The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia – IAAC is an international centre for Education, Fabrication and Research dedicated to the development of architecture capable of meeting the worldwide challenges in constructing 21st century habitability. Based in the 22@ district of Barcelona, one of the world’s capitals of architecture and urbanism, not to mention the European Capital for Innovation (2014), IAAC is a platform for the exchange of knowledge with researchers, faculty and students from over 60 countries around the world.

IAAC is Education, with the Master in Advanced Architecture and the Master in City & Technology giving the next generation of architects the space to imagine, test and shape the future of cities, architecture and technology. This is possible through Open Thesis Fabrication, implementing of Applied Research and allowing learning by doing, as well as through short programs, implementing global agendas developed through local solutions, as the Global Summer School.

IAAC is Fabrication, with the Fab Lab Barcelona, the most advanced digital production laboratory in Southern Europe, a laboratory where you can build almost everything, that recently hosted Fab10, the 10th annual worldwide Fab Lab conference.

IAAC is Research, with Valldaura Labs, a self-sufficient research centre located in the Collserola Metropolitan park, 20 minutes from the centre of Barcelona, where a series of laboratories are implemented for the production and testing of Energy, Food and Things.

And IAAC is also Barcelona, the European Capital for Innovation (2014), the city that aims to be a self-sufficient city, a fab-lab city, a smarter city. Thanks to its innovative visions, IAAC is strategically aligned to the new urban policies of the city, developed in close collaboration and mutual inspiration between the two entities.

The Institute develops multidisciplinary programs that explore international urban and territorial phenomena, with a special emphasis on the opportunities that arise from the emergent territories, and on the cultural, economic and social values that architecture can contribute to society today.

IaaC sets out to take R+D to architecture and urbanism and create multidisciplinary knowledge networks. To this end the institute works in collaboration with a number of cities and regions, industrial groups, research centres, including the City Council of Barcelona, the Collserola Natural Park, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Centre for Information Technology and Architeture (CITA), the Southern California Institute of Architecture (Sci-Arc), as well as diverse companies among which CISCO, Endesa, Kuka Robotics and many others. Together with these the Institute develops various research programs bringing together experts in different disciplines such as architecture, engineering, biology, sociology, anthropology and other fields of investigation.

IaaC has made its name as a centre of international reference, welcoming students and investigators from over 60 different countries among which Australia, the USA, India, Brasil, Russia, Ethiopia, all European countries and many others.