Letter From the Fab Academy, Part 2

In this series, "Letters from the Fab Academy," Shawn Wallace, member of AS220, the Providence, RI community arts space, shares his experiences with the Fab Academy, a distributed learning collaborative built on the infrastructure of the Fab Lab network. - Gareth

Making and programming circuit boards

By Shawn Wallace

Our assignment this time around was to design a circuit board, mill it, and program it in Assembly language. Each student had to become acquainted with the following work flow:

• Designing the board
• Machining
• Stuffing components
• Programming

Read more at Make Magzine

The Young Laureates Programme

Since its beginnings a century ago, Rolex has recognized and supported individual excellence and achievement. Now the leading Swiss watchmaker is pleased to present the Rolex Awards for Enterprise: Young Laureates Programme, which enables visionary young men and women to tackle the most pressing issues facing our world.

Rolex launched this year the Young Laureates Programme to foster innovation in the next generation. The programme will seek out budding pioneers and provide them with funding and encouragement to implement their original ideas and gain the experience to become tomorrow’s leaders.

The programme rewards creativity in five areas: science and health, applied technology, exploration, the environment and cultural preservation. The young Laureates will be announced in April 2010.

What are the rewards?

The Awards provide financial support – US,000 over two years – to advance each person’s project. Rolex will also promote the winners through international media coverage. The Young Laureates will become active members in the Rolex community of innovators, taking advice from former Laureates and Associate Laureates, and, in turn, passing on their knowledge to other young people.

Who is eligible?

Candidates must be between 18 and 30 years old when the Award is presented and need to have bright, feasible ideas with potential social or scientific benefits. All candidates must be nominated and cannot apply directly.

The Young Laureates Programme complements the original Rolex Awards for Enterprise, it does not replace it: the two variations of the programme will thus alternate on a two-yearly basis. The original Awards for Enterprise will resume with the 2012 series for which application forms will be available in mid-2010.

Rolex Philanthropy

Rolex’s other major philanthropic programme, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, also reflects an ongoing commitment to promoting excellence in the next generation. The Arts Initiative brings together emerging artists with recognized masters for a year of one-to-one collaboration in music, dance, literature, theatre, film and the visual arts.

Both the Arts Initiative and the Young Laureates Programme provide the gift of time to exceptional young people at a critical juncture in their lives. Through Rolex’s support, these promising individuals are able to take their work to a new level and help invigorate their surrounding communities and the wider world.

Empieza la construcción de un prototipo de vivienda plenamente autosuficiente desde el punto de vista energético
Unacasa solar con el sello Barcelona

ANTONIO CERRILLO
Barcelona El diseño arquitectónico
barcelonés ha primado
los componentes
funcionales, artísticos
y espectaculares
por encima de otras consideraciones.
Pero, ahora, puede ampliar
su rumbo. Las nuevas generaciones
de arquitectos incrementan
el compromiso con la
protección del medio ambiente y
empiezan a idear casas que producen
energía limpia. Y estos
nuevos cimientos culturales sustentan
el prototipo de casa solar
(denominada FabLabhouse) que
ha empezado a construirse en el
Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada
de Catalunya (IAAC). El diseño
barcelonés debe estar al servicio
de las nuevas preocupaciones, como
son la crisis de la energía o el
cambio climático, sugiere Vicente
Guallart, director del IAAC.
La casa ha sido concebida para
aprovechar todo el potencial de
la energía solar, por lo cual la cubierta
no es plana sino redondeada,
para absorber la radiación a
lo largo del recorrido del sol en
cualquier latitud. Y, por eso, frente
a los grandes paneles fotovoltaicos
prefabricados de líneas rectas,
las placas se van ensamblando
una a una para adaptarse a la
peculiar geometría.
La casa será autosuficiente
energéticamente. Inicialmente,
toda la producción eléctrica procederá
de las placas fotovoltaicas;
pero estará conectada a la
red eléctrica exterior. Así, cuando
haya exceso de electricidad se
enviará a la red, y cuando ocasionalmente
no tenga bastante energía
almacenada, se tomará del exterior,
según explica Jorge González,
director de proyectos de
Schneider Electric España.
Hasta ahora, las casas mediterráneas
siempre son cubos, pero
las formas redondeadas permiten
un mejor aprovechamiento
de la energía del sol, según esta
novedosa propuesta, en la que ha
participado Neil Gershefled, promotor
de una red mundial (vinculada
al MIT) especializada en fabricar
objetos y edificios inteligentes
a partir de técnicas digitales.
De hecho, la casa propone en
este sentido un nuevo sistema de
construcción e industrialización.

Every other year the Solar Decathlon takes place in Europe, and this year it will take place in Madrid in June. European entries are beginning to show and are certain to be just as fabulous as the houses we saw in the fall on the mall in Washington DC.

Much like the US competition, each team designs their home for a specific location with a specific climate and solar resource. The FabLab House was designed as an ellipsoid structure prefabricated from wood that is formed into a rib-like structure. Although this specific house was designed for Madrid’s solar resource, it could easily be adapted to other climates by changing the ellipsoid. Built on top of three legs, the home has a space underneath to allow for air to circulate and help ventilate it naturally.

Smart systems help monitor and control the home’s temperature and energy use, while passive design increases efficiency and minimizes consumption. A customized photovoltaic skin coats the roof, which also acts to collect rainwater. When the home is built for the competition, it will also come with a garden capable of growing food. It looks like a really exciting and impressive start to the Solar Decathlon: Europe Edition, and we can’t wait to see more great solar prefab designs.

REPORTAJE: URBANISMO

La ciudad del futuro

IBM, Cisco, HP, el MIT y universidades de medio mundo planean otros modelos de urbe - La edificación de Songdo, en Corea del Sur, y de Masdar City, en Abu Dabi, ejemplos inmediatos - Todas se piensan verticales y sostenibles

IaaC lecture Series Apr 23, 19:30h
Lecture: "The Future is (Self) Sufficient"

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

Pujades 102 baixos, Poble Nou, 08005 Barcelona
tel. (+34) 93 320 95 20

Architect Dr. Joseph Cory

Founder of GEOTECTURA
www.geotectura.com

Specializing in innovative design, and committed to sustainability, Dr. Cory is the founder of GEOTECTURA office that provides creative and practical architectural solutions to social and environmental challenges, using multidisciplinary research methods and open source design.

Dr. Cory received his diploma from Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and he is currently a senior lecturer and faculty member in the Department of Interior-Building and Environment at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design. Dr. Cory also teaches sustainable architecture at Tel Aviv University and the Technion.

Cory's sustainable projects received worldwide recognition in publications, exhibitions and awards.  Among his many honors: 1^st prize in the Architectural Competition for Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Studies, 1^st prize in the Drawing Water Challenge Competition held by Arup, 1^st prize in the Project of the Year Award in Israel, Finalist in the Well-Tech Award for Technological Innovation, 2^nd prize in the Um el-Phahem Art Museum Competition, two times Runner-up in the Metropolis Next Generation Award, Finalist in the international Bauhaus Award, and 3^rd prize in the international Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition.

In his lecture, Dr. Cory will describe in detail many of his self sufficient prototypes and dream-like architecture, from solar balloons and dew collectors, through the first LEED Platinum project in Israel, to the future cities that await us around the corner.

IaaC lecture Series Apr 13, 19:30h
Lecture: A Few Remarks on Seven Contemporary Concepts

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Pujades 102 baixos, Poble Nou, 08005 Barcelona
tel. (+34) 93 320 95 20

Philippe Morel
Co-Founder of EZCT Architecture & Design Research

Philippe Morel, Architect DPLG (Summa cum Laude, 2004), is co-founder of EZCT Architecture & Design Research. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais where he leads, together with Pr. Christian Girard, the Digital Knowledge Master 2 educational Program. He has written extensively about the impact of technology on “global disurbanism” (“living in The Ice Age”, an analysis of contemporary capitalism and the associated domestic biomedical economy, Masters Thesis, 2000-2002). More recently, he has given papers at numerous symposiums and conferences including Loopholes within Discourse and Practice (Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2005), Script (Florence, 2005), The Architecture of Possibility (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2005), GameSetMatchII (TU Delft, 2006), at Columbia Graduate School of Planning and Preservation and the MIT Department of Architecture (“A Few remarks on Epistemology and Computational Design”, March 2006). He organised in 2007 the exhibition “Architecture beyond Forms: The Computational Turn” at the ‘Maison de l’Architecture et de la Ville’ in Marseille. He also was joint winner, with his EZCT Architecture & Design Research office, of the international Seroussi Pavilion Competition. His work and that of his office can be found in the FRAC Centre collections and at the Pompidou Centre.

IaaC lecture Series Apr 06, 19:30h
Lecture: The Necessity of What is Obviously is Not Necessary

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Pujades 102 baixos, Poble Nou, 08005 Barcelona
tel. (+34) 93 320 95 20

Angel Beccassino
Journalist and Photographer  

A journalist and photographer that works creating arguments and eventual situations as a member of the Center of Possibilities and other think tanks in Latin America. A man with great talent, be it in advertising as well as in poetry, and with the handling of images as well as sounds. Each word he writes has cadence, each image is a poem. Whatever Angel does has a “hook” that captivates anyone.

He also shoots artistic videos as well as publish beautiful profound books. A tireless traveler, he has gone around the world as if it were a trip to a soccer field. Angel was born in Argentina and now lives in Colombia. He always surprises people with his works because of their originality and simplicity. Angel Becassino was born in Buenos Aires in 1948.  He has been the creative director of important publicity agencies in his native country of Argentina and in different Latin-American cities such as Mexico and Bogota.  

In the nineties he worked in public management communication, where he developed successful diffusion strategies for governmental agencies and private enterprises.  As a journalist he worked as a Latin American graphic media correspondent covering the war in Lebanon, armed conflicts in Colombia, and other events in Asia and Europe

He has authored books in photography, urbanism and journalism and was the second place recipient of the Emece Novel Prize (Argentina.  1970).  Within the artistic field he has had gallery installations and performances in New York, Tokyo, Rio of Janeiro, Berlin, among others cities.  
At present he consults in electoral strategies, management marketing and crisis management for the Colombian, Venezuelan, Peruvian and Ecuadorian government.

IaaC lecture Series Mar 26, 19:30h

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Pujades 102 baixos, Poble Nou, 08005 Barcelona
tel. (+34) 93 320 95 20

Sean Hanna

Co-Director of the Bartlett Masters in Adaptive Architecture and Computation

Sean Hanna is an RCUK Academic Fellow in Space and Adaptive Architectures at the Bartlett, UCL, where he co-directs the masters courses in Adaptive Architecture and Computation. His research covers computational methods for dealing with complex systems in design and the built environment, particularly involving computation and machine intelligence, and his publications address the fields of artificial
intelligence, collaborative creativity and the design process, and the optimisation of structures and materials.

Prior to joining UCL he practiced architecture and design, and maintains research links including collaboration with Foster + Partners and Antony Gormley. He is a member of the advisory committee of Space Syntax
Limited and Complex Matters Limited, a member of the editorial boards of AI EDAM and the Journal of Engineering Design, and is currently Investigator at UCL on several research projects on digital design and
fabrication technologies, and the modelling of complex global dynamics and their effect on cities.

Lecture: Architectural Complexity and Thinking Machines

IaaC lecture Series March 25, 19:30h

Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Pujades 102 baixos, Poble Nou, 08005 Barcelona
tel. (+34) 93 320 95 20

LARS HESSELGREN, AA Dip,  RIBA, MSc (UCL)
Senior Associate Partner, Director PLP Research

Lars Hesselgren is the Director of PLP Research and a Senior Associate Partner at PLP since October 2007. Previous to that he occupied the same position at KPF and before 2005 he was the IT Director at KPF London.

In 2002 he received the Bentley Lifetime Achievement Award. His most recent work concentrates on parametric modelling in CAD. He helped create the new Computational Geometry group within KPF and advises on visualisation and IT matters. He is head of the Computational Design Group at PLP which is developing novel tools and techniques within the parametric design paradigm. He is establishing new R&D programmes with University partners and other bodies.

His most recent project while at KPF was creating the geometry for the Pinnacle tower in the City of London, currently under construction.

He is a founder member of the SmartGeometry group (www.smartgeometry.org) which is encouraging the spread of parametric thinking as an architectural design discipline, including spearheading Alpha and Beta testing of Bentley Generative Components. The SmartGeometry Workshops and Conferences are now an established premier place to network about the latest digital design technology with conferences in Barcelona (2010), San Francisco (2009), Munich (2008), New York (2007), London (2006), Cambridge Ontario (2004), Cambridge UK (2003).

He lectures extensively both in US and in Europe, both at Industry Events and at Academic venues.

Lecture: Designing BIG buildings [parametrically]