DIGITAL MATTER
Senior Faculty: Areti Markopoulou, David Andrés León
Fabrication Expert: Raimund Krenmüller
Faculty Assistant: Nikol Kirova

Image Credits: CO2 filtering tower – Digital Matter Studio 2019 – IAAC

Keywords: responsive architecture, circular materials & design, design for disassembly, computed matter, smart buildings, adaptive & regenerative structures 

The advances of material science, coupled with computation and digital technologies, and applied to the architectural discipline have brought to life unprecedented possibilities for the design and making of responsive, circular and regenerative environments.
As a response to the climate crisis and the negative impact of building industry in the environment, research and applications of novel active and upcycled materials, together with digital technologies such as Ubiquitous Computing, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence, have introduced a model of materially Responsive & Circular Architecture that presents unique possibilities for designing novel performances and dynamic metabolisms in architectural space. 

Rather than creating buildings that are static, consuming and contaminating, Responsive & Circular Architecture presents novel material, design and manufacturing solutions for adaptive buildings that are able to change state and shape, generate resources, minimize negative environmental impact and achieve complexity and high aesthetics through performances that resemble biological and natural organism’s operation.
The design studio researches the implementation of computed, active or zero emissions material systems coupled with responsive technologies for the creation of dynamic built spaces that respond, breath, filter, biodegrade, or feed the soil and eventually change shape and state. The aim is to develop design, material and manufacturing systems which aim to close or limit material and resource loss, while having the potential to minimize waste, using it as a resource in itself. 

Image Credits: Design for Disassembly in Circular Buildings – Digital Matter Studio 2020 – IAAC

Students will be prototyping physically and designing computationally architectural proposals driven by principles of performance, upcycling, and design for disassembly:
Novel material and performative prototypes of Buildings, Skins and Structures that are able to close material and resource loops, as well as respond to environmental forces and user’s needs will be the outcome of the final projects.
Advanced Computational design for digitizing material performance and origin, simulate structural tectonics and thermodynamics or analyzing big data of performance with Artificial Intelligence will be the tools to generate the Responsive & Circular Architecture designs.
Digital fabrication with a focus on modular/discrete elements, robotics and additive manufacturing will be explored for the construction and prototyping of the novel circular building systems.

Image Credits: Upcycle and water filtering towers in neighbourhoods – Digital Matter Studio 2020 – IAAC

There are three main axes around which the final projects will operate:
a. Circular Materials: Complex tectonics and Building’s geometries that are zero or negative emissions using upcycled, bio and natural composite materials.
b. Computed Matter: Advanced Computation systems for analyzing buildings based on their material value for upcycling and reducing environmental impact
c. Design for Disassembly: Digital Manufacturing systems and computer based interfaces for highly aesthetic and functional modular designs that allow quick assembly and disassembly for reuse. 

The [DM] method of investigation follows a rigorously experimental approach and progresses in complexity from small scale material sampling to the production of 1:1 scale architectural components and prototypes. 

In collaboration with different experts and institutions such as the Smart Materials Groups of the Italian Institute of Technology, Materiability, MaterFAD or EcoIntelligent Growth, [Digital Matter] sets up a multidisciplinary team for developing the new designs, tools and building protocols for Circular Design in Architecture. 

Image Credits: Adaptive Structure – Digital Matter Studio 2017 – IAAC

STUDIO SUPPORT SEMINARS
Within the Design Studio, the Digital Matter Research Line will organize two intensive workshops: 

• Video & Animation: A workshop focused on the technical aspects of developing animations that will support the dynamic representation of student’s design proposals.
• Algorithmic Design: A workshop focused on advanced computation and algorithmic design that will support the form finding, the simulations and the evolutionary logics of the student’s design proposals. The workshop will be working with plug ins in Grasshopper such as Wallacei among others.

Seminars might slightly change if the projects developed will require a different content for their support.

Image Credits: Examples of evolutionary design through Galapagos and Wallacei

Learning Objectives
[Digital Matter] is a unique experimental design and development studio allowing students to acquire the following skills:

• Design by research, conduct scientific experiments and develop pioneer architectural solutions for the current challenges our society is facing.
• Become experts on smart and adaptive architecture.
• Learn new ways to develop initial pioneer ideas and bring them to reality.
• Work on new material systems for sustainable building design and construction.
• Use advanced computation for creating environmental simulations as well as form finding and design optimisation processes for smart buildings.
• Learn to scientifically analyse the impact and feasibility of innovative design proposals
• Learn to write scientific papers.
• Work on multidisciplinary teams and develop novel solutions that includes expertise from disciplines such as material science, computer science and ecology among others.

Image Credits: Images of Material manipulation and making

Faculty

Areti Markopoulou is a Greek architect, researcher and urban technologist working at the intersection between architecture and digital technologies. She is the Academic Director at IAAC in Barcelona, where she also leads the Advanced Architecture Group, a multidisciplinary research group exploring how design and science can positively impact and transform the present and future of our built spaces, the way we live and interact. Her research and practice focus on redefining the architecture of cities through an ecological and technological spectrum combining design with biotechnologies, new materials, digital fabrication and big data.
Areti is co-founder of the art/tech gallery StudioP52 and co-editor of Urban Next, a global network focused on rethinking architecture through the contemporary urban milieu. She is the project coordinator of a number of European Research funded Projects on topics including urban regeneration though data science, circular design and construction and multidisciplinary educational models in the digital age.
Areti have founded and currently chairing the Responsive Cities International Symposium in Barcelona and she has served as a curator of international exhibitions such as Future Arena and On Site Robotics (Building Barcelona Construmat 2017-19), Print Matter (In3dustry 2016), HyperCity (Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale, 2015) and MyVeryOwnCity (World Bank, BR Barcelona, 2011), while her work has been featured in exhibitions worldwide.Together with Lydia Kallipoliti she has been appointed the Head Curator for the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022 on the theme of Edible; Or, The Architecture of Metabolism focusing on circular design principles for a productive and regenerative built environment.

David Andres Leon is an architect with focus on the research, training and development of computational tools for the AEC industry.
He is the Director of the Master in Advanced Computation for Architecture & Design (MaCAD) at IAAC and he works with McNeel Europe providing support for third- party developers pushing the boundaries of interoperability and computational design globally. He is also part of the faculty of the Masters for Advanced Architecture in IAAC where he teaches in the Digital Matter studio alongside Areti Markopoulou. David also teaches programing for architects at the MPDA Masters programme of the UPC.
David holds a Master of Science Degree from the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) in Universitat Stuttgart and a Masters Degree in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture from the Escola Superior de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona (Elisava). He has been involved in several research undertakings of which stand out his participation in German research platform FAT-LAB in Stuttgart and his collaboration as a research assistant in the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) for the EU-Horizon 2020 Future and Emerging Technologies Proactive Action project Flora Robotica. David is also the co-author of varios publications in the field of architectural research and robotics.

Raimund Krenmueller was born in Wels, Austria and holds an MSc in architecture from the University of Technology in Vienna, where he worked between 2009 and 2015 as an expert for digital manufacturing and as teaching assistant at the department of 3d-design and model making.
He has contributed to a diverse range of projects ranging from architectural design and robotic fabrication to product development, in collaboration with architects, artists and designers.
In 2016, he graduated with a thesis about the design of robot behaviour for autonomous building processes utilizing artificial evolution of neural controllers. His main research interest is the connection between digital manufacturing and architectural expression. A balanced mix of cerebral and manual work is what makes him happy. In 2017 he joined the R+D department at IAAC as an expert in digital fabrication and computational design.

Nikol Kirova is a multidisciplinary Bulgarian architect and designer. She has a diverse portfolio of projects ranging from material systems to urban interventions. The key focus of her research is exploring the development and impact of novel materials on design and architecture.
Nikol holds a Bachelor in Interior Design from IED Milano, a Master in Urban Planning and Architectural Design from Domus Academy (Milano), and a Master in Advanced Architecture from IAAC. Furthermore, Nikol is an alumna of the Norman Foster Foundation after participating in the Robotics Atelier led by Fabio Gramazio. During the summer of 2018, she assisted during the Global Summer School in Barcelona and since then she has been a faculty assistant in various seminars in IAAC.
Her research on the interactive, graphene-based medium designed for spatiotemporal control and analysis (Synapse) has been awarded the Digital Matter and Intelligent Construction and the Artificially and Materially Intelligent Architecture excellence awards. She published and presented her first scientific contribution on the topic in the Design Modelling Symposium Berlin. Additionally, her research has been presented at the Dubai Grad Show, Construmat and the Dutch Design Week among others.