The Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities postgraduate program is an 11-month immersive academic program focused on learning how to design and build a new generation of buildings and cities to respond to the planet’s emerging climate challenges.
The program is carried out in Valldaura Labs, in Barcelona, a 135 He property located in the Collserola forest. Here, students will live and work surrounded by nature while using the most advanced technologies and design techniques in the pursuit of what is also IAAC’s long term initiative, to create self-sufficient and ecological environments.
During the first six months in the program, students are comprehensively trained in the principles of design and construction of advanced ecological buildings through a series of focused and intense modules. These include material production, thermal and metabolic building systems, ecological structures and façade systems and much more.
After developing the necessary skills and a holistic understanding of advanced and ecological design, students collectively draft and build a full scale ecological building prototype.
PROGRAMME PRINCIPLES
-
Immersive Education: This Master offers a unique immersive education experience at Valldaura Labs. Sleeping, eating, socialising, studying, prototyping, designing, and building all happens at this unique location.
-
Learning by Doing: Students learn based on their own experience and through hands-on building full-scale prototypes. This Master is fundamentally hands-on with an emphasis on professional expertise. Every year of the Master programme will build a 1:1 building prototype.
-
Multidisciplinary Education: Students will have access to courses and workshops from all disciplines around buildings.
-
Connected Education: Students collaborate with other academic design centres and institutions that are developing similar projects.
-
Recording Process: Each student registers and documents all the knowledge generated by the Master programme in a unique and open online platform.
-
International community: This Master programme is oriented towards students both from mature economies, such as Europe or North America, as well as emergent economies such as China, India or Latin America.
