad Darvish, environmental activist and educator. All of the above happened in the Nat Geo Centre which is a cultural arts centre associated with National Geographic magazine (Farsi edition). The Nat Geo Centre is dedicated to events such as scientific, artistic, cultural and historical workshops with main concern to promote social development through scientific and cultural progress.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY12

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 12

GLOBAL GRADUATION
A record edition of the IAAC Global Summer School just closed its doors! 160 participants distributed in 11 nodes around the globe, last July 14th  could connect with the rest of the network to share projects, hints and opinions resulting from this amazing experience. In the following gallery you can check the highlights of Barcelona node:

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY11

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 11

What’s happening in MUSCAT:

The students at the GSS node in Muscat are focusing on the development of a technological piece of architecture that provides web access, tools for planning the best route, instant connection with terminal hub, airport, port and many more. The participants are critically reconstructing the theory and application of urban emergent technologies in relation to the built environment to provide a theoretical framework for the processes undertaken during the GSS course.
The main goal is to understand the relationship between space, tectonic, material and the post digital paradigm in the digitize world of the chosen site.
Today Axel Körner will give his Global Lecture on bio-integrative structures. Axel is an architect specialized in emergent technologies and design from the Architectural Association in London and worked for several architecture practices around the world and developed his research on Carbon Fiber.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY10

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 10

What’s happening in MANILA:

The GSS Manila Node focuses his research-project on the use of a variety of digital tools to unpack the complexity of the social and cultural aspect around the urban esteros to provide speculative technical solutions to urban waste water management. Since Filipinos are one of the largest users of social media platforms, the workshops will exploit vernacular use of technologies, in tandem with advance architecture software and equipment to create relevance in the context of Manila’s informal urban sphere.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY09

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 09

What’s happening in CHANDIGARH:

Dynamic facades have the potential to add to the architectural expression of a building by visualizing the changeable aspects of the environment. Since the building facade represents “the public face of a building” having a large impact on the perception of the building itself, from an energetic perspective, a shape shifting envelope acts as an even more optimized buffer or mediator between the interior and the exterior environment.
GSS Chandigarh participants are going through a series of steps from basics designing for modular structure systems that physically respond to stimulus coming from dynamic and unpredictable environments and/or relative design criteria performances. Contrary to standard design processes where shape can be defined in advance, the final geometrical configuration of these flexible structures relies on the integration of programable electronics as the main agent driving the entire formation process.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY08

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 08

What’s happening today in BARCELONA:

After the mid-course presentation where important review and feedback was given by the tutors and a selected guest jury, GSS Barcelona students are working on finalizing their prototypes. Apart from the group projects, the whole node work on a 1:1 scale model which states the technology and concepts used during the GSS course according to the topic “Metallic Spaces”. Among other techniques, GSS participants have experienced several digital fabrication processes such as CNC milling, laser cutting and wire bending with KUKA. On parallel, physical computing has been embedded to their proposals to show how human interaction can be experienced through a series of sensors and LEDs. Final adjustments and tests are being run towards the final global presentation.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY07

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 07

What’s happening today in BEIRUT:

After an intense working week made of programming, coding, reviews, design & fabrication proposals, during today’s Global Lecture proposed by the GSS New York node, GSS participants will assist to Madeline Schwartzman presentation, a New York City writer, filmmaker and architect whose work explores human narratives and the human sensorium through social art, book writing, curating and experimental video making. Meanwhile in Beirut node, prototyping, material testing and simulation are the keywords for today’s activities. Earlier, the GSS students visited the Solidere HQ, the enterprise sponsor of GSS18 Beirut, with the Head of Urban Planning Bachir Moujaes to discuss the site location and the area development of their final project.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY06

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 06

What’s happening in PARIS:

This year’s Global Summer School in Paris happens in the context of the Fab City Summit, an invitation to take part of the transformation towards a more sustainable and accessible future for the cities that become locally productive and globally connected through collaboration and disruptive technologies. The challenge of this GSS Paris program relies on the possible future transformations of the way we consume and produce almost anything in cities, making them more sustainable and resilient, by enabling local production and global collaboration using traditional knowledge and advanced technologies.
During the first week the GSS participants set up an Urban Farm in the Parc de la Villette, where they will learn how to robot with Rover, Drone, Balloon and CableBot in different teams. This collaboration is possible thanks to Noumena, a multidisciplinary company based in Barcelona, ROMI – European project on Robotics for Microfarms, a project developed with  IAAC, SONY and other interdisciplinary experts to help farmers by monitoring crops through the combination of land based and aerial robotics to offer farming communities multi-scalar crop monitoring applications for complex and dense planting layouts, weeding and manual tools that reduce physical stresses and increase yields.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY05

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 05

What’s happening today in BARCELONA:

The GSS participants are working with their local instructors from multiples International Nodes on physical computing, robotic fabrication & farming, computational strategies, bio-digital structures, parametric design and more. GSS today’s Global lecture was given from GSS Barcelona node by Alexandre Dubor, architect and researcher combining new technologies in an attempt to improve how we build and live in our cities.
To close the day, GSS Barcelona participants visited the Auto-mátic exhibition curated by Edouard Cabay and assisted to his lecture Machinic Protocols.

By IAAC_Global Summer School

GSS18_DAY04

DIGITIZATION | DAILY DIARY | DAY 04

What’s happening today in QUITO:

GSS Quito students are focusing on the ongoing research conducted at the Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) regarding the conceptual design of such lightweight structures. The workshop aims to explore non-standard dynamic articulations of form- and bending-active elements by bridging the gap between physical and digital models. During these days, GSS participants are exploring the integration of highly intuitive and interactive physically-based techniques within parametric and associative modelling environments, digital fabrication protocols and natural materials.
The goal is to fabricate a large-scale demonstrator to open a discussion on adaptive lightweight structures and its role in the sustainable development of our building environment. Today GSS Quito students will be given a lecture by Estudio Felipe Escudero about building in the post digital age.