Master in Advanced Architecture
Self-sufficient Habitats
Intelligent territories, Self-sufficient buildings and Digital Tectonics

600 hours
60 credits

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia offers a three-term Master programme in Architecture and Urbanism accredited by the Fundació Politècnica de Catalunya.
Directors Vicente Guallart, Willy Müller and Marta Malé-Alemany, plus the academic staff, are committed to a long-term prospectus of creating an international research and academic centre in Barcelona, bringing together international students, professors and researchers from different fields in order to materialize experimental forms of communication, inhabitation and planning.
The programme is oriented at graduates who wish to commit and develop their design research skills in the context of new forms of practice within architecture and urbanism, ranging from large-scale environments to tectonic details.
Over the last three years, the IAAC has received students from more than 25 different countries, making it in an exceptionally international and multicultural place.

Programme
The master in advanced architecture emerges this year as an innovative educational format that offers interdisciplinary skills and understanding through the researching of territorial, architectural and parametric design operations for the production of Self-sufficient Habitats. Proposing a dynamic, customized structure, the Institute gives students the opportunity to create single or multi-scalar Studio agendas based on their academic interests within the programme. In this way, the IAAC puts together an experimental and learning environment for the training of architects with both theoretical and practical responses to the increasing complexity of contemporary urban environments, economic forces, information flows, fast-growing cities and massive energy consumption and waste production.
With 24 hour-a-day access to the IAAC Studio working space and its prototypes fabrication lab, students have the opportunity to be part of a highly international group, including faculty members, researchers and lecturers, in which they are encouraged to develop collective decision-making processes and materialize their project ideas.
The aim of the Institute is to form graduates who, after the completion of the programme, will be able to develop their acquired skills in a diversity of professional environments, engaging projects that range from large-scale sustainable planning and building construction to the industrialized fabrication of architectural components.

ACADEMIC STAFF
Vicente Guallart
Willy Müller
Marta Male-Alemany
Izaskun Chinchilla
Ana Pla-Catalá
Aaron Betsky
Carolien Lightenberg
Lucas Cappelli
Jorge Godoy
Jose Pedro Sousa
Orfeas Gianakidis
Susana Karrasch
Ignasi Perez-Arnal
Jordi Mansilla
Robert Brufau
Rodrigo Rubio
Daniel Ibañez

GUEST TUTORS 2007-2008
Miquel Adria
Ben Aranda
Raoul Bunschoten
Laura Cantarella
Francisco Dulanto
Florian Foerster
Jose Miguel Iribas
Chris Lash
Veronica Arcos
Claudia Pasquero
Marco Poletto
Andreu Ulied
Inhar Imaz

PREVIOUS LECTURERS
Brett Steele, Pepe Ballesteros, Laura Cantarella, Santiago Cirugeda Parejo, Luca Galofaro, Lourdes García Sogo, Adriaan Geuze, Xaveer de Geyter, Toyo Ito, Francisco Jarauta, young Joon Kim, Kamiel Klaasse, Anne Lacaton, Duncan Lewis, Greg Lynn, Winy Maas, Josep Lluís Mateo, Fernando Menis, Enric Ruiz-Geli, Alfredo Payá, Jaime Salazar, Max Sanjulián, Charles Renfro, Amadeu Santacana, Carlos
Sant’Ana, Kelly Shannon, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, José María Torres Nadal, Ben van Berkel, Mark Wigley,. yung Ho Chang, ILSA & Andreas Ruby, Jacub Szczesny, Jou Min Lin, Lucy Bullivant, Momoyo Kaijima, Manuel Ailo+ Rosa Rull, Andres Cánovas, Andrés Jaque, Carlos Arroyo, Angel Borrego, Colectivo Zuloark, Ana Salinas, Maria Auxiliadora Galvez, Isabela Wieczorek, Ecosistema Urbano, Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto, Bernhard Franken, Sabine Müller, Bostian Buga, Axel Kilian, Benedetta Tagliabue, Alejandro Gutierrez, Juan Herreros and many others.

SPECIALISTS
François Ascher (sociologist), Alfons Cornella (economist), Alberto Cortina (lawyer), Manuel Delgado (anthropologist), José Miguel García Cortés (curator), Neil Gershenfeld (physicist), José M. Iribas (sociologist), Xavier Mayor (biologist), Salvador Rueda (urban ecologist), Ramon Prat (publisher/graphic designer), Ramon Sangüesa (computer scientist), Artur Serra (anthropologist), Andreu Ulied (engineer), John Urry (sociologist).

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
The body of students of this Master Program will be multi-disciplinary. The Program is directed to Professionals and Graduate Students of any design-related discipline (Architects, Designers, Interior Designers, Engineers, Software Developers, Urbanists, Artists or other)

EVALUATION PROCEDURE
Class attendance is obligatory for studio and non-studio courses. In both cases, courses are graded as follows: HP (High Pass), P (Pass), LP (Low Pass), INC (Incomplete), or F(Fail). Under no circumstances will students be excused from presenting their design work at the final review of a project. Only under exceptional circumstances an “Incomplete” will be awarded. Those students whose work is judged incomplete must satisfactorily complete the required work as stipulated by the studio critic.

STUDIO EVALUATION PROCEDURE
In addition to the above, Midterm Reviews will be held with members of the faculty in order to inform briefly each student of the general feelings of the faculty about his or her work. Suggestions may be given on how to prepare for the Final Review.

APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCEDURE

MASTER IN ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE
All Master Program applicants must send to the Institute the following documents no later than May 30, 2007:

1. • Completed application form
2. • Letter of intent
3. • Copy of (valid) passport
4. • Legalized copy of your architect’s degree (Bachelor or higher degree from other professions)
5. • Three letters of recommendation
6. • Portfolio showing representative examples of design work (academic and/or professional). The portfolio should not exceed DIN A4 format.
7. • Curriculum Vitae
8. • A copy of a non-refundable application fee of 50€, payable by bank transfer only to the Fundació Politècnica de Catalunya at the LA CAIXA in Barcelona (Spain) (IBAN ES40, SWIFT: CAIXES.BB, account number 2100 1801 19 0200005229).

These documents will be revised and will serve to determine whether you will be admitted to the program.

TUITION
Tuition for the year 2007/2008 is 11.500€. The selected participants must send to the Institute a scanned proof of a down payment of 1.000€ to confirm participation, before 30 July 2007. The remaining part of the tuition fee (10.500€) is to be paid either in one payment or in two payments, 60% (6.300€), both before 15 September 2007 and 40% (4.200€) before 15 January 2008. All payments must be done by bank transfer only to the Fundació Politècnica de Catalunya at the LA CAIXA in Barcelona (Spain) (IBAN ES40, SWIFT: CAIXES.BB, account number 2100 1801 19 0200005229), and a scan of the transfer should be sent to the Institute.