Valldaura Self-sufficient Labs is a project promoted by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia for the creation of a self-sufficient habitat research centre. Located in the Collserola Natural Park, in the heart of the metropolitan area of Barcelona, it has laboratories for the production of energy, food and things, and develops projects and academic programmes in association with leading research centres around the world.
The Valldaura Campus is a large park and testing ground for innovation that features the latest technologies in the fields of energy, information and fabrication.
The core of this innovative project developed by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is a laboratory to implement investigation and set a new benchmark for self-sufficiency. The Valldaura Self-sufficient Labs express a new concept for sustainability established by IAAC with the aim to create a sustainable, consciously designed ecology using both cutting edge technology and traditional craftsmanship.
The Valldaura Self-sufficient labs and its three Laboratories, Food Lab, Energy Lab and Green Fab Lab; allow to research the specificities of the production of key elements involved in self-sufficiency: food, energy and things, combining ancestral knowledge that connects us to nature with the latest advanced technology.
The Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings is an 11-month immersive academic programme with an emphasis on using a practice-oriented approach to train professionals with advanced expertise in the design and construction of ecological buildings. The programme takes place in the Valldaura Labs, in Barcelona, Spain.
Fab Lab Barcelona, part of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, is one of the leading laboratories of the worldwide network of Fab Labs. The centre develops several educational and research programmes related to the applications and implications of digital fabrication, and it is also the headquarters of the global coordination of the Fab Academy programme in collaboration with the Fab Foundation and the MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms.
The Fab Lab Barcelona also develops projects in different scales, from smart devices for data collection by individuals (Smart Citizen), the new generation of Fab Labs (Green Fab Lab), to new production models for cities (Fab City Project).
Context & Agenda
Fab Lab Barcelona empowers communities to design and make possible futures. The centre develops its activity around four main actions: dwell, eat, produce and share.
Dwell is comprised here as an essential part of living in communities and sustainable housing, building smart cities and exploring new materials through technology in order to develop different kinds of habitat.
Eat is explored in projects that handle different thematic such as environment, ecosystem, technology and waste. These projects address to this human basic function a great power in advancing research and development of robotics through an everyday action. Although starting as an individual action, the act of eating is a formidable cultural and political constituent that defines whole civilizations.
Produce has a central role in every project Fab Lab accomplishes. Based on the transition of the PITO (Product In Trash Out) model into the DIDO (Data In Data Out) model, it is essential that the prototypes are thought, designed and produced within a holistic view. The Fab Lab community includes all types of makers and people who are curious about producing things themselves, exploring and playing with technology.
Share comes as a principle and a natural consequence for the Fab Lab network. The principle of envisioning communities of producers and change makers can only be possible with the share of knowledge, technology and information. It is also a consequence while most of the projects are inviting the community to participate and to be actors on the changes they want to have in their cities and neighbourhoods.
What is a Fab Lab?
A Fab Lab is a technical prototyping platform for innovation and invention, providing stimulus for local entrepreneurship. A Fab Lab is also a platform for learning and innovation: a place to play, to create, to learn, to mentor, and to invent.
To be a Fab Lab means connecting to a global community of learners, educators, technologists, researchers, makers and innovators – a knowledge sharing network that spans 30 countries and 24 time zones.
Because all Fab Labs share common tools and processes, the program is building a global network, a distributed laboratory for research and invention.
The Master in Design for Emergent Futures (MDEF) is organised by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, in collaboration with the Fab Academy and the Academy of Almost Anything.
Fab Academy is a Digital Fabrication programme directed by Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center For Bits and Atoms and based on MIT’s rapid prototyping course, MAS 863: How to Make (Almost) Anything.
Fabricademy is a transdisciplinary course that focuses on the development of new technologies applied in the textile industry, in its broad range of applications, from the fashion industry to the upcoming wearable market.
EU Project Making Sense (2015-2017) Description Making Sense shows how open source software, open source hardware, digital maker practices and open design can be effectively used by local communities to appropriate their own technological sensing tools, make sense of their environments and address pressing environmental problems in air, water, soil and sound pollution. EU Call…
OrganiCity brings software, hardware and associated human processes flexibly together into a new living city that is replicable, scalable as well as socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. EU Call Horizon 2020 Total Funding 7,266,583 € IAAC Department Fab City Research Lab Partners Aarhus Universitet (DK), Intel Corporation – Intel (UK), Alexandra…
EU Project Made@EU (2014-2016) Description Made@EU aims to foster the third industrial revolution by radically changing the production and distribution status quo, and strongly influence society as a whole, from a cultural, social and economic platform. This initiative attempts to remove existing barriers for the widest use of digital fabrication technologies amongst European creatives. EU…
In Barcelona, IAAC offers an international Master programme in Advanced Architecture (MAA). The MAA is oriented towards architects, engineers and designers from all over the world, eager to imagine the future of our cities and societies and committed to building it in the present.
The Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings is an 11-month immersive academic programme with an emphasis on using a practice-oriented approach. The aim is to train professionals with advanced expertise in the design and construction of ecological buildings. The programme takes place in the Valldaura Labs, in Barcelona, Spain. DOWNLOAD THE MAEBB BOOKLET During the first … Read more MAEBB: Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings & Biocities
The Master in Design for Emergent Futures (MDEF) is organised by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, in collaboration with the Fab Academy. The Master is a nine-month experience (currently, the second year is being developed) for students who want to expand their focus interests and … Read more MDEF: Master in Design for Emergent Futures
The Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction (MRAC) seeks to train a new generation of interdisciplinary professionals who are capable of facing our growing need for a more sustainable and optimised construction eco-system. The Master is focused on the emerging design and market opportunities arising from novel robotic and advanced manufacturing systems. DOWNLOAD THE MRAC … Read more MRAC: Master in Robotics & Advanced Construction
Fabricademy is a transdisciplinary course that focuses on the development of new technologies applied in the textile industry, in its broad range of applications, from the fashion industry to the upcoming wearable market.
Fabricademy is a two-phase programme that covers 6 months: approximately 3 months of seminars and learning modules plus 3 months focusing on individual in-depth applied project research.
The possibilities to conduct experimental research in an open laboratory give students the physical and mental space for innovative re-thinking and reframing of today’s realities, offering the resources for visions to be materialized, tested, developed and fabricated, no as a linear process, but as a spiral iteration and implementation into reality. Through the programme, we are developing and implementing a new approach to how to create, produce and distribute textile and fashion elements, by using distributed manufacturing infrastructures and knowledge networks.
Along with experts from the field, the participants will investigate how the textile and fashion industry can benefit from new technologies, processes and business models. We are experimenting with the human body, culture and mindset by recycling, hacking and sensing it, creating feedback loops with project development, where materials, aesthetics, sustainability and customization play equal and important roles. The Fabricademy offers a cross-disciplinary education and research platform, where production and culture through advanced technologies are making an impact in the way we think and act towards the textile industry and all of its application fields. Working locally, while creating connected communities globally.
Fab Academy is a Digital Fabrication programme directed by Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center For Bits and Atoms and based on MIT’s rapid prototyping course: How to Make (Almost) Anything. The Fab Academy offers a 6-month programme on digital fabrication, and it could be taken in any of the participating labs. The Fab Academy offers … Read more FAB ACADEMY
Save the date! Fab Lab Barcelona at IAAC is putting together a very special programme for the Poblenou Open Night 2018, organized by Poblenou Urban District. The Maker and Design District of Poblenou is putting on its party dress for one night only. Next Friday 23rd of November, from 19h to 22h, the Institute will … Read more IAAC |POBLENOU URBAN DISTRICT OPEN NIGHT
A PROJECT TO ENHANCE EU CIRCULAR ECONOMY THROUGH COLLABORATIVE PRODUCTION Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, POP-MACHINA is a project born from the idea to demonstrate the potential and relevancy of both the maker movement and collaborative production to progressively implement a necessary circular economy model at the European scale. Engaging various organisations … Read more POP-MACHINA
