The fifth edition of the Master in Advanced Architecture’s (MAA) Seminar Bifurcation, led by Mark Burry with the computational expertise of Rodrigo Aguirre, took place a few days ago at IAAC.

During the workshop, students have been challenged to design a ten meters column using the same principles of the Gaudí’s column.

This workshop looked at two challenges: how to describe and represent columns and create a potentially underlying geometrical guide, and how to branch columns and join them elegantly to the trunk.

Students have been working in two modes: design computation through parametric design software, and physically in terms of thinking about how to produce branching columns with their hands.

The workshop included several lectures and seminars, the site visit to the Sagrada Família, hands-on master classes in Grasshopper™, and digital and hand-made mould making workshop sessions.